The present generation of children are being neglected. The education system has been declining and continues to do so. The amount of children placed in daycare facilities is on the rise while the quality of care is quickly dropping. Parents are neglecting their children and handing them to anyone who will take them off their hands for a few hours. Consequently a few children manage to find themselves in churches on Sunday mornings. However, just as education and childcare quality rates are declining, so is the children’s ministries in churches. These young children find themselves among many others for a poorly presented last-minute lesson or worse yet, a secular produced video to teach them ‘good morals’. These young children in our churches are just as much part of the church as the elderly who have been there for eighty years. We should not place any less value on the young members filling the church. Quite probably they are not the highest givers of dollar amount, however the principle displayed in Luke 21 on the widows mite should cut off any misplaced importance. Luke 21.1-4 says, “And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.” The Lord cares about motive and I would have to think that often the children of the church have a much more innocent and pure motive in their heart than many of the adults. “But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16.7) God does not see children as any less of a life to be used for Him than any adult. Man looks at how much they still need to grow, but the Lord looks and sees their softened, moldable, and zealous heart.
According to a recent report by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA), 63 percent of the nation’s children under five years of age are in some type of child-care arrangement every week; and most parents assume such programs are regulated to ensure the health and safety of their children while in reality, that is often not the case. In 2011, 32.7 million children were in childcare outside of the home. What does childcare have to do with children’s ministries? Actually, a lot. These are where the children in our churches are coming from; the lives they are living outside of the church doors. Evolution saturates subjects being taught to the children; sex education classes are required starting at 5th grade, though some receive it earlier; the principals being engraved in their hearts are contrary to what the Bible teaches. According to the NACCRRA, the quality of care a child receives during the first five years of life is critical because 90 percent of brain development occurs during those years. Psalms 127 says, “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.” Children are easily influenced when young, but what is taught to them while they are young, they will carry with them throughout their life. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3.14-15) Someone will reach this generation of children. If we do not, the world will. The world is adamantly after them, we must fight for their hearts and teach them the truth before they believe the lies being swung in their faces. Children will believe someone, but they cannot believe the truth if they are not taught it. Titus 2.4-8, “That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children…Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded..” Deuteronomy 6.7, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” Isaiah 54.13, “And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” Children must be taught. Children must be taught while they are young. Ecclesiastes 12.1, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;” They have their entire lives in front of them to serve the Lord. The earlier we reach out to their hearts, the more heavily they came become involved in the service of the Lord. We need to start thinking about how to better minister to them in the nursery, not when they are in their senior year. While they are young, their hearts are soft and their faith is simple, yet great. The majority of people who get saved are young children. We must be planting the seeds of the gospel in the young hearts before that time has passed. We must invest in their lives and plant the seeds of Christ’s love and the truth of God’s Word so the roots will have time to grow deep so when they do reach their senior year of high school, it will be impossible to uproot. We must be adamant about planting the seeds of the future in the church of today. 2 Corinthians 9.6, “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
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Lizzy parkerMarriage.
Motherhood. Ministry. Missions. Archives
January 2023
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