*Walks in, and sets soapbox down.*
*Steps onto soapbox*
Ladies, old and young, but especially old ladies. The really stern and stuffy ones who either haven't had small children since we switched to electric lights, or have never had any at all. The ones who still stubbornly hold to the antiquated "Children should be seen and not heard, especially at church " mantra. The ones who sit in the back of the room and go on tirades in the middle of the lesson.
Thats right, I am talking to YOU!
Maybe we, the young mothers of the ward, don't WANT to sequester ourselves to the back rows of the chapel overflow! Maybe we LIKE sitting in the middle of the chapel with our kids, even though they make noise and we have to take them out from time to time. Maybe we want to get some spiritual uplifting from our sacrament meeting WITHOUT having to try to hear the speakers from the very back row over our squirmy, squeaky kids!
Didn't Jesus say "suffer the children to come to me"? In fact I bet that He said so because some cantankerous old person tried to keep the kids away from Him because she was afraid the kids would be too noisy or annoying to Jesus!
Well guess what? I am going to make an effort to sit in the front of the chapel every sunday now! My kids will have the best opportunity to learn how to be productive and polite members of society because I am going to teach them that it is more important to learn how to listen reverently to the speaker each sunday from the front, and NOT hide in the back so they can make more noise!
Also, what does keeping the kids silent during sacrament meeting have to do with having more Christ centered meetings, you know, our Relief Society lesson topic?
....Just sayin'.
*steps down from soapbox*
*Walks away, and sets soapbox down for 3 year old son to play choo choo train in*
...And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is why I married her! And not only did Jesus say suffer the children, this is how it's written in Matthew:
ReplyDelete(Matthew 19:14) "But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. "
So not just children. LITTLE children. Back in that time anyone who was not "of age" was considered a child, so teenagers were considered children. But He specifically says, "little children." Jesus loves us all and wants us ALL to know Him....especially the little children. :-)
Oh, I so know how you feel! My children are loud. There is no getting around it. They just have loud voices and don't quite get the whole quiet voice thing just yet. Phillip is getting much better. If you whisper to him, he will whisper back usually. It's so hard to teach your children to sit quietly during sacrament. If you take them out with every little peep they start being noisy just so they have an escape. I had a run in once with a bitter old lady at a restaurant. I feel for you. Our children aren't going to learn to act properly in public sitting at home all the time, though. We should all make a point when we see another young mother struggling to contain her children to give her a little encouragement. We aren't alone on this and we shouldn't be made to feel like we are from judgey old people who have forgotten how hard this time of their life was.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more!! As long as people actually ARE trying to teach their kids reverence, even if it means that there is a little more noise in the chapel, and really do take them out when they start screaming (instead of letting them run all over the chapel yelling- I've seen it happen where the parents just ignore it), I think they deserve some major props. Church takes some guts with toddlers!
ReplyDeleteMy kids sit better when we are closer to the front...but I've had plenty of these experiences. I definitely feel your pain. It happens. It sucks. It makes me REALLY mad, not to mention self conscious. They'll get over it and so will you. Good luck next week!!!
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I can feel you. There was a man once waiting next to me and Evelyn as we were boarding a plan to Houston from Amsterdam and he was complaining about her delighted squeals at seeing the airplanes outside. Lets just say...its a good thing that I was being polite, because I wanted to whap him one and say, "look man, I'm flying halfway around the world BY MYSELF. This toddler is going to be sitting in my lap for the next 10hrs, and I probably won't be getting any sleep or catching up on the newest movie releases and I will be praying enough as it is that she won't be awake the whole time- DON'T MESS WITH ME" LOL! Yeah, I can understand that feeling, although, I have to say I can really understand the other side too. Roman is the bishop now in our ward, and he has to pay attention to stuff like that(it was getting REALLY irreverent for a while). We are a smaller ward but we have a big group of young families and young children with more coming all the time. I think though, that as mothers if we are taking QUIET toys to church, sitting near an exit (whether it is the front or the back), and trying to teach our children reverence- everyone else just needs to be supportive of that. I would rather have a squirmy child TRYING (maybe not 100% succeeding) to be reverent in the meeting, than teaching my child that they go out and play during sacrament.
ReplyDelete