Since the last time I wrote (which was my A>Z of Thanks) I've spent my days trying to be more positive. I can feel a shift happening and I can feel that the more I focus on the positive, the happier I feel and the happier I feel people are feeling when they are around me. I had gotten myself into this negative spiral of being unhappy which was I felt was making other people feel unhappy so I was more unhappy, etc. My usual tact to making myself feel happier is to lift someone else up, do something for them and see them happy - that's what fuels me! So seeing people unhappy and thinking that I was always the cause and feeling like I couldn't do anything to help was de-fuelling me to the max! Little did I know that I needed to start with me and start working through some negativities: Why does it upset me? Can I do anything to make it better? Is it worth worrying about? Being open with myself about my feelings has meant that I can feel happiness a whole lot more and I know a lot more about what will make me happy! That is something that I never want to lose.
Image Source: Google
On Thursday night I sat in the car as mum drove me passed the edge of the beach on our way to visit my sister. This was a spontaneous trip and one that required very little energy (my family are quite forgiving on days when I'm in a lot of pain and have just a small amount of energy, thank you guys!). As we drove passed the sea wall, I pictured what lay behind: A long strip of pebbles that turned into soft, fine sand further down the beach; the sea lapping at the shore line, rolling pebbles back and forth; the sunset reflecting off everything that it could: the sand, the pebbles, the sea, the boats. I couldn't help myself and I exclaimed to my mum 'do you know what I really wanna do one day?!' *pause* 'I want to sit on the beach with some friends as the sun goes down and wait until it's completely dark before going for a swim!' She thought I was crazy, and so did I... until last night.
Yesterday I played golf with some friends to celebrate JP's birthday. We chose the driving the range as the activity for the afternoon.
Photo credit: MT
Following our little golfing experience we headed back to my house for fajitas and profiteroles before we were due to meet more friends at the pub at 8pm. It was here that someone exclaimed we should go to the beach after we've been to the pub. Initially I was not game, I definitely wanted sleep more than I wanted an adventure. But it was JP's birthday after all and he got the final say. The pub gathering was a lot of fun! It was poo-stories-galore! With a nurse and a nursery worker sat around the table with us, we heard of some interesting experiences.
As the pub gathering drew to a close, we said our goodbyes, hid JP's car, and continued laughing as we went our separate ways. For some, they headed home. For the 6 of us, the night was just beginning. The sun had set and the moon and stars were out.
A quick drive down the road, whilst singing along to All Sons and Daughters, landed us at our nearest pebbled beach. There are no words for what happened next! It hit midnight and we went swimming, in the sea! The water was warmer than expected, calmer than anticipated, and more fun that I could ever describe! The only light source, bar a couple of dim streetlamps, was the moon's solid reflection on the water. Thank goodness MS decided not to swim. She grabbed our hoodies and keys as the tide came in and moved them out of the water's path. If you've never been swimming in the sea at midnight, or when it's dark for that matter, do it! Add it to your Adventure List, or your Bucket List, or every single list you ever make. Just make sure you do it one day!
Post-swim selfie
We dried off and drove off, but we weren't going home just yet. We went up onto the hills and sat in the cars, in the quiet. Processing what had just happened and enjoying the calm euphoria that had overwhelmed us all.
Children were born to wonder, to discover, and to be passionate.
w o n d e r, d i s c o v e r y a n d p a s s i o n.
What are the children you are ministering to going to give their heart to?
When they walk away, what do you want to be in them?
When Jesus was asked: Of all the commandments, which is the greatest? He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He then added: Love your neighbour as yourself. Everything is pointing to loving God and loving others, and understanding enough to have a known identity in Christ.
Lead with an end in mind. That children will...
Have a relationship with God. Love others. Know their identity in Christ.
Wonder
Wonder aids faith in a God that can't be seen. A God who is bigger than anything we can face. He is uncontainable. Allow children to know how big He is and how much they can trust Him, without putting Him into an explainable box.
Wonder - Bethel Music
Discovery
Treasure hunt. Children discovering who God is and how He is relevant to them and knowing who they are in Him. Investigating.
Good, Good Father - HouseFiresII
Passion
Links with purpose. They know who they are, what they can do with God and now they want to find purpose in making a difference in the lives of others.
Going On A Journey - Vineyard Records
There is some style of formula that goes with this. A different combination of wonder, discovery, and passion for each age group.
Pre-schoolers: Wonder.
They need to know that God loves them and wants to be their friend. They need to know that they are significant and that God has a plan for them.
