9 Things You Should NEVER Do in Church (And 3 Every Mexican Mother Made Us Do)

The heavy door. Every church has one, and every one makes the same sound, and every person in the building hears it. Somebody is late. The readings have started. That door goes, and the whole church turns its head half an inch without meaning to, and a family comes down the side aisle in a line with the mother mouthing sorry, sorry, to nobody in particular. My mother would rather have died. We were never once late to church in my childhood, and it was not because we were an organized family. It was because she believed, all the way down, that you do not arrive at God's house the way you arrive at the store. She had a rule for everything else too. Nine of them, enforced with the same arm she used for everything, and three things she made us do that I did not understand for thirty years. In this episode of The Mexican Mother's Bible, Bertha gives you what videos on this subject almost never give: not just the list, but the reason behind each one that actually makes sense. Her mother never once said "because it is the rule." She always had a why, and every one of them turned out to be in the Book. THE NINE: • Arriving late and walking the aisle. "Guard your steps when you go to the house of God." (Ecclesiastes 5:1) You enter. You do not sneak. • Leaving right after communion, the parking-lot exodus. The last thing Jesus did on earth was lift His hands and bless them, and then He left (Luke 24:50). The blessing is the goodbye. Leave before it and you took the food and skipped the part that goes home with you. • The phone. Not silencing it. The glow, visible from three rows back. "Be still, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10) • Gum. You do not chew at a funeral and you do not chew at a wedding, and church is both every week. • Talking in the pew. "The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him." (Habakkuk 2:20) • Shorts and tank tops, with the caveat said first: "the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). This is not about modesty or money. It is about what the clothes SAY to the room, and Jesus told a whole parable about it (Matthew 22:11-12). • Hiding in the back row, said gently, and not to the ones with a real reason. "Let us draw near." (Hebrews 10:22) The back row is where you sit when you are deciding whether to stay. • Skipping the greeting. That moment in the service is built out of Matthew 5:23-24: "first go and be reconciled." Turn around. Especially toward the one person you would rather not. • Dragging the kids out at the first cry. Jesus "was indignant" when the disciples tried to keep children away. "Do not hinder them." (Mark 10:14) That includes hindering them out the side door because you are embarrassed. And to the person turning around to look: you are why she is leaving. THE THREE SHE MADE US DO: • The bendición at the church door, one child at a time, on the steps, while people walked past (Psalm 122:1). • Your best clothes. Not expensive. Best. "We did not have money, but we had an iron." • Greeting the abuelas after. Forty-five minutes of being kissed and told you had grown. "Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God." (Leviticus 19:32) In one sentence, as if they were one act. And she holds back what all twelve have in common until the end, because it is not what you think, and it is a mirror, not a list of rules. Stay to the finish. "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." (Hebrews 10:24) 💛 A gentle word: not one of the nine is a sin. God is not offended by your gum and He is not keeping a list of who walked in during the first reading. He has seen you in your kitchen. Nothing you do in a pew will surprise Him. If church has started to feel like one more place you have been doing it wrong, let me lift that off you. The nine were never about God. They were about the person three pews back. I am not a pastor. I have no letters after my name and no pulpit to stand behind. I am a mother with a worn Bible, passing down what was passed down to me. Everything here, go and check for yourself. Do not take my word for it. Take His. If one of the nine caught you, please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE so it reaches another family before Sunday. God bless you, mija. 📖 Tell me in the comments which of the nine caught you. Be honest, I already know it was the phone or the parking lot. And tell me what YOUR mother enforced, because every Mexican mother had a rule I did not list: the sitting up straight, the no crossing your legs, the kneeling all the way down. Tell me your county too. I read every one.