“In My Day”

Last night I confessed a victory from the kitchen to my girlfriends about the moment when you sneak a vegetable into the meal and your child does not notice.  I added a few of the turnips I picked up from Verdant Acres into the taco meat. Victory is mine! One of my friends has a son who is about a year and a half old. She said this is also her life. He only likes broccoli if it is roasted, any other way and he just throws it at her. 

This became a conversation about “in my day…” comparisons.  Such as,  “in my day you cleaned your plate no matter what” or “in my day I only drank from the water hose.”  Our generation’s “I walked up hill to school both ways in the snow.”  It is amusing to think how much things have changed over the years…I mean, I see kids carrying water bottles to school as big as their bodies! We never did that in elementary school, nor did we have snack time after kindergarten ( I actually love that they have snack time now)…but these days kids only want Spring Water in their Stanley cups, with Bento lunch boxes carrying fancy lunches.  What happened to metal lunch boxes with sandwiches in plastic bags, and a thermos of lukewarm Kool-Aid inside?

I wonder what your “in my day” comparisons are?  And if you were to ponder this question considering  your faith tradition and your church life, what comes to mind? A lot of times these comparisons are meant to say to someone in the younger generation, “you don’t know how good you have it.”  But, when we use this language considering the church it is often in reference to something that seems lost to history, a tradition that has fallen away.  Or to shake our heads as we say, “well this is the way we’ve always done it.”

Some examples:

 “It used to be 300 people here on Sunday, easily.” 

“We used to have live greenery at Christmas, and a tree that reached the ceiling.”

“We couldn’t play softball on Sunday afternoons unless we came to youth group first.”

“You didn’t wiggle in church.  You sat quietly in the pew while the preacher talked for 45 minutes.”

“In my day you didn’t wear tennis shoes to church.”

“In my day you wore a hat and gloves, and the men wore a dress coat and tie no matter how hot.”

“The ladies of the church were larger than life!”

“We knew the community loved us.”

I love these things.  I love the stories that are told around memories that are both beloved and tinged with awe or humor.  And if we are honest, perhaps a note of condescension, as if things today are lacking because they are different.  Here are a few things I can say about church that I remember, and some things I hope the future generations will remember when they tell their kids about church.

For me:

“In my day, we had donuts in Sunday School.”

“In my day, we sat in the balcony with our friends (I know some of y’all did too).”

“In my day, we sang Pass It On  and lit candles every Christmas Eve.” (And I will never get over the fact that they do not do this anymore in my home church.  It was a tradition, and it has changed Christmas Eve forever, it is like blasphemy. This is a hill I will die on.)

“In my day, my pastors were easy to talk to.”

“In my day we had guitars and sometimes even drums in church.”

“In my day teenagers could lead worship and sit on committees.”

“We knew the community loved us.”

For the children of our church, I hope they look back and say:

“ Sometimes Pastor Loren let us sit behind the pulpit on Sunday mornings.”

“In my day people were not afraid to laugh in worship or clap when the Spirit moved them.”

“My parents say that I used to run around the sanctuary during the sermon.”

“It was okay when we brought our army men and barbies to church to play under the pews.”

“We collected money for people who needed help with brightly colored buckets.”

“We ate our weight in Goldfish, and no one ever complained when we left crumbs on the carpet.”

“We beat each other up with bean bags and chased each other with cookies in our hands.”

“We knew the community loved us.”