Pulling Our Behinds Off The Fence

Our two older boys have struggled through being the "only boys" in their Sunday School classes for more than a year. I say struggled in the sense that, at 9 and 11, being the only boys in a sea of girls is traumatic.

I know because, to hear them talk, they will need therapy for years.

We've listened. We've laughed. We've prayed. We've invited their friends and we've gotten more involved ourselves. We've even told them that some day it will work in their favor. Needless to say, they're not buying that.

Can they learn and grow without buddies at church? Certainly.

Do they have friends in other circles that they can lean on? Yes.

Is there anything wrong with needing or wanting buddies to "hang" with at church? No.

Is it a good enough reason to explore other church families? Maybe.

Don't you hate maybes??

My husband and I have been prayerfully sitting on the fence over this question for months. Yet, that's really a misnomer, because sitting on the fence implies that one could swing either way with ease.

In reality, we've been resisting any sway at all and clinging to the rail as if we had sat in super glue. Why is it such a hard decision to make?

Because we are torn between the good friends we have there, and the struggles we see our kids going through.

But no more. We are pulling our behinds off the fence and seeing where God leads. We truly are open, in spite of the fact that the whole church hopping thing ranks right up there with getting a root canal.

Yesterday morning, we visited the church of one of the boys' friends from school. We figured we would start by looking at churches where the boys had known friends.

In spite of the unfamiliar surroundings, the boys (all three of them) jumped right into the routine and seemed to enjoy themselves. If I'm not mistaken, the buddy was pretty excited to have them there, too.

In fact, it was comical, when, after the service, the two older boys slipped out the other end of the row with their buddy to Sunday School without even a look back.

Can you believe they just left us there like that? All alone? lol! My husband and I eventually found suitable classes for ourselves and my four year old. But it had us chuckling all the way.

All three of my boys said they would like to go again. When I asked them how much of their enthusiasm was for the church itself, as opposed to how much was based on going with their friend, they said, "70% friend, 30% church." So, we'll see.

We'll go again, and we'll visit some other churches as well.

But next time, I'm finding out in advance where my Sunday School class is.