15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Luke 18:15-17
My memories of church were quite the portrait of this young man in this picture. While all the adults seemed to be engaged (at least the ones that were actually up) me....well....I as dreaming of Wrestling at the Chase, sitting at home eating a cold bowl of Fruity Pebbles or Captain Crunch. If I am honest, my brother, sister and myself HATED going to church. Getting dressed into stuffy clothes, to sit on hard wooden pews, and listen to someone yell at, sing through, and panting through a message was not my idea of time well invested. I look around and if a kid wasn't squirming in there seat they were knocked out cold......because the messages weren't for us. There was no children's church. There were no children's camp. There were no children's workers/volunteers that were purposed there to bring the WORD alive to us.
Between my mom/grandma we were forced, dragged..made to go to church...which made us dislike it the more because it seemed that no one cared we weren't feeling connected to the events there. We actually tried to be disruptive so that they would not make us go, but that backfired. In today's scripture the disciples probably was thinking children, babies, etc don't have a place in the church since their understanding is limited, and so are their attention spans so they were rebuking the parents for even bringing them...much like we rebuke parents who bring babies to a movie theatre.
But Jesus saw things differently. Jesus loved the little children, all the little children of the world......" and he rebuked the disciples and told them don't refuse them access to him, and don't hinder them for the kingdom of GOD belongs to them. I was fortunate, actually my brother/sister were too that a seed of faith was planted in me/us at some point, because of me/us being forced to go to church, but there were some that were allowed to stay at home, or come and go directly to sleep that today....aren't connected to GOD. See if kids aren't fed the WORD of GOD, and introduced (on their level) the relationship to get to know Jesus there may not be a church of tomorrow once we die. This post modern culture came from somewhere.....and I trace it back to those parents who failed to connect to Christ, and since have denied their children CHRIST.
My prayer is that beyond the doors of the church what are you doing to help/hinder your children? Are you praying together with them? Do they even know what prayer is and the importance of it? Are they in a youth group, or do you need to start one at your church? No matter how big, or resourced stocked your church is......they are watching you, and you are the model. I pray you aren't hindering their spiritual development, but rather walking with them. LGLP (especially his children)
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