Serving Children

Let me start off by saying that when I use the term “serving children” I am not advocating that they be used as the main course at a canablistic dinner party. I mean – we should serve God through our service to them.

aussiepottergirl71 recently wrote:
I did some work at the childcare centre today from 12:00 to 6:00, beginning my shift in the babies room, which is kind of like beening in a highly charismatic church where everyone speaks in tongues and cries alot. Then from 3:30pm to 6:00 I worked in the kinder room, which to be honest I actually prefer. However, that’s not to say that I don’t like working with babies, because there are advantages such as they can’t speak and therefore can’t argue with you (though they do try). But the kinder children are somewhat more independent and you can actually for the most part have a two-way conversation with them.

You may or may not know but I work in the Family Ministry at my church. We’re a small church so we have a rotating teacher/assistant schedule. Once a month, my wife and I teach the elementary age kids – I lead, she assists. We use a very good curriculum that is biblically sound, age appropiate and very helpful in guiding us through the study each week. Since not all churches are run the same way, the curriculum is designed to be flexible. Use what you need and omit what you don’t have time for. It works out very well for us since our service is about 1-1/2 to 2 hrs long (sermons run 45-80 mins.)

Now I’m not much of a teacher in that I don’t “love kids“. It’s not that I don’t like them but rather there are some people who just love kids and can’t help but be around them. I on the other hand like them, but am compelled by my need to serve and wanting to give the kids the biblical training I did not get when I was in Sunday School. Case in point – even though I try to follow the lesson very closely, I often find myself getting off track by asking the kids if they understand some theological issue. How can they understand X if they don’t already understand Y. This leads to some strange places.

In the past, we’ve gotten onto topics like how old God is and what Jesus looks like or is speeding a sin and why do we pray. None of these are too unusual or particullarly challenging but recently, I found myself trying to explain a very difficult topic – the problem of evil.

The problem of evil is simply this, if God is good and evil is not good then how can evil exist in a world created by a perfect and sovereign being? It’s not so simple to answer but basically it comes down to this: In order for us to know God fully, we need to understand everything about Him, including Grace and Mercy. If we didn’t have sin in our lives then we wouldn’t know God’s wrath. If we don’t know God’s wrath, then we can’t know what mercy and grace are. So to illustrate this to the kids I had them raise their arms into the air. Then I handed out heavy books and told them to hold them over their heads. Then I told them to hold them out straight in front of them. After a few seconds of this their little arms started to feel the strain so I let them put the books down. I asked them how good does it feel to put down the books. They said it felt real good. That was mercy. Holding the books was God’s wrath and before the books was before sin. I think some of them got it. if nothing else, I felt blessed and I suspect some of them will remember this later in life if not now.