I’ve heard couples say, my children are so noisy and cause so much ruckus at church on Sunday that we don’t think we should come until they get a little older and behave better. I try to assure those couples their children may be a little noisy but they are not bothering anyone as much as bothering their parents. Children are the future of the church and it is at the earliest age that they need to start coming to Sunday School and church with their parents to learn what is there and what it is all about. It should be every parent’s top priority.

I remember as a parent being afraid of what others would think if my young sons became a little active and talked too loud during a service. I was blessed that my parents attended the same church. Often we would sit together and they would help with my sons. We learned to have a backpack filled with little trucks or cars, two or three books, some crackers, and pencils and paper. It was the first thing grabbed as we walked out the door on Sunday mornings. What is that old saying, “This too shall pass.” Before long they were more than willing to remain seated and mostly quiet. How I miss those years.

It seems like yesterday a little red headed fellow came to church, first as a tiny baby. When he began to walk, he began to roam up and down the aisles during the Sunday message. At first his mother would try and try again to sneak up on him and pull him back to the pew much to his dismay. Eventually his mother could see it wasn’t bothering anyone, and though the tyke would take his walk up and down the aisles a time or two, he’d soon return to his mother. That young man attended about every Sunday throughout his school years and would often help where he saw a need. All too soon it was time for him, as it had been earlier for his sister, to leave for college. Though he and his sister come back from time to time, he is still missed as well as his sister.

One recent Sunday, as I was playing the prelude before the service started, a sweet little girl wearing a pretty dress that she was so proud of, came waltzing up the middle aisle of the church, hanging onto both sides of her full skirt. She twirled a time or two. She was keeping time to the music. She brought a smile to all those in the pew seats. Her mother gently persuaded her to go back with her little brother. With the children’s nursery close by, most of the children eventually go there to play. It’s where the parents can keep a watchful eye of them. Some noises come from there once in a while. At times a child comes walking up the aisles toward the pulpit, but the pastor doesn’t seem to mind. Soon Daddy or Mommy carries the child back where they were seated. Those precious ones are not a bother at all.

Just like Jesus once told his disciplines that were trying to keep the children from bothering Him, “Let the little ones come unto me.”