By skipping church, we tell our children several things. We tell them it isn’t necessary to take up your cross and die to yourself daily to follow Christ. We tell them you can live for Christ only when it’s convenient for you. And we tell them it’s okay to sacrifice time with your all-satisfying Savior if something “more fun” or “more important” comes along. (Sarcasm indicated by quotation marks, if you didn’t catch that.) This sounds like a clear path to apostasy.
2. Parents are in charge.
Parents makes choices all the time for their families. As they decide what takes priority in the family, children carefully observe every choice and take it to heart. Yes, they’re watching you and learning from you. Skipping church speaks volumes to kids.
3. Let’s evaluate where our hearts are by observing our choices.
Do you prioritize the local church? Do you prioritize worshiping Christ at home and on Sundays? And do you prioritize serving and worshiping Him in the contexts of school and work?
This doesn’t mean you can’t ever miss a Sunday or have any extracurricular activities. Instead, it’s a sobering reminder that we shouldn’t put the things of God at the bottom of the priority list. That tells our children that Christ is at the bottom of our priority list. And the God of this universe doesn’t belong there.
My prayer is that we all improve in this area. But beware! Maybe we don’t see this as an issue because Christ isn’t a priority in our lives. And if He isn’t a priority in our lives, then our children will know and follow suit.
This article about skipping church originally appeared here.
