Parenting in the pews is not for the faint of heart. Any parent who has wrestled a wiggly toddler during a sermon or shushed a whispering child at the wrong moment knows the challenge. It’s tempting to think, Maybe they’re just not ready for this. Maybe church is something they should grow into.
But Jesus speaks differently.
When His disciples tried to push the little ones away—perhaps thinking they were too young, too distracting, too much—Jesus rebuked them:
“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:14)
Not “one day.” Not “if they prove themselves.” But now.
Where Do Our Children Belong?
Jesus makes a sharp distinction between two groups: those who belong to Him and those who do not. He speaks of the blessed and the cursed, the believer and the unbeliever. And that raises an important question: Where do our children fall?
Some would say they are outside. That, by default, they are unbelievers. Yet even those who hold this view hesitate to call them enemies of Christ. So, is there some kind of spiritual waiting room? A third category?
No. That’s not how Scripture speaks.
We call them Covenant Children because they are already included. From the earliest days of the church, Christian parents understood their children as part of God’s family, receiving the sign of baptism and being raised in the faith. John Calvin affirmed this when he wrote:
“For since God, in testifying his goodwill toward us, vouchsafes to make infants capable of receiving the sign of baptism, there is no reason why they should be excluded from the greater mystery of which baptism is only an appendage.” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, IV.16.8)
If God marks our children as His, why would we withhold from them the blessings of worship? Why should they not be with us—learning to pray, learning to sing, learning to listen—even when they fidget, whisper, and, yes, sometimes cry?
Worshiping with Kids is Hard—but Holy
Pastor Stout has humorously quipped, “If God wanted you to hear the sermon, He wouldn’t have given you all those children.” And there’s truth in that. Worshiping with little ones is hard. It’s exhausting. It doesn’t always feel “spiritual.”
But it is holy.
These little ones are our first disciples. God has placed them in our arms so that we might lead them to the foot of the cross. And leading them means bringing them into worship, into prayer, into the presence of Christ—even before they fully understand it.
The psalmist reminds us:
“Out of the mouths of babies and infants, you have ordained praise.” (Psalm 8:2)
God is at work in them, even now. Even in their wiggling. Even in their restlessness. Even when it feels like they aren’t paying attention.
So press on. Keep them in worship. Keep singing with them. Keep praying with them. Keep showing them what it means to belong to Christ.
Because they do belong. Jesus said so.