How to make your children LOVE church

Church attendance for youngsters is no new thing, it has been a challenge for most parents throughout centuries. As their caretakers, we want them to attend, so they can grow in the values and ways of God, but it’s never simple to get them riled up for it. Today, we will discuss some tips, that might help improve your children’s motivation to attend church.

1. Be an example

Children are genuinely interested in their parents; we are after all their sole role models. If we show them a lot of love and support in their early years, they grow a sort of dependence with us. This is the reason it’s so important to be an example for them, they will want to mimic our actions, we can’t ask of them what we lack to represent, so be sure to set the bar for them to follow in your footsteps.

2. Mark your beliefs at home

As previously stated, being an example is truly important, however for it to matter we must set the belief standard within the home our children grow. Making small familiar traditions is a nice way to compliments your child’s learning process to God’s ways. For example, praying before every meal, thanking God for every day, praying before sleeping, movie nights with the family where you can enjoy a film that leaves a message, and so on. These are the types of activities that will bring union to your family and this union will promote children to visit church with his/her family.

3. Teach them to participate

Participating successfully brings a sense of joy into anyone involved. It encourages the young minds to think about what they hear, opening their will to listen attentively. It’s as basic as a workplace environment where motivation leads to better interest by the laborers, which in turn gives better results.

4. Forcing them is NOT the answer

During the elaboration of this article, we found several opinions on the matter. Many of them included off subject examples such as:

• If your kid doesn’t want to go to school, it doesn’t matter he has to, and you know better than him.

Same examples were mentioned with teeth brushing and vegetable eating. Although there is some sort of correlation with said examples, we believe forcing anyone into something that should come from heart is not an ideal path. The forceful nature might turn the situation negatively, the child might look at religion as an enemy instead of the way of his life. It is important to involve him with it in many ways as possible but never to the point where the child disgusts reaching Sundays just because he MUST go to church. Turn it into a responsible commitment, not a forced obligation.

5. You might need to change church.

The thing about Catholic churches is, they are very traditional. This is totally fine, we love traditions, they are simple, wholesome and filled with history. When it comes to young creative minds, who are still exploring the many wonders life offers us, this might become repetitive and boring. No one’s to blame of this effect and we should note that children need a more modern approach to be interested in the Gospel. Several Catholic churches now have young bible study groups that are specialized in this approach for children, making learning about God more dynamic and playful, it’s also a wonderful source for your children to get along with other people in the same interest.

 

To summarize, its important we as parents lead our children into the right path, using the right tools and remembering the scripture of God. With love, kindness, a compassionate heart and a strong devotion to family and religion, anything is within our reach.