Love, Darcy | Getting to Church

My husband, Tim, has one of the worst attendance records in our church.  It’s not that he doesn’t go to church; it’s just that he doesn’t get to go to our church very often.  Weekends are when he does most of his speaking at conferences, retreats, and other churches.  It’s the nature of his work.  Even though he wasn’t at our church as often as he’d like when our kids were growing up, we were.  Our family viewed our church as one of the stable anchors of our lives – an ally to our hearts and home. As you see, going to church was not the issue in our family. Getting there on Sunday mornings clothed and in our right mind, however, was a problem.  Six days a week the kids were up at the crack of dawn.  It was on Sundays that they decide to catch up on their sleep.  And that began the rush to church.  Here is a typical scenario that transpired quite often at the Kimmel home as our children grew up. Colt, (age 6), comes out of his room dressed in the same dirty T-shirt and jeans he played in the day before. His hair looks like it has a night job. Cody, (age 12), dresses completely down to his shoes before he remembers that he was supposed to take a shower first.  Shiloh, (age 9), decides that she needs to change her entire outfit because her purple and orange Phoenix Suns shorts (which she wore for “modesty sake”) show under her skirt.  Changing just her shorts is not an option that crossed her mind.  And then Karis, (age 15), our “Picasso” of clothing design, has to visit and borrow from every closet in the house before she has a complete designer original – with all the accessories. What was supposed to be a family breakfast turns into a “stuff it and run” fiasco.  Bibles are left behind, teeth are unbrushed, cowlicks are untamed, tempers are on edge, traffic is heavy, and the only church parking left is “off-site”.  Praise the Lord and pass the Alka Seltzer! I have a feeling that some of this may sound way too familiar to many of you.  Choreographing a kinder and gentler Sunday morning is a challenge and a ministry of worship for us parents.  But as it turns out, now that our kids are getting themselves and their own families off to church, it was well worth it.  Church is one of the investments of time and energy that pays incredible dividends. If you’re in the midst of raising kids and getting them to church, hang in there and please try to smile if I see you in the off- site parking lot! Here’s to Forgotten Bibles and Unbrushed Teeth, Love, Darcy