Righteous church goers

It’s Sunday. We always wanted to go to church every Sundays but sometimes we are making up tons of reasons that made us fail to do it. But today is different, despite of my wife’s tiredness from her night duty, she still insisted to go to church. It’s not just the responsibility as Catholics that prompted us to go but also our willingness to be with the Lord. Some will say that wherever you are, Lord is there, yes, that’s true, but giving up some of your time to dress up, walk a little and visit the church make a real difference. It’s somehow a way of sacrificing some of your precious time and moment to be with the Lord for His honor.

It’s not new to me to see kids inside the church. Some are really adorable and quiet but most are too terrible in their behavior. I remember during my bachelor days, I easily annoyed with the kids crying, playing, running and even eating inside the church. In myself, I said, parents of these kids should be ashamed since they are allowing these kids to do things that are unacceptable inside the church, don’t they know that church should be kept in its solemnity. I even look at them, in my eyes it’s like I’m saying… keep your kid quiet or go out with your kid or just pleeease do something.. sometimes, I stared at the kid’s cookie giving the impression “do they supposed to eat here? Where are their manners? They’re teaching their kids the wrong way.” Hahaha.. That was really an immature, insensitive part of me. Well, that was way way back before.. Things become different, Now, I’m one of those parents. We’re so cautious of those insensitive eyes. I can still see myself in those people who don’t understand what parents are going through inside the church with their kids. I may say that these people might still be single and living all alone by themselves, no experience with kids yet, or they are really strict-to-rules types or just grumpy. Well, if you belong with these kinds of people as I used to be.. Here are the reasons I can give as a parent from my own experience, why of all the approaches available we still can’t prevent some unacceptable kids’ behavior. First, because they are kids – that’s how they supposed to behave, you know.. little attention span, more play less pray.. kid stuffs like that. Second, bringing toys or food for them is for the benefit of the majority.. we wanted them to stay quiet and in their proper places for them not to disturb others through running, crying aloud and making noise. And Last, if we can just entrust our kids to someone while we are in church, we’ll do it, but in our situation, it’s just the three of us living in the house, no relatives in the area and friends were also busy working out their own lives. We also wanted our child to recognize our spiritual way of living. That’s WHY! Hehe.. don’t be so cranky, instead of giving us a look, why don’t you try helping us, or just smiled on us, telling us that you do understand what we’re going through. Anyway, the Lord definitely understands the children as His words say..

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
—Mark 10:13-16