I have always loved working with and spending time with kids. There's something so special about a child's innocence and perspective on life and faith. If you spend enough time with kids, it's going to change you. So today I wanted to modify a speech I gave a few weeks ago and share with you here three things that kids have taught me. And maybe you too, will be encouraged by what kids can teach us about life. First, kids taught me: Jesus is more important than my to-do list. Now this was something I knew and believed, but I didn’t always live like I believed it. And sometimes it just takes a child to put things back into perspective for you. So quick back story, when I was a teenager I participated in a competition called the National Bible Bee. And if you've been following my blog or writing for any length of time, you've heard this a time or two. I did the Bible Bee for five years, but then when I was too old to compete anymore, I decided to become a host for the local division of the competition. This placed me in charge of mentoring, encouraging, and guiding all the young people signed up under me to participate. I was a host for three years and we always had a predominantly younger group of kids--usually in that 7-10 age category. One of my favorite things to do was talk to these young kids at meetings we would have and go over their memory verses with them. During my second year of hosting, I remember that one of the younger kids really stood out to me because she was so young but she knew her memory verses really well. Her mom told me that she had decided to give up some other things like play time or games that she wanted to do, because she wanted to study her verses instead, since she knew that Jesus was more important. Hearing that about a little girl was just so convicting to me because there are so many times as an adult that I get caught up in my schedule and my things and what I want to do and I can forget... I forget that Jesus is so much more important than anything else happening in my life or anything on my to-do list each day. Let's live more like that little girl, shall we? Letting go of anything that keeps us from wholehearted devotion to God and running after Him with everything we've got--no matter what sacrifice it takes. Secondly, kids taught me: Sing loud. When I was a teenager I helped out a lot with the music portion of the Vacation Bible Schools our church had each summer. That meant I would get up on stage, teach the songs to the kids, and just in general act crazy to make kids laugh. I always loved watching the kids from up on the stage though because they would get so excited for each song, and even if they were doing the motions completely wrong, they would give it everything they had. And oh, did it get loud in that room as all of the kids sang as loud as they possibly could. Now there were some years that I wasn’t up on stage helping. Those years I would sit in the back with the other teenagers and I was a lot more hesitant to do those silly motions and sing crazy loud. After all, what would people think of me? The kids were just excited to be singing songs about Jesus, they didn’t care what people thought of them. But me? Sometimes I can care too much what people think. And sometimes instead of doing what I know God wants me to do, I can tend to hide from it in fear of what people are going to think. This idea that I learned from kids of “singing loud” doesn’t necessarily mean to literally sing loud. Trust me, I'm not going to literally sing loud in front of you. But it does mean to consider what God wants me to do and do it enthusiastically, without fear of what people might think. And now finally, kids taught me: Sometimes it’s a good idea to dance in the mud. If you watch kids long enough, you’re bound to see that kids like messy things. That's just all there is to it. Slime? Kids could play with it for hours. Mud? Kids love to jump in those puddles. It's definitely not my thing at all. I prefer to stay nice and clean without getting in all that muddy mess, thank you very much. But kids love it. They get on those rain boots and they go stomping in the mud puddles and they love it. And they’ve got this joy--this exuberant joy--over even the messy, little parts of life. And that’s a challenge to me. Because there are a lot of muddy, messy pieces of life that I don’t handle with joy. Like when I have a disappointment, or an interruption that makes everything suddenly feel really messy. Or those times when life feels like there’s a lot of rain pouring down emotionally and I feel stuck in the icky places. And it’s in those moments that I would rather complain and sulk in my problems instead of going out and dancing in the metaphorical mud puddles that could get me a little messy. But in that mess? There is joy to be found even there in God’s strength, and sometimes we don’t always see it until we start dancing in the mess and jumping in the puddles. So friend, become more like a child today. And go dance in the rain.
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