LETTER TO PARENTS WITH SQUIRMING KIDS IN SERVICE
Written by Lois Schmitt
Dear Parents of Squirming Kids,
OK, Sunday morning services are a challenge. It is an outstanding acheivement if the family arrives on time, all fully dressed, having had breakfast, and in a reasonably good frame of mind. The first hour of service, when the children are present with the congregation, can be especially stress-filled as you concentrate on making sure they are quiet and contained. Oh, the bliss of having these early years behind, and being able to really concentrate on worshipping again!
As you glance around at the older faces in the congregation, those NOT having to sit with squirming kids, you hope you are not annoying them. You might wonder what they are thinking as they watch you hustle kids off the use the bathroom or run outside with a yelling toddler.
Here’s what many of us are thinking: “How I wish my children were with me in church again. How I long for the days they were beside me, kicking the back of the pew in front of us and singing their own versions of the songs. I would give anything, anything, for them to return to that innocent, hopeful faith of their childhood.”
These are your noisy years – noisy for you and, OK, everyone around you. Now enjoy them for everything they are, and please, please, take the opportunity to use this time on Sunday mornings for all it’s worth. I recommend a great book, “Parenting in the Pew,” by Robbie Castlemen, which gives very practical tips on “guiding your children into the joy of worship.”
Your efforts now to train your children will be rewarded as they, in turn, become faithful adults, with their own squirming kids in service!
Love to all the Squirming Families,
Lois
Atlanta
