…teach them well and let them lead the way…….

Ok, do you have Whitney Houston in your head now???  Sorry about that but I just thought that if I had it in mine, you should have it in yours!  It has been a while since I have written and I apologize for that.  When I started to think about what the topic of my next post would be I couldn’t get away from kids.  When the Lord began to develop this ministry in our minds we knew we needed to really focus on kids.  We wanted the children that came through our doors to LOVE this place.  We wanted it to be a place that they were excited to come to.  They really are our future and we do not want to turn them off to church at an early age.  So, as the Lord directed, we were able to put together an awesome kids classroom, get some great teaching materials and we also got an amazing children’s education director, Holly Foster.  We are blessed to have most of our smaller kids in the same age range 4-6 which makes the planning a bit easier because they are pretty much all on the same level.

I wanted to share with you what is one of my most favorite things about our church.  For those of you who don’t know, Jamie and I have a four year old daughter Noelle.  She LOVES her children’s church class and literally talks about it all week and sometimes even counts the days until she gets to go back and this momma LOVES that!  The teaching material that the Lord directed us to get for them is by Betty Lukens and it uses a felt board to teach stories.  Yes, you heard me correct, a felt board.  Holly had expressed interest in using felt and we thought it would be great.  We like to kick it old school, what can I say?  The kids really like the felt board, who says you always have to use an ipad?  The great thing about the Betty Lukens lessons is that they teach the whole bible.  So, each Sunday when we get in the car after church we always ask Noelle what she learned about that day in class.  It is so cool to sit and listen to her tell the story and try to decipher what she is talking about. Today she told us that she learned about Joseph and his coat that had a lot of colors on it.  She told us what his brothers did to him and how they tricked their father into believing that Joseph was dead.  Then she said, “and next week we get to hear what else happens to him!” She has also learned about Jacob & Esau and how Jacob put “fuzz” on his arms to make his dad think he was Esau. I think it is wonderful that my daughter is getting a solid biblical base at this age.  Children are so smart and have a memory like no other.  If this point in their lives is a good time to learn another language then why not learn the bible?

The world will try to indoctrinate our children with so many thoughts and ideas that are negative and harmful to them.  We as parents and the church should try everything in our power to fill them with the Truth and do it as early as possible.  I am confident that my daughter is getting that and I am excited about it!  She is not the only child that is excited about her class, we have had other parents tell us that their children love coming to church and that thrills us!  Children’s church should not be just a place that we use as a holding area while we are in church.  We get that 1-2 hours during our service to worship the Lord and to grow in our walk with Him and our children should be doing the exact same thing on their own level.

A big thank you goes to Holly for sacrificing her time to prepare outside of church and for using her time during church to invest in our children.  So many times the teacher goes unnoticed and unappreciated.  It is extremely hard and important work they do and I am so, so thankful for her dedication to our children.  She treats them like they are her own and they love her just the same!

We just finished up adding a nursery to our church, we have two children under the age of 2 four babies coming in 2014.  The next generation, the leaders of tomorrow, are on the way and we can’t wait……….