Let the children come to me, and don't
try to stop them! People who are like these children belong in God's kingdom. Matthew
19:14 CEVJesus loves children. In the story above Jesus lets his disciples know they are not to stop the children coming to see and spend time with him. That same message is as true today as it was 2000 years ago. As it says in Psalm 127:3, "Children are a gift and a blessing from the Lord."
What opportunity do today's children get to spend time with Jesus - with God? What opportunities do they have to develop their spiritual selves?
So often I hear the old cliché - 'I will let my children make up their own mind when they are older'. This is so much rubbish. Do we do this about anything else? Do we say, 'I will let them choose whether they will learn to read when they are older' or ' I will let them choose to go to bed when they are older'.
No!
So why do we do this with their spiritual development. Sure they can make up their minds 'how' to express their spirituality when they are older, just as they will choose what they will read, but in the mean time they need to learn some basic information and skills.
How do we
express our spirituality? Did you know that 'The Simpsons' are considered to be the
secular programme with the most Christian content on television. When it comes to our
spiritual selves are we a Homer, a Marge or maybe a Ned Flanders? However we choose to
express our spirituality - we need to be intentional about it with our children. We need
to make choices. We have an extremely vulnerable generation - a lot of whom have no
concept of a higher power - let alone a knowledge of a God who loves each one of us
unconditionally. Who loves us so much - he became human and died for us. We have in the
person of Jesus Christ an extremely loving God that wants to be in relationship with each
one of us and we need to know how to respond to this. We can talk to Jesus in prayer and
through music. We can learn more about Jesus and how to build this relationship from each
other and from reading the Bible.Let the children come to Jesus - these children belong to God's kingdom.
Arohanui
Heather