What is the Value of Attending Church Services with your Children?
What we do…how we choose to spend our time speaks volumes to our children. Choosing to attend church services can help us all know God better and be connected to His people. Callie reminds us…read on.
What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:9
I was in second grade the first time I saw my dad wear a pair of shorts. My mom convinced the west Texas cowboy that is my dad to take us on a beach vacation and the most memorable part for all of us was seeing my dad barefoot in baggy swim trunks. As life altering as that experience was, the next time I saw my dad in the water in shorts two years later as he got baptized had an effect on my life that wasn’t just memorable, it was eternal!
- What your kids see in you now is what they will practice later. The scariest part of being a coach for T Bar M in college was watching all my actions magnified and multiplied by a thousand percent in my campers. They picked up on my mannerisms, my vocabulary, and the way I worshiped and listened during Team Meeting. By the end of the week campers who watched me take notes during a lesson and raise my hands in worship were doing exactly what I did, and they had only observed me for a week! When your kids watch you faithfully attend church services and approach God every Sunday with joy and a heart of worship they will echo you as children and form habits they can fall back on years from now!
- Your kid will be part of a caring community. As the primary shepherd of your child, you have the biggest influence on their life. But what a relief to know that if they aren’t with you about their problems, there are other Christ-followers in their life at the ready. They know someone who is rooted in Christ and can offer wisdom coming from the same place yours does! By making the church part of your kid’s life, you are building up a community around them having the same goal as you do which is to raise a kid who loves Jesus and lives a life reflecting that love.
- The value comes not just from attending a church service, but from serving! – In the same way kids have to do chores to teach them responsibility and a sense of ownership in their home, it’s important kids learn to be investors in the church and not just consumers. In volunteering my time to the church as a kid I was able to see that there is so much value in belonging to a place where my God given-gifts could be used. Thankfully it hasn’t been lost in my adulthood.
Kids don’t just see what their parents do and hear what they say. They soak it in. I saw my dad publicly proclaim his faith and heard him say he trusted God with his life, but because he practiced that by playing a role in the church, I practiced as well!
