I woke up this morning at 6 a.m., exhausted from the previous night’s Halloween festivities. My husband has been out of town for what seems like forever, and the single parenting had caught up to me. Groggy, I wondered why my alarm was going off; almost forgetting that it was Sunday. A fleeting thought passed through my mind that maybe we could just skip church today. Just this once. It would be so much easier. However, just as quickly as the thought occurred, it passed and I rolled myself out of bed.
As I worked on getting the four of us ready, I remembered that it was my favorite Sunday of the year. The Sunday where our Primary, the children of our church age 12 and under, provide the program for our main worship meeting. So grateful that had ignored my thoughts to skip church, I hustled us out the door.
This is the fourth year I have had a child participating in the Primary program and I am never able leave that meeting without tears. Not just because it is my babies I am watching up there singing and speaking to an audience, but because it is children-- young children--bearing witness of Jesus Christ. It’s not just in the words they say, or in the songs they sing, but in their faces. They glow with the light of Christ, their faith so simple and pure, their hearts so honest.
I admired my sweet daughter as she confidently spoke her memorized lines. Her beautiful face, beamed with a newly missing tooth. My five-year-old son, who is a complete introvert, had a look of focused effort as he sang each and every word to all of the eight or nine songs they performed. He began the program by reading a scripture from the New Testament; “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” His face beamed as he looked at me with his chubby face for approval. It wasn’t that he had spoken every word correctly that made me tear up. It was that I was witnessing the seeds of faith beginning to grow in my son--seeds of faith in our Savior that I hope will continue to grow until they are strong enough to carry him through the trials of life.
We live in a world that often leaves me feeling hopeless and pessimistic towards humanity. But today through my children and the other children in our congregation, I experienced inspiring hope that only comes through Christ. I know that each day we face a more wicked world and that the society our children will face as adults will be even more difficult; however, I know that in Christ we can do all things.
I have heard the excuse that the reason parents don’t take their children to church is because they don’t want to force their own beliefs on to their impressionistic children. My heart grieves for those children who have parents that have been taught of Christ but choose to not to teach their own children. As I am writing this, a scripture from the Book of Mormon keeps filling my mind, “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall” (Helamen 5:12). Isn’t this what we want for our kids? A sure foundation? A safe place?
Let me be clear, I know it is not within the walls of the church that come our “sure foundation.” Rather it is the doctrines of Christ that are taught within those walls that bring us closer to God. It is in the act of worshipping our Father in Heaven and Savior that bring us closer to Him. It is in sacrificing that day each week to renew promises made to God, and in listening to the sweet whisperings of the Spirit. It is in learning from other imperfect people who are striving, just like us, to be a little more holy.
Church may not be the most fun thing I could do with my Sunday; however, it is the best thing. I am hoping and praying that my children will gain a testimony of that as well, for one day I won’t be there to help them make choices when they come to crossroads. However, there is One who will always be there, and it is my prayer that through my efforts today, that “when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds,” my children will be built upon the foundation of Christ “whereon they…cannot fall.”
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