I don’t take my kids to church. Well I take them to the church every Sunday. And they attend Sunday School every Sunday. But we don’t stay for the church service that follows (or we don’t come early to the church service before Sunday School…which is supposed to be more oriented for families and children.) I’ve been feeling kind of guilty about this. I sometimes feel like my fellow church goers look at me and think “You are not really a Christian because you don’t go to the service.” I’m sure people are not thinking that (at least not all of them), but that still didn’t stop me from feeling guilty.

But then I was having a conversation with Keaton. He said he’s got so many activities they are starting to cut in to his time with his friends [ironically I feel this same way about work ;)]. Then he started listing all of his activities. He said “I’ve got Boy Scouts every Monday, soccer practice every Tuesday and Thursday, Technology Club on Thursdays, soccer games on Saturday mornings and church on Sunday mornings.” He was trying to think about what he could cut out of his schedule, but never once did he mention cutting out church. I felt really good about that because that means he must really enjoy church. In fact he has invited many of his friends to attend Sunday School with him. Brendon, Dallas and Quade have all come to church with us at least once. And then I thought back to when I was a child. I was forced to go to church every Sunday. I would go to Sunday School and then sit through church service in the summers. And I hated it. In fact, I did not go to church for many, many years because I just could not see myself forcing that on my children. It has only been in the last two years that we have become regular church goers. So I’ve decided, since my kids actually enjoy Sunday School I am not going to try and push church service on them. I want them to continue to enjoy church and learning all about God.

Oh and by the way, Keaton decided he wasn’t willing to give up any of those activities, because he enjoys them too much.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 20th, 2005 at 11:24 am and is filed under A day in our life. Comments are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.