In Brownsville we were very spoilt and had grandparents readily available to help with grandchildren. I think the hardest thing for us has been the difference in church. Our children took turns sitting with Gramma Linda, and every once in awhile one of them sat by my Dad and Mom; so we never had all of our children sitting by us in church.
Of course when we moved we have had to get used to dealing with all of our children in church, plus I think moving to a new place somehow made them act worse in church than they did before. Needless to say this has really been a trial for us. There's been times Matt has said he doesn't see the point in going because we didn't enjoy meeting because it was just one big battle field with our children. We did always go though, but it has really been hard for us to enjoy meeting and contribute to meeting in any way. This has been an ongoing battle ever since we moved. We've tried a lot of different things to try to get them to behave in church. We've even prayed about it, but they were still little terrors for us.
Last Thursday night all of the kids were especially bad. We had literally gotten to the end of our rope. As Matt was talking to them it dawned on me that we had never explained to them why we go to church and why it was important for them to behave so that we could enjoy meeting; so Matt and I took Christian and Ruby (the other two are too young to understand) and tried to explain to them why they needed to behave in church. It really seemed like they understood what we were trying to explain to them.
Yesterday when we were on our way to church, we stopped at the store and Matt went in to get a few things. While he was gone Ruby asked me if we ought to pray that they would be good in church. I thought that was a great idea! So me and all the children (except Garrison) took turns praying about it. I think being part of the solution instead of the problem really helped them because they were sooo much better than normal in church yesterday! I was so thankful! They weren't perfect (you can't expect perfect from a 5, 4, 2, and 1 year old). Garrison was his usual grumpy self in church, but having the other kids behaving better made that so much easier to deal with.
I am really praising God for this little victory; and I pray that this is the beginning of the end of the twice weekly church battle!
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3 comments:
Glad that you've made a breakthrough. It seems to be a reaccurring problem to me. It is hard to get much when you've got a bunch of little ones all over you etc. Hope things stay better.
I think you guys do a GREAT job! You have your hands full with four young children, and yet you guys do GREAT!! I know that you notice the little things about your own children, way more than anyone else does. The beautiful thing about our assembly is that we all have little children, so we are all pretty forgiving. Roman was a little terror in church on Sunday for me too, so I can sympathize. Can't wait until I have two little ones...hehehe
I know you don't know me.But here is my 2cents
When my children were little I felt the same way. I thought How can I serve God this way. An older sister told me this is part of your service to God. Is to train up your children.
So I prayed alot to keep on Keeping on,
So I pray for all mothers with small children
Sister Sheila
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