What's Really Important

I wrote this on Easter Sunday.  Easter, as with all of our major religious holidays, has taken on a secular tone these days.  And I’m not going to be a Grinch and say that this is all bad.  I have fond memories of coloring eggs when I was a kid.  I remember Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets.  Chocolate bunnies were awesome.  And I’ve already told you how much I used to love Cadbury Crème Eggs.  I was not a huge fan of the marshmallow Peeps, but hey, you can’t have everything.

And of course, we always had a big meal on Easter.  We’d have the traditional Easter ham, but we’d have lots of other things, too.  My mom loved to cook.  We usually have another kind of meat as well as ham, especially if we had company coming, just in case someone didn’t like ham.  We’d have potatoes, of course.  We’d have corn and beans, and maybe another vegetable as well.  There’d be one or two fruit salads, at least.  There’d be fresh bread or buns or crescent rolls, or a combination thereof.  And of course, there’d be at least four or five different desserts.  And after the meal, we’d usually turn on the radio and listen to the ball game.

So, I have a lot of good memories of all the secular things about Easter.  But at the same time, in between getting our Easter baskets and having the big Easter meal, we would always go to church.  Always.  We would always get there early, and we would always stay late.  We’d stay late so Mom and Dad could visit with people.  My brothers and I would go play in the grassy lot next to the church or, if we were told not to get our good clothes dirty, we’d wait in the car, rather impatiently, for Mom and Dad to finally be ready to go home.

But the thing is, we did not just make a point of going to church at Easter.  We went every Sunday, without fail.  Dad was a farmer, and he always had work to do, but he always made sure he took the time to go to church with the family.  I could probably count on one hand the number of times Dad missed church, and it was inevitably because cattle had gotten out and had to be rounded up.  And Mom would never miss, ever.

I realize the world is not like that today.  For one thing, there are a lot more things to do on Sunday than there used to be.  For another, people travel a lot more than we did when I was growing up.  My point here is not to criticize anyone.  The world I grew up in no longer exists, it’s not coming back, and it does no one any good to live in the past.  We have to live in the world that actually exists, not the world that we wish existed.

The point is that my parents raised me with the idea that church is important.  And in doing that, they raised me with the idea that worshiping God is important.  And kids need to be raised with that idea today just as much as they needed to when I was young.  Maybe more.

Again, I understand that I grew up in a different time.  I have no way to know how my parents would’ve raised me if they were raising me now.  But it’s still important to raise kids with the idea that church is important, and that worshiping God is important.  And if, for whatever reason, you don’t take your kids to church regularly, then you need to find some other way to raise them with those ideas.

If there’s a way that I can help with that, let me know.  I’m open to ideas.  I’m open to doing anything I can to help you with this.  Not because I want a bigger church, but because this is one of the most essential things for a church to do.  Raising kids with the idea the church is important, and that worshiping God is important, is one of the most significant things we will ever do.

If you enjoy some of the secular things life has to offer, that’s okay.  But remember what’s really important.  Make sure you, and your kids, keep God as the most important thing in your life.