Mom to the Left

I'm a mom who tends to live just to the "left" of most of the people around me here in Indiana.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Feeling strength from attending church

We have rededicated ourselves as a family to attending church regularly. We'd gotten out of the habit over the last several months (prior to summer to be honest). As a result, we are feeling strengthened.

This past weekend we made ourselves go to church even though we'd been running all weekend without a break. We'd had two soccer games Saturday morning, a marching band competition Saturday afternoon/evening, my mother-in-law came and spent the night after the marching band competition and we had a Boy Scout awards picnic scheduled for Sunday afternoon. It would have been nice to sleep in. But we went anyway.

And even though we were tired, I don't think any of us minded going. This week the service was entitled Reason and Reverence. It was much more Humanist than last week's discussion about the bible. But it was presented as a bridge between the two. It is obvious that our minister is trying to bridge the gap between the Humanists and the Spiritualists in our congregation. Frankly, there were parts of the service where I realized I was zoning out and hadn't heard what had been said. All the scientific talk and worship of knowledge just kind of runs dry with me. But I sat there alongside Big J who enjoyed it much more than me. I figured, last week was my week, this week is his week.

But after the service I was able to talk to so many friends. That made it all worthwhile to me. There have been times when I'd go to coffee hour and not find one single soul to talk to. That's a terribly lonely feeling to be in a room full of people and have no one talk to you. But the last couple of weeks I have run into several different friends and we connected about the service or our kids in RE or outside concerns. That is a wonderful feeling.

Another wonderful thing about church lately is what I'm seeing in my kids. Little J still won't attend so we leave him at home. He's old enough to make up his own mind and I refuse to force him. But the younger two we always take. They may grumble a little, but we take them. Well, lately they are grumbling much less. Both boys already knew some of the kids in their classes, but they are building friendships.

E is in 5th grade and in our church the 5th/6th grade class is sort of a transition between the younger kids' RE and the junior/senior high youth groups. They are given more independence, they are treated more like young adults, and they are given their first social justice projects to work on. As a result, their behavior improves so much. It is like they feel like they are being taken seriously. So E has been hanging out with 5-6 boys in his class and they run around in a pack. It is so cool to see since E is normally a shy child.

Meanwhile, until this week I hadn't been able to get D to attend his K class without me. I'd walk him out into the social hall after the Children's Focus for him to meet his teachers and walk to his classroom. But he'd cling to me. And once we got to the classroom he'd insist I stay. It was often 15-20 minutes before I managed to sneak out and head back to the adult service. BUT! This week as he met his class and they started to walk over, he waved and started walking on his own! I couldn't believe it! Then after the service when I went to pick him up, they were all sitting at the little tables having snack and he was sitting there telling jokes to the other kids sitting around him. And he was having so much fun with the other kids that I had trouble getting him to leave!

We are off to such a good start this year and I am so relieved and excited about it.

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3 Comments:

  • At 11:40 AM, Blogger jfield said…

    It's funny. My younger ones (5 and 8) won't really let me skip church anymore. They got used to going every week in Transylvania (kids their age actually do not normally attend and get RE in the public school on Fridays but they were excited about getting to sit in the minister's family pew) and then this summer when I was working at a congregation every Sunday in RE and brought them with me. My 16 year old is actually encouraging me to attend a different church a little further away that has a functioning youth group. He got more interested after going to the Senior High Con held by the District and meeting people at our District Assembly.

    I have some connections at the other congregation so I may start bringing all three kids and travelling 1.5 hrs to church instead of just an hour.

    I wonder about your framing of humanist vs. spiritual. I consider my humanism to be fairly spiritual. Sometimes I use the term materialist to be the opposite of metaphysical in this context.

    Great to hear that attending more regularly seems to be working for you.

     
  • At 8:08 PM, Blogger Steven Rowe said…

    I have to admit that the term Spirtualist threw me off as well. In the history of USA religious faith, Spirtualists were those who believed in the spirits of dead souls communicating with us (not that they would feel this is a good definition of them). Very popular in the 1850s-1900s.
    on the actual topic of this thread - one of the things I notice about life is that you more-or-less get out of something what you put in it. (yes of course this is simplifying way too much - you can put a lot in something and get nothing) - glad you are enjoying and getting strength from church, may that grow even more

     
  • At 11:50 PM, Blogger PeaceBang said…

    So glad to hear it, Mama. Blessings to you and yours.

     

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