Children

There's a couple of things on my heart that I feel like I need to share. The first is a quote by Anne Geddes. She says, "The question I am most often asked is, 'Why do you photograph babies?'" Her answer was recorded in a book about the beauty of pregnancy called "Pure." The following is one of the most moving things I've ever read.

"Yet children are not only our hope for the future. By their very existence, they will be our future. And yet we so often take them for granted, or underestimate their essential importance. We need to take care of them now, educate, nurture and love them now, teach them the values of harmony, love, understanding, tolerance and an appreciation of other cultures now. Because now is the time to lay the right foundations for their future."

The second is that I can hardly read this without weeping.

It is the reason that I desire to carry my own children. The reason I want to adopt a child without a home and without parents to nurture, love and lay the right foundations in their precious little hearts. And it is the reason I am a Children's Ministry Director at Seacoast in Greensboro.

There is so much passion in that statement and so much appreciation for the weighty task of caring for children that it brings tears to my eyes. I beg God to let me carry that weight to please Him. Because the most important task is not teaching them appreciation of cultures or even about harmony or love; it is reaching out to children to show them the heart of the Lord.

My Savior began to draw me to himself when I was a very small child. I remember pieces of Scripture, songs from Sunday School and lessons about what an awesome and powerful God He is and how much He loved me. I remember feeling how special it was that He knew me. He really knew me. He knew the daydreams I had in my head. He saw my imaginative little brain working 24-7. He knew that if I was playing, I was playing pretend... even if my friends didn't know that. He knew I wanted pink carpet in my room and was so happy when my parents put it in for me. He knew how much I loved my family, and how thankful I was for a little sister to play with. He even knew the number of the hairs on my head. (I remember trying to count them myself when I was in early elementary school because I thought, surely I should know myself!)

The point is that I could understand a lot more about the Lord than I think that kids do now. I have to sit back and remember how much, as a child, I did think about God and how much I wanted to know Him, how much I was curious about Him. Kids really do observe and retain information well. And I lose sight of that sometimes.

So, my heart and soul is out on my sleeve here. I love my Jesus. And I am called to love the children that come across my path and to help show them that Jesus loves them. No matter what happens. No matter how busy I am. Galatians 6:9 says: And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. This is a great reminder that even when we are busy or stressed, that the Lord is with us in it! We're not alone, we just need to persevere! Pick ourselves up and keep running.

Remember this week when children come into your path. One day they'll be running things. They will be our doctors, teachers, pastors and counselors. Missionaries, plumbers, executives and parents. Don't we want to show them the love of Jesus? They are incredibly teachable right now, so lets teach them the right things.

Mark 9:37 - Jesus said, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."

Luke 10:2 - "These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields."