How Does Your Family Spend Sunday?

When I was a young boy, my family most always started our Sunday by getting up for Sunday school, and then church. Afterwards, we would grab a bite to eat and then head home, as long as nobody was having special family gathering at a relatives house. We would then try to have some type of relaxed family activity. This could be as simple as watching a baseball or football game. It could include board games, cards, playing outside, or just hanging out together. I don't remember anyone having to work on Sunday, and I don't remember going to any stores to buy anything, except for a meal.

When I became a teenager, it was a struggle to get me and my brothers to church. We had our own agenda and thought we knew what was best for us. We didn't understand why we needed to go to Sunday school. We were intelligent and thought we knew everything. Our time was valuable. We wanted to sleep in, then get up and watch Tarzan, and eat a stack of pancakes. The goal was to be out of the house before Mom got home from church. My parents had divorced and we didn't have that same family togetherness. My Mom spent more time in church and in prayer because times were tough. She made eight dollars an hour as a nurse. She had three sons to raise and buy clothes for. Mr being the youngest, I was getting the hand me downs. I tried to grow as fast as possible, so I no longer had my brother's old clothes. By the time I was fourteen, I had accomplished this. Finally I could get new clothes.

I had two pairs of jeans to get me through a week. For Christmas I got clothes and was thankful. For my birthday, my Aunt made me curtains for my bedroom and I was thankful. I had worked at some form since I was eight years old. I would cut the neighbors grass, wash cars, and in the winter, shovel snow. I was paid a dollar here, and two there. I was very thankful to get it. This is how I bought new shoes. This is how I bought records. This is how I bought my baseball cards. One pack at a time, not boxes and cases at a time. We actually chewed the gum that came with them. The paper route gave me the greatest income.

At age twelve I started volunteering at the nursing home my Mom worker at. I worked in the maintenance department and learned how to fix everything. I volunteered three hundred hours for two years in a row. The third year, when I turned fourteen, they hired me for the summer and on weekends during school. I was paid five dollars an hour. I was really earning good money. My dreams of playing pro baseball or football were always going to be just that, dreams.

When I was fifteen, I saved up enough money to buy myself a car. A nineteen seventy one Pontiac Le Mans Sport. I worked on that car for nine months to get it ready for when I got my driver's license. I kept working, paying my own car insurance and gas. I could fix anything in my house and I could rebuild just about anything on my car. I was sixteen.

How many kids can you say do these things today? I didn't have a video game, it wasn't a necessity. I didn't have two hundred fifty channels of television to watch. I worked hard for everything. I knew how to do more things than some of my friends and their parents could do. Where is that today? I didn't grow up in the thirties or fifties. This was the seventies and eighties. Those years taught me allot. I couldn't wait to have my own family because I missed those family times. I missed the togetherness we had. Kids now a days would rather stay in their room. They have their own television, computer, Ipod, and whatever else. They like their privacy and must have their own bedroom and bathroom. How are they going to be prepared for their future?

I wanted my kids to have more things than I had. I wanted them to focus on school and their dreams more than I could. I didn't want them to have to work to buy clothes. But how will they learn if they don't have to? Where will the work ethic come from? Will they really understand where our country came from and what principles our founding father's had to make this the best place in the world to live? Or will they take everything for granted and think that everything should just be given to them? This is the balance we try to keep. How to give our kids the ideals and principles to make our country the best. To achieve through hard work and not handouts.

How is your life different today for your kids, than it was for you? How do you teach your sons and daughters, but still give them what they need to succeed? Are you raising givers or takers? Are you raising good Americans who will take our country into the next fifty years and beyond? Do they have the fear of God and know the love of Jesus? Do they have any kind of spiritual background to keep their faith grounded? Is their a closeness with family that keeps the bonds of love strong no matter what? Do they know unconditional love? Do you still gather around the table for Sunday dinner? How do you spend your Sundays?