Just yesterday I was talking with Melissa Anderson, the Director of Children's Ministry at Bethel, about a significant need that we have for volunteers to minister to our children.
This is a need that is almost constant at Bethel, and both Melissa and I are convinced that a primary reason for this is that many (most?) people fail to see the value and joy of ministering to children. This is apparently not something that Jesus failed to see (Matthew 19:12-14), nor should we.
Along this line, as I was browsing through some of my favorite blogs this evening, I was directed to this post at Radical Womanhood:
Almost three years ago, a dear friend of mine passed away in a fatal car accident. She was married and had two little boys, and the months after her death led to an increased desire in my heart to care for her kiddos. I completed my spring semester of my freshman year of college, and sought counsel about it and prayed a ton, which led to an increased burden for the children. God was opening doors and guiding me, and I excitedly decided to take a break from college to take care of Mason (4) and Evan (2) full time. Since then, I've been very involved in their lives, watching them 40+ hours a week and homeschooling them.
Directors and professors from my college asked me why I'd throw away my education and waste my life to care for children. I told them I could come back to school anytime, but more importantly that I did NOT see it as a waste at all. God values life and He loves children, and that, I told them, is what motivated me. I was shocked that people were asking me these questions; I thought everyone had a high view of care for children. But these interactions, which happened more frequently than even I like to acknowledge, made me eager to see God prove Himself to me in this new season, and left me with a passion to somehow reveal the lies of our culture that say the training of and investment in children is unimportant and demeaning. Because I didn’t believe that, and two years later, I still don’t.
Read the whole thing here.
Thanks for sharing, this is a good reminder to how important my job is as a mom and also how important it is to minister to all the children at church.
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