Finding God in the bowling alley

My Dad was what we call raised in the church. He attended church every Sunday. My Mom was an occasional attendee. Lee was raised in the synagogue. He attended services every Friday. I attended church in spurts. When we got married we had a civil service because neither of us were particular about religion. We both had our spiritual beliefs, we celebrated our holidays with our families. Picking and choosing what we did as we went along. Basically celebrating everything.  After we had Jake we decided to religion shop. We wanted him to feel a part of something spiritual.  We ended up finding a Unitarian- Universalist church that we both enjoyed. The people were nice, the service wasn't to early in the morning and there were lots of kids. The first few years were well attended. Lee and I even taught Sunday school. Then we took the summer off. Big mistake! The seasons went flying by, one year, two years and we hadn't gone back. Then we would rally and go for a few months and something would happen that stopped us. This became our pattern. Now Jake and his friends are closing in on their 13th birthdays. There are now bar and bat mitzvah to attend for his Jewish friends and his Christian friends are taking confirmation classes. It seems that everyone is getting their spiritual side in order. We got a letter from the UU church that we sort of attend asking us if Jake would be involved in the life classes they offer. This is the big leap for us. A commitment to religion. We sat Jake down and explained what he would be doing and if he was really interested. He was not. What to do? I want my child to develop a spiritual side. He knows what his father and I both believe, but I wanted him to find something for himself. What did I get out of church that I wanted passed on to my son? What values did Lee and I have in common from both the Jewish and Lutheran religions? There was the belief in God, kindness to mankind, and love of family. Neither of us felt that you had to go to a certain building to pray to God. I decided that we had to do SOMETHING on Sunday morning other than sleep in or go out to breakfast. So I signed us up for a family bowling league. That's right, we were going to find God in the bowling alley. It's a commitment to the team. It's family time together when we don't really have time to do anything together. We have met all kinds of different people. But most of all, it's fun. I have the same feeling of connection with my family as I did sitting in church. It's part of something. It's not for everyone, but it works for us. I hope that you have found what works for you. Take care!