Bringing Up Children in Community
We recently told our kids we were all going on an adventure. Like a serious 'pack up your belongings and head into the unknown' Abrahamic type adventure.My husband has been leading a church on the south coast of Natal, South Africa, for the last number of years and it seems that he/we have completed what we were called here for. So, in a weeks time we hand over the leading of the eldership team to one of the current elders, and head off into an unknown future.When announcing this news to our kids, we were quick to assure them that although we couldn't tell them where we were taking them, wherever we went we would stay together as a family. It was interesting to us what their primary concern was. The first question they asked was, "Will we still be a part of a church?" Lucky for us we could promise them that wherever we landed up in the world, we would still hang out with other people who love Jesus and be a part of a local church.It's amazing how much our children value being a part of a community. The younger ones ask me nearly every day, "Is today a day that the church people get together?" It occurs to me that living and bringing up our children in community, like so many of the things God has set in place for us, has benefits that we are not even aware of.Take another of His commands to see what I mean: Taking a rest day once a week has become something that sports scientists have realized is an essential part of an athletes' training schedule. When we are obedient to take a Sabbath Day in the week we get the benefits of physical and mental well-being without even understanding what they all are. Similarly when we are privileged enough to have a natural birth or breastfeed our babies, we enjoy beneficial "side effects" that doctors are still discovering.In the same way, living in community (as worked out by being part of a local church) is good for us in ways that we don't even fully realize. For example, the many areas that my husband and I lack in, in our parenting, or our Christian character, etc, do not have to be inherited deficits in our children when they have the benefit of gleaning the best from many more role models than just us. Also, our kids hear repeated by 'cool' Sunday school teachers that they love, the same lessons that we are teaching them at home, affirming that their parents are telling the truth. Because of this and so many reasons that we are not even aware of, our family will always be a part of a local church, trusting that God knew what He was talking about when He told us to gather regularly as the church. And I look forward to telling you where our adventure lands us as soon as I know! For now, we are packing up and moving next Monday to a temporary place in Durban, South Africa, while we await further instruction from God about our next steps. Watch this space!
