The Squirmy Season

We had a fab trip to visit my parents' new place south of Denver.  We were able to purchase some relatively inexpensive plane flights there and back and traveling with the kids was really a piece of cake. The only minor problem was baby Mary who is just at a stage where she likes to squirm.  She's 12 months old and hasn't quite learned that it's not o.k. to scream when she doesn't get what she wants. What she wanted, as far as I could tell, was to pull the hair of the passenger in front of us and crawl up and down the aisle of the 737.

Today I noticed this blog post from Noel Piper asking how churches can help those of us in the baby days participate in the worship service.  It reminded me of my efforts to keep Mary content on the plane.  We have the same struggle during church.  When my babies are little I try to time their naps so that they sleep through the sermon.  This still works for Mary on Sunday mornings, but it doesn't work at other times (evening services) or plane flights.

(photo credit: Sarah)

The comments section of Noel Piper's blog post has tons of helpful suggestions for small children in church.  If you're looking for some ideas that might be a good place to start.  Our church also provides a booklet written by John and Noel Piper with lots of great ideas on the subject.  You can find it online here. 

We're committed to keeping our kids in our church worship service with us.  We want them to see the ministry of the Word as the most important thing we do each week - all of us.