As a church, we’re really only one full week into our Season of Seeking Him, but those of you doing the study and Bible Quest before you hear the sermon will be looking for Week 3 starting tomorrow.  So, here it is!

Seeking Him for Kids – Week 3

I know God is at work in our church – I can see it in our leadership and the people I interact with.  I know He is at work in me – to be honest, there were times this week I was feeling emotionally winded from all the things God is working with me on.  I also have great desire to see God at work in our kids… in my kids!

How do we keep track of the spiritual state of our kids’ hearts? Weekly (or daily) evaluation of their behavior?  Their willingness to pray at dinner or bedtime?  Making sure they have the right answers on their Bible Quest? Pushing them to have the most verses memorized? Conversations about what Christ is doing in my life and theirs?  If you’re wondering when I’m going to give you the right answer, it’s not going to happen.

I can in no way for sure know the state of my daughter’s heart, but I can see the fruit and the work of the Holy Spirit.  He is moving in my daughter and speaking to her heart and it is amazing!  More and more these days I find myself asking, “What am I teaching her?” In words to her, to myself, to my husband, to God, to the annoying driver in front of me…I am teaching her.  In my actions towards her, my husband, others… I am teaching her.

This week my 7-year-old said something that floored me – and she said it twice!  Sunday morning in church, she was trying to figure out what to do during our time of worship and personal reflection.  I suggested to her that she should do what the adults were doing and listen to what God had to say to her.  The whiny, defiant response back was, “But, Mom, I’m just a kid!”  Ack!  Where did she learn that?  I took that moment to tell her the same Jesus that lives in my heart lives in hers, too, and she can hear Him.  She came away from that service with some very awesome notes of encouragement written to friends as well as some truths about her and God written and drawn in pictures.  These were things not said from the pulpit or by the worship leader.  I haven’t told her this yet, but I am convinced that was the Lord speaking to her heart.

Later in the week, we were trying to work through some hurt feelings she had, but there was so much fit throwing, it was hard to get anywhere.  I again encouraged her to ask God to search her heart (Psalm 139) and He would show her what was going on.  Again, she reacted harshly with the words, “But, Mom, I can’t! I’m just a kid!”  I again said, “No! God can speak to you.”  There was a continuation of the emotional upheaval she had been displaying and then it just stopped.  She said in a calm voice, “Oh Mom, I didn’t know what it was before, but now I do.  I am angry because I haven’t forgiven those kids.”  I don’t know if I could count on one hand the number of adults I’ve heard say something like that. WOW! I was stunned, amazed, thankful, in shock, speechless, crying, … you get the picture.  We prayed later that night to forgive those who had hurt her.  Then she prayed and asked Jesus forgiveness for yelling at me in anger (her words, not mine).  Now I was asking, where did she learn this stuff?? And how do I encourage it?  I’m not sure.  I know I don’t remember teaching it.  But, I do know one thing for sure:

My daughter, who is “just a kid”, was spoken to by the living God.

I don’t know where she got the lie that because she’s a kid, she can’t hear from God. But, we’re breaking through that with truth!

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.        ~ 1 Timothy 4:12

I am now praying that God would give me a heart of forgiveness like He has given my daughter.  I’m praying that for our whole church.  And this is just the first week!  I can’t wait to see what God has in store for our church and our families!  I’m holding onto His promise that those who seek will find!

As we begin this third week of Advent, many of us have Christmas parties, school projects, class parties, teachers’ gifts, baking, shopping, etc., etc. on our list of to-do’s. I know I am looking forward to a break from school where my daughter will be home all day long!  We can really get into more Christmas preparations and spending lots and lots of time as a family.  Celebrating Advent has been a really good time to not let us forget that we are to be preparing for the coming of the Christ child, not just a bunch of parties.  I have enjoyed our times of singing as a family as well as the great discussions I’ve had with my daughter.

Here is this week’s devotion:

(Light the first and second purple candles and now also light the pink candle.)  On this third week of Advent, we also light the Shepherd’s candle.

Read Luke 2:8-20.

When we light this third candle, we understand that, like the shepherds, we can come to Christ, believing He is who He says He is, and tell everyone of the things He has done.  After being told by angels what had happened, then seeing it for themselves, the shepherds could not contain themselves.  They went around telling everyone what they had seen and what they now knew.

Sing “Angels We Have Heard on High” as a family.

My thoughts on shepherds…
This evening, I had the privilege of attending a huge Christmas production at a church in Tucson.  They had a live nativity that was put together as a choir beautifully sang about Emmanuel, God with us, and worshiping Christ the King.  It was incredibly moving, but as I was driving home, I was pondering why it moved me so much.  Was it just the music?  I know that have a soft spot for good choral music.  Then I started thinking about the shepherds.  Much like choosing the lowliest of towns to have the King of Kings enter the world (see last week’s post), God also chose some of the lowliest people to welcome His Son.  I pictured in my head this ragamuffin group of stinky sheep-herders sitting around picking their teeth, listening to the bleating of sheep and each other’s snores when God’s messenger appears to them and gives them the calling of a lifetime.  “Go to Bethlehem, find a baby wrapped in rags, in a feeding trough, in an animal shelter.  Seriously.  This baby is God’s Son, the Messiah, Christ the Lord.”  Then the most amazing choir ever heard bursts from the heavens singing the glory of God.  This is the kind of calling you do not ignore, so they get up and go to Bethlehem and check it out.  They discover it’s all true and they go and praise God, giving Him glory, telling everyone what they had seen and heard.  They were a little excited… and who wouldn’t be in that situation???

Then I had this thought:  The first people called to worship Christ the Messiah were a bunch of stinky animal herders.  In order to obey their calling, the lowly came and made themselves lower by bowing to a baby… a BABY!! lying in the dirty feeding trough of an animal.  And then they went out telling people how awesome God is!  There was no Pharisaical attitude of being the ones called.  No! This was about God, come in human form, fulfilling the promises He had been making for centuries.  I was reminded of a prayer that a dear friend and mentor recently wrote:

O my God, Your word fulfill.
I surrender.  Do as You will.
Break what must be broken.
Kill what needs to die.
Be my Resurrection and my Life.
I go low, beneath You hand.
Kneeling is the only way to stand.
I am Yours.

As God calls us in our own lives, how do we respond?  Do we respond my making ourselves low?  Or do we demand of God “What’s in it for me?”  Do we recognize our own stinky, sheep-herderness and yet make ourselves low under God’s humble throne?  Jesus didn’t come with trumpet fanfare to regally ascend to an ornate throne of earthly power and wealth and might.  He came humbly to a carpenter family, to an animal-trough throne in a rinky-dink town, to a bunch of stinky shepherds as a completely helpless baby… and He calls us to humble ourselves and follow Him.

THIS is why I love Christmas.