church

I love going to church, most of the time anyway. I have spent a lot of time not going, but I've spent a lot of time going. I was in a period of not going when the grands came into my life. I decided that I needed to get back in church for their sake. All kids need a good basic background of Bible teaching. If, later on in life, they choose another path, so be it; but at least I will have shared with them what I believe. I will have also set the example. They can choose to follow that example or not.

Wednesday nites is a hard one for me to attend. It starts at 7 and ends sometime after 8. I usually have the girls to get to bed at a reasonable hour for church. So, I hadn't always gone, until this year when I started in hopes of the girls being involved in something they enjoyed on Wednesday nites.

Well, it would be fine and good--but the preacher can't stop at 8. He kept us until 8:15 tonight. This is rough on the teachers and the kids. The teachers plan for an hour session. When the hour is up, they are usually through with the class. The kids have nothing to do, so they often get noisy and antsy.

I get antsy and lose track of what he's saying.
I'm praying about what to do. One teacher said someone needed to say something to him. I guess she meant a parent. I'm debating saying something myself. Either that, or next Wednesday I will sit on the side of the church, in a pew closest to the wall that faces the door which leads back to the children's unit. At precisely 8, if the preacher is still rattling on, I"ll simply get up and go collect my children and take them home.

His devotion is usually pretty good. The prayer requests we do first are informative. The cards we sign and send are very welcome by those who are ill or going through a loss. The main problem is that the preacher prays a sermon. He not only prays one prior to the devotion, he prays one following the devotion. Add to that, the leader of the songs prays one of his own before we sing and we have a long prayer session. There are only so many prayers that will fit in an hour.

Lord, I don't mean to be disrespectful. I don't mean to be mean and ugly toward these two men who are doing their best to serve their Lord. But I've studied the Bible and I understand the teaching on prayer to be this: public prayer should be short and sweet. The long prayers are best done in privacy.

Maybe I'm just opinionated and want things my way. I truly don't mean to come across as dissing the preacher--but facts are facts and these are the facts.

Well I have until next Wednesday to make a choice as to how I will handle this situation.