There isn't a wrong or right answer to the question of letting your child sit with a friend during church services. For us, the answer is almost always a hard "no". I think we've allowed it 2-3 times. And our oldest is 18 years old. 😁
I remember once cousin's were visiting and I knew without a doubt both kids would behave during church. The other time I remember was when a visiting pastor and their family was in town. It was their last service with us so I allowed it. But again, I knew that once the service was starting ,they would both be paying attention, listening, participating in the service, and save chatter for later.
We want our kids focus to be wholly on Christ. Not other people.
From my own experience as a kid and observing others, having a friend sit with you is a natural distraction. Depending on the age and the child themselves, they might soon start to distract a great many others around them with their antics. Even if its only quiet whispers.
My husband is the pastor of our church, so I'm on my own for church training. Having ten kids of my own, I honestly don't really want to have any others that I'm responsible for. 😁 Sometimes I have all I can do to contain my own brood. Generally they all do very well and I only need to take the very youngest ones out for discipleship and discipline. Right now my youngest is 6 months old, so I'm often going out for crying, really loud squealing, or her simply needing to be down and playing.
I want my kids to be still and know God (Psalm 46:10), to sing praises to Him (Psalm 96:1), to know how to talk to their King (Hebrews 4:16), and to love worshipping along side their church family (Hebrews 10:24-25)
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