Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. Proverbs 22:6
My guest writer is Will Tate, our Grandson-in-law, who
writes about his son, Levi, our great grandson, whose debut in church service
was to open the worship time by opening the Bible. This happened a couple of years ago, and Will
writes:
There is always that one precocious
child at Children's time at church that gives that little more than expected
answer...
Today being All Saints Sunday, Dr. Joyce
Ray Howell mentioned that we remember and honor those in our church who passed
away in the past year. He also noted that this year we had 3 members who
nearly made it to 100 years old. Cue Levi Tate. Without provocation
and clearly on perfect comedic time, Levi looks straight up at Ray and says...
"My daddy is 100."
The congregation fell from their pews in
laughter and the heavenly throngs bellowed with sweet joy. Daddy just
shook his head.
Of course it is hardly necessary to
mention the boy has some “preacher’s blood” surging through his veins and
arteries; preachers are relatively confident about their information, and don’t
hesitate to share it! Levi lacks little
initiative in that department.
Levi and company are regulars at First
Baptist Church of Lexington, NC, and that is in obedience to Scripture’s admonition
to teach the little ones while they’re still little and malleable enough to be
bent towards Christ. It’s a documented
reality that, the older we get, the less likely our hardened hearts become to
repent and commit life and eternity to Jesus.
One of the greatest privileges of my life is to have lived long enough to
have great-grandchildren and pray for them every day that they give their hearts
to the Lord.
(I marvel at how our prayer list
grows. With 9 grandchildren, and 5
great-grands, should the Lord grant that I live another 20 years, I may need a
database just to remember the names of all the family I’m praying will join us
in the Kingdom).
As a pastor for nearly 40 years I’ve had
perhaps a couple of thousand Sunday Children’s times in worship. I’ve had more than a few Levi answers. It used to rattle me a bit when a child got “wordy”
and wouldn’t stop describing everything they could think of (none of it fitting
in the slightest with what I was trying to teach them). But I learned quite a few years ago, to go
with it for three reasons:
1.
That talking is really an excellent sign
that the child is engaged, and opening herself or himself to the ways of the Kingdom
2.
Something that kid says will just about
teach the lesson for the other kids, and my job gets easier when it comes from
one of their peers (and that works for their parents as well, you know)
3.
I realized early on that, when it comes
to controlling a children’s time, you cannot lose what you never had. God is in control, and my job is to be there,
be real, and enjoy the trip.
For You Today
You
chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
Title image, courtesy of Will Tate W Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For other posts on Psalm 63 see: Trained Up and
The Ripple Effect of Church and Passing Along the Faith
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