My wife came up to me before dinner and had the same conversation starter that I’m guessing millions of parents have had in the last couple of days.
“Wait, today was Palm Sunday? That means Easter is in one week.”
“Yep.”
“We have nothing for the kids for Easter.”
“I know.”
We have developed a great tradition over the last few years since leaving for Ohio. Easter means a trip to Nashville. It has been one of my favorite weekends of the year every year since we moved. The kids get to spend time with Grandpa and Mimi, and we get to celebrate together. It really is a special time.
One of the churches in the area rents out the Grand Ole Opry for worship, and we were able to go twice in the last three years (Matthew West led worship both times, which is just so cool-and so Nashville-that I can’t even explain it. There’s no such thing as bad worship in Nashville.) Even last year, when we didn’t go to the Opry, we attended a different service and sat in front of a family that didn’t even yell at us when our kids got antsy.
When the weather is good, we run around the backyard and hunt Easter eggs. When the weather is bad, we run around inside and try not to break things. No matter the weather, we share an amazing Easter meal and great memories.
With the coronavirus mess going around, I feel like our sense of time is completely thrown for a loop. Easter is WHEN?!?! What? Heck, it’s hard sometimes to even remember days of the week, which makes it a challenge to really celebrate church together and keep one day of the week set apart.
I actually think modern church services have spoiled us a little bit when it comes to family worship. If you think about it, we rarely have a worship experience as a family at all. The kids go to the kids rooms, the adults go to the worship center, and everyone receives the message designed for them at their appointed time. There might be Christian music on in the car and a prayer together before dinner, but if you don’t go out of your way to set aside family time for a church experience at home, you likely aren’t finding it anywhere else either.
In this time of worship from your couch, I find that my family watches a lot of live streaming. The Cincinnati Zoo does live zoo visits. My son’s teacher does Zoom calls. My wife recently connected with her family on a video chat, as did I with my best friend. In all of this, however, we have yet to really have a great shared worship experience. It’s our own fault, I suppose, and I don’t blame anyone but ourselves. The biggest issue is that the kids usually take in children’s church, and the adult sermons being put out by the church we regularly attend aren’t appropriate for kids at all.
What do we do?
I guess the short answer is intentionality. If you look hard enough, you can probably find anything. Heck, my wife just found out why the world almost ended in October of 1962. What you need might not be offered by your current church, but surely there is plenty worth finding. If we are willing to go to great lengths to entertain and teach our kids, we should probably be willing to make just as much of an effort (or more) to kindle our children’s faith.
Yes, this is easier said than done.
Yes, I miss Easter in Tennessee already.