Thursday, July 28, 2011

Do you let your children tell you what they are going to do?

This past Sunday I was telling a teenager at our church how proud I was to see him there for service. I know that his parents have had a tough time with him lately. He is going through a rebellious stage and they aren’t sure how to control him. He told me thank you but that he would only be there for Sunday morning & Wednesday night. He said ‘I told my Mom & Dad that I would go to church with them on Sunday mornings & Wednesday nights but that I wasn’t coming on Sunday nights.’

Hmmm I wonder what my parents would have said if I told them I wasn’t going to do something. I can’t even imagine the wrath. Oh, and just for the record, my Dad and Mom didn’t spank me. I think I would have rather received a spanking. My Dad would get down the Bible and teach us. Before I had time to utter another word I would feel so condemned by my actions.

When this child told me his concession to church, with his Mom standing right there, I was left dumbfounded. I didn’t even reply because I didn’t know what to say. Now, I realize that I could have said many things like ‘What if God only answered your prayers on Sunday morning, and Wednesday night?’ or ‘What if your Mom & Dad only fed you on Sunday morning, and Wednesday night?’ What would you have said?

What would you do if this were your child? Please help me to pray.

1 comment:

cygnus said...

I came across by you blog by chance. I was down and was googling randomly for sth. The point is I've thought about converting from Buddhism to Christianity. However, what kept me from doing so was that I don't want to feel compulsory to go to church. Well you guys go there because you have such a strong faith and you did make a good point of god not answering prayer. But in my pov the point going to church is just to strengthen you faith. I mean when you feel that something is too much and it affect your daily life, that would be overinfluence. Going to church is good but it doesn't go along with your daily activities. May be it interupt your meeting with friends, stop you from doing your homework or whatever. Besides it's not the only good deeds you can do. One difference between buddhism and christianity is that we do not have to be committed to go to the temple because the point of religion is for you to be good. And all churchgoers aren't considered to be virtually good, are they?

I have no intention to offend you and your religion. I apologize if what I said imply so.