“My arms won’t work!” my six year old whispers loudly, flopping down on the pew like a landed fish writhing on a pier. He waves his arms in front of my nose zombie-style, emphasizing the fact that his arms won’t work.
On my left side my five year old is pursing his lips and smiling at me while trying to give me moist kisses on my arm and cheek. I hear someone whistle on the right, not once, but twice.
My eyes snap that direction, and I use my “mom-glare” on the oblivious child who doesn’t seem to realize that the sermon has reached its come-to-Jesus climax.
My husband brushes past me with a wailing toddler and three-year old in tow headed for the quiet back room.
“No, it’s my turn this week,” he responds under his breath as I reach for the baby. I settle back into my seat and try to tune into the message.
This is our family in church during a pandemic.
We sit close to the exit because we’re a full blown distraction. Our back pew looks like a revolving door as child after child grimaces, holding themselves, while frantically begging to go to the bathroom YET AGAIN. Our pew is littered with broken crayons, coloring pages, and children in various stages of recline. There are foot-wrestling contests, arguments carried out in stage whispers, and small bodies that wiggle restlessly.
As for me?
I do my best to soak up what Word I can, frantically scribbling down notes and verse references or jotting down snippets from the power-point to jog my memory at some later date.
It feels……hard.
Difficult.
Almost impossible.
Yet here we sit, with lopsided masks on, doing the hard things.
Why?
Because God is worth it. God is worth all the hard things that I have to do to seek Him.
He’s the amazing, sustaining, love-never-failing Lord of glory. My Father is incredible, and so personal. He’s my joy and strength when I despair, and He’s laughter and light that comes in dark places. God sent His Son, His precious Son Jesus to die for me, and for billions of others so that in Him we could have eternal life. God is worth all my love.
I go to church because I love Jesus, and I am passionate about experiencing the joy and glory of the Lord with other believers. It’s wonderful to stand in unified worship and praise the Lord. That’s probably what heaven is like….the church, the bride of Christ concentrated around the throne literally as close as we can get, shouting out,
“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created…..You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” (Revelation 4:11 and 5:9)
Now, I know all these things because time and much practice has proven to me the trustworthiness of my foundational cornerstone, Jesus. But my children don’t know these things yet. They are blank, innocent slates that need God’s Word inscribed on their hearts. They need Jesus just like I do. And one place we go to seek Him, is in His sanctuary.
But should church be the only place they hear of Jesus?
Absolutely not, for Deuteronomy 6:5-8 says:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
We are called to a lifestyle of BEING the church to our children.
To practice taking time out of our schedules to seek Jesus with them.
Will it be fun? Yes!
Will they learn a lot? Yep!
Will it be one of the hardest things you’ve ever done? Absolutely.
Is Jesus, the One who sacrificed EVERYTHING for us, worth the clean-clothes, breakfast in the car, chaotic pew struggles? Is He worth the late night conversations of faith when you really just want your cottony-soft pillow? Will the time and energy you invest in praying over your children, and telling them of what the Lord has done for you reap a reward?
Unequivocally, Yes.
How do I know this?
Well, I was a church-pew kid.
I was the kid who sang off-key hymns with a handful of smiling congregants on Sunday nights. My ears heard the testimonies of the faithful and soaked up sermons that still stick in my heart to this very day. I was the wide-eyed little girl watching my Sunday-School teacher scatter birdseed ON THE CARPET as she repeated Jesus’s parable of the sower. (Thanks Mrs. Felicia!!) I’m a witness and a product of the beauty of living in community with the church. All this, because somewhere, back in time, my mama and my daddy dragged their rambunctious little brood to a back-row church pew, and lived out Jesus to their children.
So if you pass our cluttered pew on a Sunday and see feet where heads should be, give us some grace and pray peace over us.
We’re just here to love on Jesus, and be the church.
Take a moment:
- How do the statements “Go to church” or, “Be the church” differ in your opinion?
- What do you find harder? Physically visiting a church building, or being God’s living church during the week? Why?
- If you have children, do you feel that you are teaching them about the Lord, “when you sit, walk, lie down, and rise up?”(Deuteronomy 6)
- Know that today is a new day, and it’s never too late to begin cultivating a heart for Jesus in your children. The first place to start is in your own heart. Let them see you reading your bible. Don’t mumble prayers under your breath but address the Lord out loud in front of your kids. Flip on some up-beat worship music and have a worship-dance party singing your hearts out to Jesus! Show them that Jesus is not just solemnity, He is joy too!
- Read Psalm 96 in your own bible and meditate on who God is, and what we are to give Him in return.
