Suffer the Children
by Denise Sproul

As parents raising covenant children for the glory of Clod, indeed, as covenant children living in the tension of the already and the not yet, so much of our work involves that virtue that stands contra mundum like few others—delayed gratification. If we are to succeed as parents we need to look to the long-term goal, not just to keeping the kids from making a mess in the kitchen today or looking at our lives as keeping the restless natives somewhat corralled, at least while the company is here. We are working toward the goal of our children becoming godly men and women. That doesn't mean, however, that all our lives or all their young lives are only good for building the future. That is, we want them to be godly boys and godly girls, not boys and girls in training who are merely waiting to be godly adults. This has a profound impact on how we see them in relationship to the church.

Most of us understand that the 'catholic' in the Apostles' Creed refers to the universal church. We are not to buy into schemes that divide the church, that see the church in Korea as separate from the church here (speaking, of course, of legitimate, true churches). Shouldn't this idea of "catholic" also apply to our children? We are one church when we meet for Lord's Day worship, not an adult's church and a children's church. And so we ought to go together as families into the corporate worship of Christ. As we do this it is not as training for our children's future, but as obedience in our children's present.

As we seek to be obedient in worshiping with our children and not sending them off to make a craft somewhere else in the church building, we need to encourage them to sing and to say what we are singing and saying and to pray when we are praying. I have to remind myself especially with my children who are four and under that they need to not be lying down on the pew or coloring or trying to get the baby to laugh when the rest of us are singing the Apostles' Creed. They can sing too! And sing joyfully, with all their might, unto the Lord. What destroys worship is not something unique to them, youth, but something common to us all, sin. They are however, we presume, redeemed sinners. They, like we, must celebrate His grace. They, like we, must mourn their sin. They, like we, must look to the consummation of the kingdom. And we, like they, ought to be memorizing Bible verses and learning the catechism. Our children are not trainees, but worshipers now. They will not make it on the basis of our faith, but on their own. Therefore, let them live now in that faith.

It's ironic really when we look at our children as incapable of understanding or participating in worship. There are very few other things from which we hold them back, yet nothing is more important to their growth and obedience. For most of our children, we wouldn't dream delaying their potty training or learning to ride a bike or learning to read. Yet we make all sorts of excuses, verbally or in our heads, about why they can't possibly worship in 'big church.' Yes, it's more difficult keeping an eye on them, rebuking them for irreverent behavior, and not being able to pay as close attention to the sermon as we would like. But wouldn't you much rather take seriously God's instruction to "suffer the little children to come unto me" and hear the sounds that come "out of the mouths of children and tiny, nursing babes" as they bring forth God-ordained praises? And won't you delight when they are six or seven and they are even more self-consciously, actively participating, opening their Bibles to the designated passage and so on, already having experienced and enjoyed six or seven years of corporate worship?!

Since our children are part of our family and part of God's family, in order for them to understand the necessity of corporate worship, we must teach them the glories of our book, the Bible. We are the family of God, Abraham's sons and daughters, from our eight -year old down to our four month old. The Old Testament is important for them to know, so they can know their great God, so that they can know the family story, so that they can know who they are and where they have come from. The Old Testament does not exist as an excuse for flannel graphs, as fun and helpful as they might be. Neither is the Old Testament a collection of stories designed to teach the children the importance of telling the truth or of being brave, or why it's not nice to call some other kid a cheese-headed bean-boy. Instead it is our family story, the very identity of what we and our children are.

They are not too immature for the things of God, but are to be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. God didn't put an 'age of accountability' onto that requirement. We can assume that the rising up and lying down during which we are to raise our children in the nurture of the Lord includes their whole lives while we are blessed with having them under our roofs. In light of this, we must not see them as only our children, but as children of the King — heirs of the Promise and recipients of the promise of the indwelling Spirit. Seek to be faithful now in having your children worship the King with you. You are training them in a sense to be always learning to be even more active participants in worship, but you are also beseeching the Holy Spirit to accept your children's 'morning sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving' every Lord's Day. They can do it now. Obey God and let them. Rejoice in His faithfulness now and into the future.