David Fitch:
I have a six year old. Truth be told, if we would let him, he would sit in front of the television for hours consuming hours of programming about sharks. But we (Rae and I) don’t allow it. “One hour a day!” we say. Why? Because, if we do let him watch that much TV, the child’s brain will turn to mush. He will never learn how to engage the social world. He will be become passive. He will probably gain a lot of weight. He will learn to live life from the vantage point of the remote control.
Most parents know this instinctively. Entertaining television programming about sharks can certainly teach a child a lot of stuff about the sea world. But it can only go so far in terms of real life. The child must learn to read, learn to listen/pay attention to a real human voice, learn to stay focused without screen change every .4 seconds. I’m sure my son has A.D.D. or A. D. H. D. It is the brain patterns most easily developed within our media driven culture. But I must nurture my child into real social existence. Or else he too shall become a statistic. He too will ever lack motivation for anything else but the next immediate titillation. This is why for me, when my son says “but daddy, I just don’t get anything out of the worship service,” I am not the least bit surprised. It is a teaching moment – not the occasion to run to the next mega church Disney service.
These are the reasons I get sad when I hear a parent tell me “my children don’t get anything out of the service . . .
Read the rest here.
HT: Trevin Wax
I was a child who “never got anything out of the service.” I spent the hour drawing pictures of rabbits (not sure why), rifling through my mom’s purse for mints, and occasionally getting sent to sit outside in the car for annoying my parents beyond endurance.
As a parent, I now go through these same things with our daughters. It can be discouraging, but I know now how much I absolutely love the worship service as an adult, and I pray they will, too. There is grace to be had there, and it is also part of our ongoing efforts to encourage them to keep on believing.
Much of our family life revolved around church services & activites…Sun. morning, Sun. night, Wed. evening, DVB, many “special” services with week-long speakers every night, “kids” speakers & we never missed being a part of it or inviting every kid in the neighborhood to pile in the car to go with us. Many families did the same. This spiritually impacted many people including me & two brothers. I absorbed enough as a 5 yr old to realize I needed to ask Jesus to forgive my sins, wow, what great parents & childhood to remember & pass on to each generation! We need to keep in mind that kids absorb so much good & bad at VERY young ages.