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<\/a><\/p>\nI offered the first reason for why I believe this to be true in the last post: The Church matters because it matters to Jesus. <\/em>The Church is a matter of life and death and life for Jesus. He is deeply committed to it and in fact, stakes his reputation on it in many ways. The Church is his Body. It is his cherished Bride. And if the Church matters to Jesus, then it should matter to those of us for whom Jesus matters, including our kids. He loves the Church for a reason and as his followers he calls us to love the Church, too, warts and all.<\/p>\nBefore offering the second reason for why I believe the Church matters to your kids I want to pass this along. I thought it was funny:<\/p>\n
Why I No Longer Attend Sporting Events:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Every time I went, they asked me for money.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
- The people with whom I had to sit didn\u2019t seem very friendly.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
- The seats were too hard and not at all comfortable.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
- I went to many games, but the coach never came to call on me.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
- The referee made a decision with which I could not agree.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
- I suspected that I was sitting with some hypocrites \u2014 they came\u00a0<\/em>to see their friends and what others were wearing rather than to see the game.<\/em><\/li>\n
- Some games went into overtime, and I was late getting home.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
- The band played some numbers that I had never heard before.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
- It seems that the games are scheduled when I want to do other things.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
- I was taken to too many games by my parents when I was growing up.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
- I don\u2019t want to take my children to any games, because I want\u00a0<\/em>them to choose for themselves what sport they like best.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Reason #2 Why the Church Matters to Your Kids: Because your kids matter to Jesus. Jesus wants to run to your kids with grace. <\/strong><\/em>He wants to embrace them as his own children. And his chosen vehicle for doing that is <\/em>His Body\u2026His Bride\u2026His Church! <\/strong>He gets at our lives with grace\u2026<\/p>\n\n- Through the preaching of the Gospel<\/li>\n
- Through the giving of grace through the sacraments<\/li>\n
- Through the opportunity to worship<\/li>\n
- Through the invitation to serve the world with grace through our generosity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Certainly Jesus graces your kids through your love and prayers, through the reading of Scripture, and mentoring from other Christians.\u00a0\u00a0 But the primary way Jesus molds us, shapes us, inspires faith in us, and makes his forgiveness a reality in our lives is through the local church and the world-wide Church.<\/p>\n
When the disciples tried to keep the kids from Jesus, Jesus lashed out the 12 (and no, that\u2019s not to strong a word for it). He was incensed that they would keep the kids away from his blessing.<\/p>\n
The Church matters because your kids matter to Jesus. And through his Church Jesus blesses them. \u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nWhy would we want to keep them from that blessing?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In my first two posts on this issue I have argued that the Church matters\u2026and that it matters to your children. \u00a0 I offered the first reason for why I believe this to be true in the last post: The Church matters because it matters to Jesus. The Church is a matter of life and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1621,"featured_media":1106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,3,13,6,7,10],"tags":[2,4,5,14,9],"class_list":["post-582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boys","category-church","category-girls","category-kids-2","category-parents-2","category-sunday-school","tag-boys","tag-church-2","tag-girls-2","tag-jesus","tag-searching-for-tom-sawyer"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n