WEEK 5: MARCH 27-April 2
Raised for a Voice
Jesus brings great intentionality to his interactions with children throughout the gospels. This week we turn to the Resurrection of a young girl and reflect on the ways that Jesus gives voice to the young children. We are reminded that Christ has raised us all to have a voice and a part in the Kingdom and that includes the precious children of our own community. Spend some time reading through this Resurrection story and prepare to be encouraged from some of our own children, parents, and teachers.
MARCH 30
Faith of a Child
By Brenda Presser – 1st Grade Sunday School Teacher
In the first paragraph of Robert Fulghum’s All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, he says that wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but “there in the sand pile at Sunday School.” I believe that God gives Children’s Sunday School teachers a snapshot of a moment in a child’s life to impress upon him or her to know how important they are to God and ways they can serve Him at their level. Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:25-26 “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”
For me, teaching children is God’s way of teaching me as I deliver His message through crafts, illustrative experiments, games, praying for one another, and all the other things one learns “in the sand pile at Sunday School.” Teaching is also an opportunity to prepare our children to be involved in the life of the church as they grow in their spiritual journey. Every time an infant or child is baptized we, as Christians and members of the church, make a commitment to the parents and child to help raise the child in the ways of God.
Matthew 18:1-4 says: At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Teaching can be both a blessing and great responsibility, to not cause a little one to stumble by a thoughtless word or deed. One of my greatest rewards is to have my former students come by my room to give or receive a hug or just say “hi!” God’s love is not complicated, if we view love from the eyes of child. Jesus tells us in Matthew 19:14, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Listen to learn and learn to listen:
When was the last time you entered God’s presence as a little child, speaking to him from your heart?
Did you wait for his hug?
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