In My Father's House

While I was growing up, most parents did not allow their children to traipse out during a church service for trivial pursuits like getting a drink or using the restroom. Not that these matters were always inconsequential. In reality, sometimes going out meant going to the little building at the end of a path or near the margin of the property. In any case, we were expected to take care of such matters before or after church. In our family, the prohibitions were almost written in stone. Leaving the service without first seeking permission was unthinkable. Under extenuating circumstances a stopoff between Sunday school classes and the preaching service was permissible.

Such is apparently not the current understanding of proper conduct in church--at least not universally so. Either many more children are assailed with bladder incompetence than was the case in my childhood (Can this possibly run in families?), or parents are less tuned in to childish wiles, or less distressed by them. Am I missing something?

My father instructed us too in proper conduct in a cemetery. Under no circumstances were we to climb about on the grave markers or act disrespectful in other ways. He told us that if we always took care to walk in front of the row of markers we would be able to avoid treading on graves. Running and playing in general was not to happen in a cemetery, especially during or following a burial service.

I once heard of a boy named Jonah who suffered an injury while playing in a cemetery. I forget if he fell on a grave marker or if a marker fell on him. Either way, I was pretty sure his dad had not instructed him as my dad did us, or it wouldn't have happened.

David L. would be the first to say he didn't do everything right. We would probably all agree that teaching proper church and proper cemetery conduct were not his greatest legacies. But looking back, I think he was right in teaching us these things. The example is worth following.