The faith of the very young and the seniors can be equally impressive.
Last Sunday, my hubby and I started teaching a middle school Sunday School class. We had taken a break for the summer while school was out. We had done a little soul-searching about teaching this year. We started teaching middle school when my daughter was in middle school. My son came two years after and now we had two high schoolers.
Was God still calling us to teach young teens or was He calling us to plug in somewhere else? We both felt that we were supposed to continue with the middle school class and on our first class, we were reminded why.
We had been talking about how every person is special to God and that when we let the opinions of other people who label us as good, bad, popular, nerdy, etc…, matter, we take our focus off of God. His thoughts about us are the only truths that matter. We also talked about how when we label others with those same labels, we are criticizing God, who created everyone. Do we really feel qualified to do that?
One of the girls said, “Well, not when you put it that way.” Score!
We also talked about being a Christian, and the same thirteen-year-old, shared that her best friend admitted to not being a believer and that it upset her so much that she spent an hour trying to convince him otherwise. She shared that something inside her just couldn’t let it go.
I told her that she was listening to the Holy Spirit. She hadn’t really thought of that.
Therein lies the beauty of working with middle schoolers and young believers. They are passionate about their faith and they want others to be as well. They are actually concerned about their friends who aren’t Christians.
Most of us lose that deep conviction along the way. We grow up. We have families, and bills to pay, and groceries to buy, households to run, meals to cook, and so much uncertainty. We still believe, but we are so busy and tired. It may concern us that our neighbors or friends aren’t Christians, but certainly not enough to discuss it with them for an hour. We might be labeled as judgemental.
But, this teen girl was truly worried about her friend. She witnessed out of love, not out of judgement or condemnation. The love makes all of the difference.
My hubby and I talked about it afterwards and we were so impressed with her tenacity. Have you ever noticed that the seniors and the very young in the church, are often the most open about their faith? One group believes because they have no reason to doubt due to the fact that they haven’t done much living yet. The other group believes because they have been through the fire and have had the privilege of seeing God at work.
Those of us in the middle could learn a lot from both of these groups. We could slow down and breathe. We could worry less and trust more. We could pray about everything and listen to our hearts more.
Who knows what our world would look like if we did?
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