Letter From God

Easter Disaster

Well, Easter didn’t go as I hoped as far as “Children’s Church” goes. I had finally come up with the idea of focusing on new life and hope with the kids. I felt like that captured the essence of Easter. I wasn’t ready to go into Jesus’ death with my 4 and 2 year old. Plus, Easter is about the resurrection. I had planned to use “tickly worm” (it’s a game between my boys and me). Tickly worm is my finger and often he either tickles them or “tells” me what my boys are upset about. They really like “him” so I thought he would get their attention. I had him (my finger) pop out of a plastic Easter egg, I had hollowed out the bottom. But my oldest simply wanted to grab him and play with him. Tickly worm tried to teach them about God’s lessons on hope and new life using spring but they really weren’t interested. I had a couple of time lapsed videos that show winter melting away and spring blooming but I had trouble getting them on my phone and they really didn’t hold their interest. In hindsight I could have prepared much better but some weeks seem to fly by more than others. It was a tough day to pull this off with all the activities that weekend, egg hunts and sugar. I was in an uphill battle but it was still disappointing. I’m already looking to next Easter to redeem myself.

Struggling to find my way

The following week was another bust. I struggled to come up with ideas all week and finally pulled something together late Saturday night. I’m not sure what was going on with me Sunday morning but I wasn’t feeling very great about the lesson and a few things were going on in the home. Max didn’t seem interested in doing Children’s church and a part of me just deflated and gave up.

I didn’t want this to be something that they were forced to do. I wanted to engage them in a way that would be enjoyable. I know from my background in psychology that when you begin to force these kinds of lessons much of what I value is then lost in the process. But that is a tall order to try and engage a 2 and 4 year old each week. I can right that with a degree of empathy for past weekend “me.”

That night as I put my oldest to bed I brought up my children’s church supplies and did the lesson with him before he went to bed. I wanted to test out what I had prepared in order to see if it would help and engage him.  I thought that it might go better during a quieter environment with fewer distractions. It did go much smoother and it has me thinking about how to go about this, Sunday mornings may not be the way to go?

I started by reading him a letter from God that I thought would capture some of what God would want him to know. He really enjoyed it, I saw his face light up. Then he smiled and asked me if I wrote that “for God.” I loved that question and told him yes.

Then I showed him a little booklet I made with some scenarios and a single question- “What would God say to that person?” I wanted to get him thinking about what God is thinking. So I had a little boy who was alone, a boy who was sad and I a boy who was shy. I loved his answers! But the shy one caught my attention (he’s a bit shy), “God” told the shy boy it was OK to be shy. I found myself pondering that answer for a while. With that one I also brought out a bunch of stuffed animals and re-enacted the shy “toy.” We had the other toys come around him and love him a bit. This had a lasting impression. He wanted to sleep with the “friends” and we brought them around the house with us for a couple of days.

Where do I go from here?

The Sunday morning struggle left me thinking and praying about what I am trying to accomplish. I took inventory of my kids. My boys know about God, they know about love and know they are God’s art….so what does Children’s church entail now? I hate redundancy and rote learning which also makes this a challenge.

I was overjoyed when spontaneously the other day Max said,“I love Mommy and Daddy and Maddox, I love God and the earth.” I’ve also noticed that Max regularly asks questions about God.

Maddox (my youngest) will reference a lesson every so often and randomly start singing “Yes, Jesus loves me.” I didn’t attempt this sort of thing with Max when he was that age and honestly, developing a curriculum that works simultaneously for both a 2 and 4 year old is rather daunting. I’ve kind of just been pulling my youngest in and hoping a few things stick (which they have) but I may need to be a bit more intentional.

So I want to say that I am on the right track and I’m proud of me and my kids but this journey is a difficult one, its challenging. In many ways I feel as if God has been sending letters to me and I’m thankful for the encouragement.