Church and Bribery

About this time last year I finally convinced my hubby to go to church with me. I begged, I pleaded, I nagged, I griped and somewhere along the way he broke down. I hadn’t thought it would be so hard to get him to go. He was raised going to church somewhere around 3 times a week. His uncle is a pastor. I mean it’s not like he was unfamiliar with the concept of church but I guess he figured with all of the time he put in as a child he no longer needed to go.

He finally agreed though and so we set out with our shiny new bibles every Sunday at 10am. We sang along, we hung out and they gave Joey a Hershey bar. He was thrilled…..that lasted exactly a month. After a month of church going he no longer wanted to get up early on Sunday to go sit in church for 2 hours. I pointed out there was a Saturday evening service. No dice. He just didn’t want to go anymore. I kept nagging, I would plead some more. I’d talk about all the wonderful people we could be meeting and making new friends with.

Finally, I gave up.

Until we drove past Joey’s favorite place to eat last Friday - the Deland Fish House – and I saw a huge sign saying “Now Open on Sundays!” Talk about divine intervention! God came down and gave me a way to get Joey’s butt in church – I just had to wager in a little bribery. So I laid my trap down…

Hey honey?

Yes dear.

Did you notice that sign that said The Fish House is open on Sundays now?

Wow, Really? That’s awesome.

So…I was thinking…

Hmm…of what?

Well – if you’ll come to church with me once a month I’ll take you to eat at the Fish House afterwards. I won’t bug you to go more often either.

Really? That’s a deal I just might be able to live with.

So you see – bribery isn’t always a bad thing. It really will be a win win situation and one which would do us a world of good. I feel like attending church together is really an important part of any strong marriage and if I have to finagle to get Joey in there well – so be it.