Sit Still and Be Quiet, Please!
As a young mother reading Little House on the Prairie series to my children, I marveled at the expectations placed on the young characters to sit quietly for hours. In our modern times, even adults wouldn’t have the ability to be so attentive. What was the difference? What have we gained, or lost, in our present-day society by doing everything faster? While these questions are beyond the scope of this article, I believe that training our children to sit quietly and listen for an extended period of time is a virtue that will benefit them throughout life. Below are a few thoughts and practices that I have gleaned over the years.
- It begins early. Train your child to be quiet as soon as they start making noises with meaning for example: mama or no no. Meal time prayers and family devotions are a great place to start. By the time your child is talking, they should be able to stay quiet in church services.
- Expect to have to train them. While this sounds like a no-brainer, it’s easy to think that a child should just behave because they know better, but most children will need a parent to remind them. Again and again.
- It begins in the home. It is not the Sunday school teacher or the grade school teacher’s job to see that your child sits quietly. The child should gain this discipline before then.
- Dads need to be involved. Small children generally sit more quietly for their fathers.
- Keep the electronics away. Don’t use it as a babysitter or even as an educational toy for young ones. Your children will have plenty of screen time in their lives without it.
- Teach by example. A young child wants to be “big.” Point out to them that Daddy, Sister, Brother etc. are sitting quietly also.
- Skip the toys and food for church services. Feed your child a good breakfast and keep the diaper bag for diapers. More stuff does not make a child quieter, in fact, it usually has the opposite effect.
- Make staying in the church auditorium more pleasant than being elsewhere. While this may seem contradictory to the above point, make every effort to stay sitting in church by having a special toy or book to play with. Also, if a child knows that they will be disciplined when taken out, they will likely think twice before making a fuss.
- Do not relax on the rules. If you do need to take your child out, because they are being noisy, keep them sitting in your lap just like you would in the pew.
- Teach them how to sit properly. Don’t allow them to stand up on the bench or on the floor, if they are too big to stand on your lap.
- Expect them to be involved. By the time your child can read, they should help sing and follow along in their Bibles with everyone else at church.
Finally, God has vested parents with the authority to teach and train our children. He will supply the wisdom and patience needed to complete the task.