What I Learned at Church Sunday, September 18, 2011

Perhaps I should title this, “What I Realized…” because these were not things I had ‘learned’ all of a sudden on Sunday.

We visited a new church Sunday morning. Sunday School started at 9:45 am and then the main service followed at 11 am. In Sunday school (for the adults) they were reading from (and studying) 1 Peter 2:5. Apparently, they went through previous verses on previous Sundays. I will not say that I was enlightened during this portion (not because of any particular reason) but did come to realize again that I do not believe in the Trinity. Interesting that a verse that makes no mention of the Trinity led the ‘teacher’ to bring it up more than once.

There. I’ve said it. I am a Christian that does not believe in the Trinity. I believe that the concept of a triune god is polytheistic and rooted in pagan practices that do not belong in Christianity. The Trinity is a concept presented by the Church to explain what it doesn’t understand- in a way that isn’t understandable, it is merely ‘accepted’.

The rest of the Sunday School was just fine –many good points and comments were contributed during the session.

During the main service the pastor talked about the importance of bringing up our children in a biblical way. Not the way the world believes we should but how God says we should. What I ‘learned’ from this portion is that I need to be more conscientious of what my children watch and hear. What they see us doing, they will do as well. The pastor made an excellent point of what we as parents do in moderation, our children will take farther. If we believe that something is okay in ‘moderation’ our kids will take it farther and do more than what we think is appropriate. The example he gave was rated G movies. If we watch only G movies, our children (he postulates) will watch PG13 movies. If we watch PG13, they will watch R.

Although I do not agree that we should not watch movies at all, I completely agree that what we do, the kids will take farther. It is a test of limits and boundaries.

I also ‘realized’ (again) how important routine, schedules, discipline and consistency are to our children. With our move, the tv at the hotels have been a luxury that seem to have turned into a ‘need’. By that I mean that with limited activities and resources at our disposal, my kids are ‘bored’ so easily and tv is a readily available fix for boredom.

Personally, I think tv in general is worse than watching movies. The shows on the local channels (not even thinking of HBO, Showtime, etc.) are steeped in filth! The filth is presented in a fun, entertaining way. We laugh at the crude jokes. We fill our eyes with sights we shouldn’t be seeing (the commercials are what I am referring to, with scantily clad individuals interacting in ways that are private) and hearing what we’ve no business hearing. Even the ‘kids shows’ are laced with this. It seems harmless because it is on the ‘kids’ channel. But it really isn’t.

Saying “No” to our children will not hurt them. Saying “Yes” when we need to say “No” will hurt them.

Those are the two things I realized (again) while at church on Sunday

*Note: If you disagree with my reasoning that is just fine and I welcome your comments. Please know, however, that if you post a comment that is rude, it will not be approved.