Jesus Loves the Little Children
Recently Pastor Tim shared the four generation fade with us. 1. Parents don’t make church a priority for their kids. 2. Kids grow up and make it less of a priority for their kids. 3. Those kids grow up and make it no priority for their kids. 4. Those kids grow up with no concept of God. Priorities today, impact generations! As Pastor Tim would say, good folks, it is so important to have your children at church! Jesus loves the little children and so do we here at Pine Valley! I love that when we have revival, so do our kids. And it is not a babysitting play room. It is a revival for children! One of our guest pastors stopped what he was saying and said, there was a children’s revival going on upstairs and we needed to pray for them specifically and we did. That touched me so much because that is so important!
Each year we are blessed to have Sherry Melvin come lead our children’s revival. Mrs. Sherry said Sunday night they started out on a high note with a Disciple Me theme. They learned that Zacheaus, even though he was bad to begin with, let Jesus into his life and it changed him for the better. Stuart the Minion showed up and helped them understand how, in the beginning, he followed a super villain but now he was living for Jesus.
Monday nights, in a kids revival, are usually low in attendance, due to school, but we had good attendance! The kids were excited to learn how to disciple and what that means. Their friend, Stuart the Minion, came back and shared that even with Jesus, sometimes they will go through the wilderness, like Jesus did, but they can make it. Mrs. Sherry said she watched as these children lifted their hands in worship as they lifted their hearts, understanding in their own way Who the Waymaker truly is!
Tuesday night the children learned that Peter was definitely “bananas” as he actually walked on the water to Jesus. But when he took his eyes off of Jesus, he began to sink. They learned they need to keep their eyes on Jesus and not be bananas!
Wednesday night the children learned what the Great Commission is and learned that with Jesus in their hearts, as His disciple minions, they must share the Good News of Jesus. Again the worship of these children was anything short of amazing. While we had a healing service, the children had their own healing service. Mrs. Sherry prayed over each child, individually, praying that God would continue nurturing the seeds of His plan in their lives.
Mrs. Sherry said, “There are so many times as a kids minister you think the kids are there to just have fun and be with their friends. But when a mom tells you that her child chose to come to church instead of ball practice, you know that God is at work doing His thing.” Amen!
I know the children were blessed by Mrs. Sherry, again, but so were the parents and PVUMC! I love that these kids had their eyes closed, hands open or lifted during worship! They were truly worshipping! Wow! It took me a long time to feel comfortable with that! This is so wonderful for our little people to experience because now they are like sponges, soaking it all up! Thanks be to God that they are learning, very early, to connect hearts to Christ and one another! I know Jesus was smiling because Jesus loves the little children!