Just a Child

 

Children’s Ministry is more than just babysitting. It is more than just keeping the kids occupied and alive long enough for their parents to get “fed”. It is not something that should just be thrown together, taken lightly, or done half-? (well if your southern you know what goes there).

There are a few things that will get this red-head fired up… one big one is short-changing our children. Let me tell you, many of these kids are carrying the weight of the world upon their shoulders. Many of these kids are surrounded by so much artificiality they have no clue what real looks like. They live in a world of hypocrisy and lies like many of us have never known. They live in a world where “reality” tv is scripted and cut and edited and more fake than any sitcom because it is played off as “real”. They live in the land of saying what you need to say to get what you want and never meaning a word of it… and the truth is they know it. They are learning not to trust anyone because so many treat them like they are stupid and unaware of the hypocrisy that is fed them.

I could share story after story… but let me share just one.

A young girl’s parents divorce when she is still pre-school/kindergarten age. Mom remarries and so does Dad. Mom’s new man sexually abuses her. She tells Dad. Dad takes her away from Mom and puts Mom’s new man in jail. Now Mom and new man have young kids. Now little girl who was sexually abused and told what happened is upset because her half-brothers and sisters don’t get to see their dad and she thinks its her fault. Now Dad is supposed to be getting child support from Mom and Mom’s not paying so Dad has Mom put in jail. Now the young girl is upset and believes it’s her fault that Mom’s in jail and she defends Mom to me about how she has has to take care of her little brothers and sisters and just doesn’t have the money to pay for her too. Now Dad’s new woman physically abuses young girl, breaking her bones and clawing her up and Dad tells young girl that he’ll knock her teeth out if she tells what is really happening.

This is just a piece of one child’s story. Just one of many that I have heard. Just one of many that I know about…

And yes this young girl was a church member at a church. So just because a child is “in church” every Sunday doesn’t mean that they do not live in hell Monday through Saturday. We make many mistakes and cause much damage by presuming that all our “church kids” have happy homes.

This girl is just a child.

Just a child and this is the burden she carries.

And we think that sugar coating the wrath and vengeance of our God by convincing her that Noah’s Ark is about rainbows and cute little animals floating in a boat is going to give her the strength to live with this burden.

Just a child?

I sat and listened to this child’s story and then how she said she had no friends at school because she didn’t like to talk because she stuttered and she didn’t want people to know what her life was like…

Just a child.

Let’s get real church.

This child needs to know that God hates the way she has been treated. This child needs to know that God is angry about this. This child needs to know that God loves her with a real love and that His wrath will fall on those who hurt His children. This child needs to know that it is okay to still love this Dad and Mom who have hurt her so and she needs to know how to forgive them and how not to carry the weight of this conflicting emotional turmoil that is tossing within her.

This child needs the whole counsel of the Word of God. This child needs the real Jesus. The One who says “Woe to those…”! The One who has the double edged sword in His mouth. The One who loves hard and stands strong and lives to fight for her.

So children’s ministry stop sugar coating the truth. These kids don’t need a spoon full of sugar to help the medicine go down. Just give them a straight shot. They need healing to get into their veins now. They need hooked up to the iv of truth. Trust me they are getting enough sugar with the lies.

Stop worrying about having to step out of your “comfort zone” when we have a world of kids out there who have no clue that a zone of comfort even exists.

 

 

In The House

I awoke in our new house the morning of August 4th and I came down the stairs and located my Bible and my current spiral notebook journal and walked around the house searching for my new sacred spot…

We slept in our new house for the first time the night of July 29th, but the next morning was Sunday morning, the following day, Mon July 30th began WinShape camps (which I will share about in a separate post). So Saturday August 4th was my first uncommitted morning in our new house.

I was like Goldilocks searching through every room for the spot that was “just right”. I finally settled for our make-shift breakfast table so I could look out the window into the back yard.

I sat down with my coffee and Bible and notebook and I sighed a thankful sigh. It was the morning of August 4th, 2012. The 4th day of our 8th month so Psalm 84 came to my mind… so I opened my Bible and flipped through the Psalms and stopped at Psalm 84.

How lovely are Your dwelling places,

O Lord of hosts!

My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord;

My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

The bird also has found a house,

And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,

Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,

My King and my God.

How blessed are those who dwell in Your house!

They are ever praising You.

Psalm 84:1-4

I read these words from my God and my heart stopped… He always knows.

The journey into this home has been a rough one. It seemed that with every turn the house was trying to be taken away from us. The struggle came because my husband and I were so sure that this was the house that God was giving us… but with every wall that we hit along the way we struggled with our assurance.

Were we wrong?

Was this God telling us “NO!”?

Or was this the enemy trying to keep us from God’s purpose?

This was where our struggle lied. It wasn’t the house per say… but our ability to discern the will of our God in our life’s situations. How hard were we to fight for this house? If we lost this house did it mean that God did not want us to leave our current house or was it just that He didn’t want us moving into the house we had a contract on?

We finally came to the conclusion that we knew that whether we got the house we had a contract on or whether we lost it… we knew we had to leave where we were. Nothing was right about staying. Staying in our current house was not an option. It was time to leave the mountain.

In the end God gave us the home we have had under contract since March.

So when I sat down my first morning opportunity to be still before my God and read

The bird also has found a house,

And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,

Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,

My King and my God.

How blessed are those who dwell in Your house!

 

God had given me my nest. He had given me a place to lay my young. This was indeed His house for us. I knew it the moment I walked in it the first time… and so did my husband and so did our girls. This is where I saw my grand kids coming to visit. This is where I saw our home filled with children that I would lay on the altar of my God. I met my first at WinShape camp last week… her name has been layed on the altar of my God without ceasing since she shared her story with me.

So this bird has found a house. This swallow a nest. This wife and mother a home.

The sacred spot is still in search, the nest is still being put in order, but the new journey has already begun…