Chaos is not an excess of life, but an abundance of death. An engine running makes noise, but an engine dying makes a different noise. Chaos is the cacophony of failing parts, not the sound of thriving ones. Children are not chaotic. That is the word we use, but it is not the condition of our kids. They are abounding in life and vitality. They are the opposite of chaos. They are an engine firing on all cylinders, not one giving up the ghost of its last one. The hum of an engine is not the screech of a breaking one.
Our kids in church should be like running engines. They cannot be altogether silent, because they are not dead; but neither should they be screeching, because they aren't dying. When they do get riled up, it is more like an engine revving than one expiring. But a parent's job is to keep them in the right gear so as to keep the engine from revving too high and for keeping the noises to a bare minimum. Hubbubs should not be destroyed, but discipled. Anyone sitting nearby exasperated that the engines are humming doesn't understand how life works. To their credit, life is not noisy, but to counter, it does make noises. Noise in se may be the cacophony of hell, but Heaven... is not silent. And neither are we. Screwtape's entire Spotify playlist may be discord, but ours is harmony. Harmony is not less sounds, but more, joyfully complementing each other.
So, let the kids live and appreciate the hum of their horsepower, Do your best to corral it and harness it for the holy hubbub that is life in abundance; and come along side those sitting beside you at church trying to harness and hitch their team up to the hubbub that is holiness incarnate.
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