Parents' Attitude Can Guide Spiritual Growth of Children

"Shall I make my child go to Sunday School and Church?"

"Yes!"

Are you startled at such an abrupt answer? Why? How do you answer your daughter when she comes to breakfast on Monday morning and announces that she is not going to school? That's sim­ple! She goes anyway.

Or how about your son, after a sweaty football practice, when he lets you know he is not going to take a shower before supper? He takes one anyway, right?

"Why do we feel it will 'warp' or 'pressure' our children if we insist on Sunday School and Church?"

So then, why are we so hesitant when it comes to spiritual discipline and growth? Why do we feel it will "warp" or "pressure" our children if we insist on Sunday School and Church? We have no problem insisting on school attendance, homework, the dentist's office, or ball practice.

Obviously, from this inconsistency, our children soon learn that we "make" them do what we think is important. Therefore, Christian education and wor­ship must not be so important as other life-style habits. In the long run, in terms of the eternal issues of our exis­tence, is this the message we want to teach?

What, then, will we say when our children announce they do not "want" to go to Sunday School and church? The answer is easy: be as consistent in this discipline as you are in the other impor­tant experiences of life. Tell them, "In our home, we all go to Sunday School and worship, and that includes you."

It may not be appreciated at the mo­ment, but an attitude of parental interest, even joy-filled participation, will make an impact on the development of your value structure which will last a life­

time ... and beyond.

This short piece by the Rev. Malcomb Hughes, rector of St. Saviour's Church, Bar Harbor, Maine, via St. Peter's Church, Ripon, Wisconsin, is reprinted from Clarion, Vol. 11, No. 8, October, 1992; Diocese of Fond du Lac.