Milk Shake Monday

As I looked down the row at my four older children this past Sunday, they were all paying close attention to the message and carefully taking notes of the sermon. Even my 6^th grade son, who remained in the meeting rather than going to class, was scratching down the main points on his pad. It was working, I thought to myself.

Now lest you think my children are the picture of the perfect church family, allow me to let you in on a secret. Each Monday after dinner, if those present in the Sunday meeting all took notes, we have a “Milk Shake Monday.” That means mom and dad have to be taking notes as well. Sounds like bribery you say? I must admit it is pragmatic, bordering on manipulation. But, if you are going to cave in to a little coercion in your parenting, this isn’t a bad place to place a bribe.

There are real benefits. First, my children pay better attention to the preaching of God’s word. Secondly, I pay better attention to the preaching of God’s word. Third, when my children do take notes, I am assured that we will be doing a family review Monday after dinner. There are milk shakes at stake! Finally, those who were not in the meeting, due to a service commitment or sickness, get to hear the main points of the message they missed. All around it is a great tool to help us do what we want and need to be doing anyway.

The process is fairly simple. Tell your children that if they take notes on Sunday along with you, you will have a Milk Shake Monday to discuss the message. After dinner on Monday, print out the “Take it Home” questions from the Covenant Fellowship Church website (or sign up your email address to have them emailed to you each Monday), while the kids get out their notes. Make the milkshakes, nice and thick, and afterwards have a ten minute discussion. Sometimes questions will emerge which will actually create a good discussion – like, ‘hey that wasn’t his second point, that was a sub-point of his first point!’ That certainly beats ‘he never does his chores’ as post dinner sibling rivalry, doesn’t it? Oh, one other tip. Don’t try to do the discussion until the last slurp is through. The sucking sound of a teen trying to vacuum the last bit of foam off their glass ruins the conversation.