On the Outbreak of Joy

Posted on July 29, 2015 by America's Keswick in Freedom Fighters

ON THE OUTBREAK OF JOY

Mark 10:14; Matthew 18:2-5; Luke 18:16,17; Hebrews 12:3-17

Two-year-olds are the custodians of spontaneous joy. I work with two year old children in a group called MOPS.

We had a great time! We started off with a concert from the little hymnal called: “Oh Happy Day!” It is my view, if you have a captive audience, you should always sing to them! I have to admit the band was a little heavy on percussion!

Next we had a workshop on “Creating Your Own Bubbles Or A Bubble Is Not Just For Wall Street Any More”

This was followed by a reading of that famous horror story: Humpty Dumpty. There was a lesson to be learned. When you fall and become a broken egg let God transform you into an omelet.

Children need to know where the boundaries are. It makes them feel secure. Going over the boundary leads to the discipline of a timeout. But even the timeout needs to have within it the opportunity for choice. Each person is responsible for their emotions and how they use them. We tell the child: “When you feel you can play without fighting, you can get off the chair.” Sometimes the decision is short and sometimes it takes a while :-). The children need to see God as holy, loving and correcting because he loves them.

We then had a time of parallel play and a snack and then clean up. It made me laugh out loud when I was reminded little children are literal thinkers. I told them to “pile up the big blocks along the wall”. They heard “pile up the blocks” The result was a free-form art piece.

We Church members and parents need to make sure we provide spiritual training for our children. They need to receive Jesus and who will tell them if not us? It is too easy to let the spiritual be crowded out during the week, we must be intentional in this God-given responsibility.  We must equip our children because they are the future of the church.

I love those children, they are an investment in the future and I look forward to sharing joy with them.

Today’s  Affirmation: I’ll let the children see Jesus by my words and actions so they may come to Him. – Pastor Bob Wood is a lover of Jesus and has a prayer and discipling ministry. You can email him at Dgtbob@aol.com

Daily Bible Reading: Psalm 49-50; Acts 20:1-16

Think About This: Jesus had every reason to be proud yet he was humble, and we have every reason to be humble yet we’re proud. —Burk Parsons

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: “Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness And has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord And rely upon his God.” Isaiah 50:10