Children's ministry: Turn up discovery and add a bit of passion.
Primary school aged children are discovering for the first time what it means to be a Christian through studying stories in the Bible. They are searching deeper for a relationship with God from the wonder they've had since they were small. They are exploring their identity, and we want that identity to be in Christ.
Student ministry: Turn up the passion.
Enabling students to discover their own gifts helps them to grasp their passion to serve and help others. Students won't feel significant unless they have something significant to do: becoming involved in the lives of others, not just knowing the Bible stories well. Everybody is going to give their hearts to something. If we don't establish giving their hearts to serving Jesus then they will give their hearts to something else. We can strive to encourage Jesus-centred worship.
Everyone is searching for a hero. Children and adults alike. That hero is Jesus, the creator. We long to know our creator and, as a human race, we find earthly heroes to step in. These earthly heroes don't even begin to satisfy our hunger for Jesus. Read more here.
We're wired for adventure.
It is up to us as leaders, to look to scripture and God's principles to help children discover their identity in Christ, instead of searching for it in other adventures.
Lots of people believe:
But the bible says:
We long for romance.
The key to satisfying a longing for romance is a relationship with God. Once we have a relationship with God then we have the capacity to love others.
Wonder, discovery, and passion. When we have these leading our children's ministry we impact the message and the way we teach.
When we see children moving in the right direction, not using a bounded model but a centred model, we know we're on the right track. Pushing every child and teenager to a similar destination:
insight wonder
provoke discovery
fuel passion
God the Father | Wonder
God the Spirit | Invading Hearts - Discover
God the Son | Give His Life For All People - We Should Do The Same
Challenge: How much wonder, discovery, and passion is in your heart as a leader?
Do the children see you pursuing the truth? Do they see your passion? Do they see you serve out of duty or relationship with God?
Your relationship with God is linked to how you connect with the children in their lives.
What about having a vision for each children's ministry age group in a church?
What would your vision statements be?
- Helps all ministries to know how they are working together -
w o n d e r, d i s c o v e r y a n d p a s s i o n.
'Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom'
- 2 Corinthians 3:17 (NIV)
Many people spend their time searching for some sense of freedom. Whether that is freedom from an old habit that dies hard, like saying like, like, way too many, like, times, or freedom from something more serious, such as domestic abuse, we all crave it. Even the celebrities among us can't hide their craving for freedom:
From Ariana Grande's need to Break Free and Elsa's wish to Let It Go to Queen's Want To Break Free.
The one question that hovers closely in all of these songs and situations is 'How can I get that freedom?'. Does it come from 'running away'? Does it come from 'drowning your sorrows'? Does it come from 'allowing yourself to feel the pain'? All of these suggestions might well give you a sense of temporary release but they're far from being a permanent fix. What good does it do to run to no place in particular, drink with no intention of stopping, feel hurt for the sake of feeling hurt?
There is an easy answer, a short term struggle might just be your road to a secure, free future: God. Jesus. Saviour. Awesome. Healer. Hope.
Our one true route to freedom is God. We can't take all matters into our own hands, in fact despite how much human nature wills for us to fix things ourselves, God wants just the opposite: for us to rely fully on Him. F.R.O.G. Fully Rely On God. Every issue we face, 'every step [we] take', 'every move [we] make' God is watching us. All He is waiting for us to do is ask Him for help and after receiving His grace, thank Him! That's the hard part, the small struggle, to ask God for help and trust Him. Doesn't sound too bad? It's not, just remember that He loves you, take a deep breath and ask.
I pray that each of you reading this will feel a sense of freedom. A feeling of flexibility and movement, a feeling of peace and understanding, a feeling of love.
I was listening to a pastor of a local church preaching about the parable of the Good Samaritan recently, he gave me an insight into a new way, well new to me, of interpreting the story. He was explaining that the man laid on the floor, beaten and bruised represents our spiritual beings after The Fall. The priest who walks past represents the earthly 'men of God' who may seem as though they are the bridge to God on the outside but they may not be so on the inside. The second passer by, one who was supposed to be all about 'being nice to humankind', did exactly that and passed by. This represents the people who mean to do good in the world but how they fail to satisfy our every need, especially spiritually. The third man, the Samaritan, represents Jesus, a man who came to save us. The oil He poured over the beaten body represents a flow of the Holy Spirit and the wine: the Blood of Christ. When the Samaritan pays the inn keeper to look after the beaten man He says 'until I return' which is exactly what Jesus promised to do: return. Thanks to His death we can be free.
