Monday Ministerial Musings By Rev. Mark William Ennis Blog Number 19 June 10, 2019 Is Your Child Happy?

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

Blog Number 19

June 10, 2019

Is Your Child Happy?

I grew up in a different era. We were brought to church whether we wanted to go or not. We were taught to say our prayers before going to bed. Although my family did not adhere to the practice of daily devotions, I knew families who did, my wife’s family did each night after dinner. If we wanted to do other activities, they waited until our church obligations had ended. Church was first and all other activities were secondary. We grew up rather happy for the most part.

Better Homes and Gardens recently published an article that summarized a study done by the Harvard School of Public Health. The study demonstrated that Children who attended church or other religious institutions benefited from the religious training were happier, much more likely to participate in volunteer programs, and were less likely to have sex at an early age and less likely to do drugs. The conclusion from Harvard was that weekly church attendance was good for children to experience. 

Are we helping our children be happy? Do we keep them over-booked over competitive and neglect to bring them to worship weekends? We have now raised a generation of children who are competitive and hyper-organized. But are they happy? Have we so over-scheduled our children that we have neglected their happiness? Kids today are so programmed that I wonder if they are happy. 

I am concerned that we have raised a generation of unhappy kids. We forgot the basics of how we were raised to be happy.  Are we raising the next generation to be un-happy? Maybe it is time we challenged ourselves to bring our children back to church. Their happiness is at stake. Do you want your children to be happy? Get them to church! It will them, and you, a great deal of good.

#ReformedChurchInAmerica                                             #ClintonAvenueReformedChurch

#PastorMarkAuthor.com                                                     #HappyChildren

#ChurchAttendance                                                            #ChildrenInChurch

To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please order a copy of his book: 

The Circle of Seven

The Circle of Seven