Good morning who love children like God does
(By Adrian Dennien)
As a pastor I’ve always cared about the children in my church. I would get our kids up the front and pray for them at the start of the year, I would tell our kids leaders how important kids ministry was and that our kids were our future and needed to have an encounter with God and learn His word. I would even share stories of my own experience in children’s church and how that was where I had first had a personal touch from God.
But I still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing. I felt like I couldn’t get across how I really felt about our kids getting hungry for God and serving Him for the rest of their lives.
Then one night recently I went over to a family’s house to have a meeting about the kids ministry at church. Their 10 year old son walked into the room and I remembered that another parent in our church had recently told me that one of the reasons they were with us was because this 10 year old was such great friends with their own son. I thought I would tell him this to encourage him, and as I did, I will never forget the small but ever so meaningful smile that came across his face. I could tell that I had just made him feel like a champion. I looked at his parents and could see the proud looks on their faces too: their son had just been encouraged by the pastor.
We discussed a lot that night but I have a feeling that the biggest impact I made was my simple encouragement to a 10 year old boy.
Since that encounter I have tried to emulate Jesus in showing that children are just as important to Him as adults (Matthew 19:13-15).
Maybe in your life it is easy to forget about the little kids running around us while we try to get stuff done. Why don’t you make an extra effort this week to do what Jesus did and make time for them. Whether it’s your own children or others, you may never know the impact your input into their lives will have