I don’t know why God gifted parents with a supernatural ability to hear their own children.  The sounds of other people’s children in worship don’t bother me at all.  But when I’m sitting there listening to the sermon and my two children start coloring, it’s all I can hear. SCRIBBLE SCRIBBLE SCRATCH SCRATCH! Why does no one else seem to notice how insanely loud their coloring is?  I remember a few years back, I was preaching, and I started to hear it.  That scribble sound.  That scratch sound.  Coming directly from my own children.  Were they trying to sabotage me?  It took all my powers of concentration to focus on the task at hand and preach over their vociferous scrawl.

Parents of children are always very conscientious in worship.  We worry that our family is somehow single-handedly going to disrupt the entire service.  So it’s really helpful for churches to constantly communicate not only that children are welcome, but that children are welcome exactly as they are, wiggles and all.  The best children’s ministries equip children and parents for worship, as well as inform the rest of the congregation as to why wiggly children belong in worship with us!  I am so thankful that my home church provides fidgets and coloring clipboards to engage my children during worship.  Yes, I still worry that everyone else can hear nothing but my children coloring, but I also recognize that coloring helps my children concentrate on the bigger picture.  I too am a doodler, and have always learned better when I was able to be drawing with my hands during teaching or meetings.  As my children grow older, they are more interested in participating more and more in the liturgy, and that’s because they have a history of being welcome in worship from a young age.

Most of us are familiar with the oft-quoted, “Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children” (Luke 18:16).  We have a lot to learn from our children about what it means to live in the kingdom of God.  Let’s look for ways to welcome them in our worship spaces and wonder with them at the infinite welcome of God.