When I was a little girl growing up in the Midwest, my family were faithful church goers. We went every Sunday and most times all day. I sang in the choir. Went to Sunday school. And participated in most church functions. It didn’t matter if we didn’t feel like it or had an issue with it, we went anyway. And as I got older (and still living at home), if I came home late Saturday evening, tired, sweaty from dancing all night, etc, it still didn’t matter – I was going to church!
Now lets skip forward to today’s time… I do the same thing to my son.
To me the method of sending my son to church hasn’t really changed from how I was raised. I figured it worked for me, so why not him? And it was also nice to know that my husband was pretty much raised the same way, so I had back up! But looking at my son, who is now 16 yrs old, I realize he has a choice and should want to worship God because of who God is. Not because he was forced to.
And then I started thinking… What could I have done to motivate him more? Bribes? Promises that I probably wasn’t going to keep? Money? No – I would offer him God’s love and teaching.
God’s love and teaching, from His word, may or may not sound simple, but actually this is the only way to motivate your kids to want to go to church. His word tells us to “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) When you teach your children about God’s word, he promises that it will remain in their hearts forever. As long as you introduce your kids to God, He will do the rest.
I must admit when I got older, I strayed away from the church. Life and it’s sinful ways will do that to you. I got caught up in the world and not really putting God first in my life. I didn’t have time for church. I was miserable.
But as life would have it, His word came true in my life and I felt Him pulling at me to come back to Him. Even though I had gotten married and had my son, my life wasn’t complete without my steady relationship with God. I felt empty… a emptiness that no one else could fill.
His promises came true and I have found my way back to Him. I have since rejoined a new “bible teaching” church home and am very active. My gift of writing became realized. And now I dedicate all of my writings and books to bringing the unsaved to Him. I teach children’s Sunday school, am a public speaker and sing in the choir. And my son is on the usher board.
Once I realized that God’s word came true in my heart, I continued to tell the good things of God to my son. When ever he didn’t want to go to church or usher, I would say to him “what if God didn’t feel like waking him up, feeding him, clothing him or giving him those new games and PS3 that he enjoys so much!” Once I brought the examples down to his level, he got it.
I’m not saying that it’s easy to motivate your kids or your spouse (for that matter) to go to church. The examples that worked on my son, may not work for you. But God just ask you to put in the effort. Teach them about God. Teach them how to read the bible or how we got the bible with these 10 key points! Our job on earth is to bring as many souls to Jesus, so they can be saved for eternity. And we must start with our family.
My son also plays on his varsity basketball team. This has become a pretty big deal, since most of his friends didn’t make the team. He hasn’t been playing as much as he would like and has seemed to lose a bit of confidence. So my instincts told me to speak to him to see how he felt about not playing.
After we talked a little bit about it, he felt better and was still determined to work harder. As I was walking out of his room, I said “say a prayer before tomorrow’s game.” And he said “I already did Mom.”
All I could do was smile… God is so good!
Be blessed,
Wanda ♥
I am a publisher, author, speaker, youth Sunday school teacher, wife & mother. My goal is for you to be able to read, hear, trust and apply the word of God to your daily lives, so you can live the life that God intended for you to live today!
