“But I don’t wanna go!”

DSC08682.JPGThis morning out daughter is pitching a fit about going to church. She is 10 and the truth is that I can remember quite well doing the same thing to my parents. They made me go to church and we are making her come with us.

Lately E and I have been talking about how we raise our children with respect to things like drinking (alcohol of course, not just ordinary imbibing) and sex. We do not have any particular disagreements but we did have slightly different upbringing. We had a very strict, dry household. To this day my dad insists that “alcohol shall never pass my lips.” (He doesn’t even receive communion in our church as a result.) My brother’s experience and the decisions he made, it should be needless to say, were different than mine, even though we were reared in the same home.

I did not drink any alcohol until I reached college and even then it was never more than sipping a glass of wine (I still have not acquired a taste for beer) and even to this day I do not drink very much. I tend to think it is better to begin with a more strict teaching in the home, on this and other matters, while still emphasizing the broad principles at stake. For example, I was never told that drinking is a sin, only that drunkenness is (true dat) and when we drink in excess we lose control of ourselves and a variety of bad things can happen.

So I am leaning towards a more strict, but certainly an open environment for our kids. I want to be able to talk with them about drinking, relationships, drugs, etc. and for them to talk with me. Then as they mature I hope that they will have a healthy understanding and lifestyle.

In the meantime, we are all going to church as a family!

[Written before church this morning, but I neglected to post it before leaving. For reasons you can imagine, given the above. 😉 ]

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