Thursday, September 13, 2012

10 Best Decisions of our Married Life... #9 Weekly Church Participation

Recently I began to share something I composed some years ago to be part of a document for a niece as she got married in June 2004.  That document was created as a compilation of entries under the title:  
THE TEN BEST... or 
The Wisdom of the most important women in your life.  
Each woman who submitted an entry chose her own subject matter.  I promised to post my entry on this blog.  This is the ninth of our top decisions in the list of:
The Top Ten Decisions Guiding Our Married Life
By Uncle John and Aunt Linda Worden
9.Weekly church attendance and regular participation in church leadership opportunities for the whole family according to our spiritual gifts is a given.

Hebrews 10: 25 THE MESSAGE Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on,
            I Peter 4:10a Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others,
We have not struggled with this decision and fortunately, our children grew to understand that our family participated regularly with attendance and involvement.  There was never an argument from any of them about attending church.  We think it is because it was a “given” - not negotiable.  Our participation was their example and they followed willingly.  We have absolutely no regrets for having followed this decision throughout our lives.  Of course church attendance does not ensure adherence to Biblical teaching but it is more likely that your faith commitment will be embraced by the next generation if there is involvement in a local body of believers.  
Update in 2012:
I cannot add much content here as we remain committed to this decision.  

Now two of our three children are parents.  One family has 4 of our grandchildren.  This family enjoys attending and being involved at Hope Church in Richmond, VA.   
Another family attends Messiah Church in Detroit, MI.    

Our single child attends the same church where we also are members. 

Using our spiritual gifts in fellowship and involvement with our local congregation continues to bless and encourage us.

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