I’ve written blog posts in years past when my daughters (who are now 8 and 5) were very young, questioning why I was even going to church half the time as a young mom whose spouse is not in the church, since I was missing most of the meeting, either distracted by trying to keep them quiet or having to leave the meeting to change them, etc. 

I concluded those posts by saying that I had to believe that, even though I only might have heard a tiny portion of each service, God would still bless and feed me spiritually, but more importantly, I was setting an example for my girls. 

Fast forward a couple years, and now my kids get excited for what they call “church day.” They’re disappointed when we have to miss church or have to zoom in for whatever reason. Even though it seems like they are distracted during the church service, doing workbook pages or playing, they do pay attention. 

Little nuggets of wisdom have come out of their mouths to remind me of something the brothers preached on. When they are scared to go to bed for reasons that we might find silly (such as they feel like there’s a bear in the basement — this happened last week), they request that I pray with them for peace. They still proclaim that God healed their boo-boos the next morning when they wake up. The last time we did feet washing in our mission, they promptly went home and started practicing themselves, taking turns to wash each other’s feet. (See the picture at the top of this article.)

What I suspected a few years ago, God has proved true. My daughters are growing up seeing and understanding the importance of going to church and relying on God and seeing the things He does for us. I can’t wait to report back on it, say, five years from now.

So, for all you parents of toddlers, questioning why you are bothering to get ready and go to church since you will miss most of the service and possibly be so stressed and frustrated the whole time, I encourage you to keep going. It is not for nothing.

God bless you,

Sister Stefanie