Taking your child to worship
How to make worship time not only bearable, but faith-filled, with your Katy kids
If you’re like me, taking your young child to church is not always a prayerful experience—except it increases the likelihood that YOU’RE praying that your child will behave! Not what the whole church-going experience should be like, I think.
Our son is almost three, and he is barely able to sit and watch a half hour video at home. It takes some work to guide him in his church experience. Distractions abound—from the people sitting around us to the hymnals in front of us.
How many toys—if any—do we take with us? Do the books we bring need to be religious in subject? Should we bring food for a Mass that takes only an hour? If he does begin to get fussy, do we grin and bear it or take him to the back? Won’t that teach him to misbehave in the first place? These are the questions we struggle with.
I do NOT have it all figured out, but here are some suggestions. I’m sure you have found some tricks for your own family.
1.)   Choose a worship time that best suits your child’s needs. You may want the contemporary service, but if it falls at the same time your child is used to getting ready for bed, you’re asking a lot of him.
2.)Â Â Â Go to your church during the week. Give your youngster a tour and let him ask questions and see things up close.
3.)   Talk to your child about how you expect people to act at church. You may say something like, “Do you think grown-ups run around the church? What do they do when they want to talk with God? What can you do?â€
4.)   In my opinion, having a specific church toy or bag of toys works well. It’s used only on days of worship so it comes to be special and something your child will look forward to playing with. It will also encourage worship since they’re religious items.
These are a few tips. How do you make worship time not only bearable, but faith-filled, with your kids?
