Jesus, Kids and a Glorious Inconvenience

We have been thinking a lot about our family life and kids and how we  minster to them, this year. We are well and truly over run with little (and not so little) people. So this has posed some logistical questions to family worship time, expectations and the experience of our time together.

image from churchleaders.com

But A and I have persevered with doing family worship after dinner, in a different room ( NB we all have to move which has proven to be a good tactic) with all the musical instruments and more. We have made music together and enjoyed reading the bible and praying.

I am always encouraged to find others who are also thinking about family worship and devotions.

Have I mentioned Seed Family Worship?An awesome new resource in our home – music, sheet music and memory verse printables. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

And our friends in the city who have planted a new church here and are thinking hard about community and family ministry, even while numbers are growing.

Of course my fix of Challies resources always leaves me with work to do, and this was evident in his approach to personal devotions for his kids. He prepares curriculum, weekly. Are you up for that challenge? Kindly he has a free PDF sample on his blog.

And finally, A and were challenged listening to a Mark Driscoll sermon from Luke 18: 15-17 – Children are a Glorious Inconvenience. How does Jesus respond to the children? What does he do and say? Does he grow impatient having to spend time with them? No. Apparently Jesus was fun. Omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. And Fun!!

And often we believe the lies of the world in how we approach parenting and loving our kids.

This is Driscoll.

One of the lies that has been promulgated is that you don’t need quantity time with your children, you need what? Quality time.

Here’s the truth: You don’t know when the quality time is going to come, when their heart’s going to open up, when a situation arises, when they need you. You just don’t know. So you can’t say, “Well, on Tuesday from 3 to 4 p.m., we’re going to have deep, heartfelt conversation.” Alright, you don’t know, so you need to be there a lot, need to be available and attentive. And then when their little heart opens up, love and serve, encourage, instruct, correct, whatever is needed at the moment. …

Now, say, “Where do you get that?” Look at Jesus. This was not, “And now we’re going to do the children’s discipleship lesson.” Jesus is teaching. There’s a big crowd, there’s a lot going on. There’s nothing in the schedule for the kids. But the kids decide, “Let’s go see Jesus.” So Jesus is attentive, he’s present, and he makes them a priority. He disrupts his plans. He allows them to, in the providence of God, interrupt his day, and he makes them a priority.

There’s a great parenting lesson there. The children are a priority. They are a blessing. They are a gift. And that quality time comes sometimes when you don’t expect it. And this was one of those quality time moments between the Lord Jesus and children.

I have so much to learn from this. How about you?