What do you do when your children don't want to go to church?
Our church is in transition and we are having to worship on Sunday afternoons (4-6). This isn't the best time of day for kids...they are tired and cranky and hungry. I don't blame them for not wanting to go somewhere this time of day...especially somewhere that they have to be quiet and well-behaved. :) But, we have to go to church. There is a point where as the parent I have to say, "We are going to church today." And that is it, but I'd much rather encourage them.
Hopefully, our afternoon/evening worship and Sunday School will soon be ending and we will be able to return to mornings, but we can't skip church until that happens. (Although, there are some days when they are just wiped and we do stay home.)
So, any suggestions for ways to encourage them about church attendance, or make it more "fun"?
Sunday, April 20, 2008
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3 comments:
Oh wow, that's a toughie! How long will the transition be? Are we talking a month, 6 months? A year? And another question would be, does your family observe a true Sabbath rest? We've been doing that for a while now and our kids have really embraced it with us - we try to take a 24 hour media fast, no TV, no computers, etc. We're usually all ready for church when it comes, followed by lunch and a nap/rest time and then the 24 hour period is over (ours goes from 5pm Saturday to 5pm Sunday, in general).
If I were in your situation, I might do a similar thing, from 6 pm Saturday to 6 pm Sunday and spend Sunday morning doing a sort of "homeschool Sunday School" thing, preparing their hearts for worship and just resting as a family, so that they aren't totally wiped out by Sunday evening.
But that's hard because then your weekend is all but over. I don't know. Tricky. Sorry I'm not more helpful!
No, we haven't been as diligent about a true day of rest as we'd all like. We used to do much better when church was in the morning. It was easier to come home and spend the day relaxing and playing together.
We are on the down side of this transition (until the next phase which will also be a temporary home). We've been doing church in the afternoon since November. They did pretty well for a while, but this spring have had a harder time with the schedule. We all have. But we should be back to a morning worship by mid-June or early July at the latest.
Thank you for your suggestion, Megan.
This might be a good time to visit other churches in the area to see how others worship, and to learn how your home liturgy (prayers, hymns, Bible readings, etc.) is similar to (and different from) others. And how amazing that God has so many homes.
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