Our children’s church is named “the Joshua Generation” after Joshua who was taught to follow the Lord by his spiritual father Moses and grew to be a leader in Israel during the time when they entered the land of promise. The name reflects, among other things, our belief that our children will be taught of the Lord by mothers and fathers in the faith and will grow to be strong ministers of the Lord in their own right.
The Joshua Generation program at Shiloh runs from 9:30am to 12:00n on Saturdays. On average 25-30 children, from infant to 12 years old, come together to be taught and led by a team of teachers. The children learn bible stories, worship together, do crafts and have time to play. It is a highlight of Saturday morning at Shiloh to see a band of children marching through our lobby singing and laughing. They are learning about their Lord, they are learning who they are in His sight, they are amazing!
One of the teachers, Diann Smith, herself a teacher in the local school district, wrote me a note about some of her experiences with the children. It might be best if I let her tell the story herself.
…over the last few weeks we’ve been studying Jacob. Saturday we studied the story of his dream from Genesis 28; the story of “Jacob’s Ladder.”
One amazing thing about children is that no matter how prepared you think you are to teach them a lesson, they always find a way to test your knowledge of exactly what you are teaching. As usual, partway through the lesson the questions start coming: Why does the Bible say “ladder” when the picture shows the angels walking on stairs? If Jacob didn’t tell the truth to his dad, how come God still blessed him? How do I know if it’s really God sending me a dream?Good questions, right? It’s in these moments that I’m particularly thankful for the Holy Spirit who brings wisdom. “Well,” I tell them, “all artists see things differently. Each of you could draw a picture of what you think Jacob’s dream looked like and they might all be different!” They liked that answer, one question down…!
As for Jacob tricking his Father, clearly the children had been listening when we taught about honoring our parents from Exodus 20:12. I answered, “God knew what was in Jacob’s heart and was able to look past where he wasn’t perfect.” I had the children read together 1 Samuel 16:7b “…for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Thank the Lord that someone had enough foresight to put that scripture into my lesson notes. So far I was holding my own….
How do we know if God is sending us a dream? Or telling us anything? “First of all” I begin, “it has to ring true in your own heart.” And then seeing an opportunity to teach I tell them. “And then you go to your parents or another adult that you know who has a relationship with God and you have them pray about it with you, and see if He tells them anything about it.” They all agreed that doing this seemed like a good idea, rather than just deciding for themselves.
Diann and the children moved on from the lesson to designing and constructing a paper mosaic of Jacob’s dream. The children decided before beginning the project that the ladder should definitely look like a ladder and not stairs.
As the Psalmist wrote; “Behold, Children are a gift of the Lord!” (Psalm 127:3)
Amen!
- Craig
Posted in Pastors Blog