Faith Of A Child
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Faith Of A Child
I have met so many children on this trip.
Many of them are kind enough to play with me.
Most will talk to me if they are with their parents.
They easily offer their thoughts on God and their church.
Max is 7 years old. He is taking swimming lessons. Max is missing two teeth and loves to talk.
Max is Catholic. He went to church before he moved to his current home. He does not go any longer. He does not go because he says, “The priests are dumb here.”
I gasped. It was startling to hear him say this so casually. He clearly believed what he was saying. He also did not know there was anything wrong with saying this.
I then laughed and told him that church was about God. I told him that God was awesome and certainly was not “dumb.” I encouraged him to go back to church and find God.
He agreed that God was not dumb. He said that he liked his last church and the priests were not dumb there.
I asked him if he listened to the priests. He said no.
I asked how he knew they were dumb. He said his parents had said they were dumb.
One has to wonder if his parents meant for Max to hear them. Max believed what they said. They may find another church but Max may carry that opinion into his adult life.
Brooke is active in a small church. She is 9 and not a Christian yet. Her mother is a Sunday School teacher there.
She said that she used to enjoy church but now they have a new preacher. She said the preacher is always mad and she does not feel good when she goes there.
I asked how she knew he was mad. She said he yelled and fussed at them. She wishes she did not have to go to church.
Brooke loves bubbles and we had a good time playing with them. She is a sweet spirit and I cannot imagine it helpful for her to sit in church and be yelled at. I also wonder how she will be introduced to a God of Love while being yelled at.
At church last Sunday, I met two young ladies. They were somewhere around 9 years old. They were coming back from children’s church. They came over to thank me for the Angels I had given them just before they left for children’s church.
I asked if they enjoyed church. Both beamed. They love church.
This same church just had a Bible School where 27 children accepted Christ.
Everywhere I went, this church talked about love. It would be easy to meet a God of Love in this church.
Star Dust is 8 years old. She told me to call her Dusty for short. I do not know her real name. She was being a rabbit that enjoys archery. This was the most graceful rabbit I had every watched. This rabbit could run, hop, whirl around, and chase a little brother. She stayed in character the entire time I talked to her.
She just took her first Holy Communion. She said they told her what it meant but that she could not explain it. She likes taking it.
She said that she gets to go to Mass twice a week. On Sunday, the entire family goes together. On Wednesday, her daddy takes her to breakfast and then they go to Mass before school. This time with her father is precious and she associates this time of love with church. She loves church. She loves her father. It will be easy for her to meet our God of Love.
Becca is 16. She is junior in high school and a lifeguard in the summer. She goes to church every Sunday. Her face lights up when she talks about it. Her parents have always gone with her. Her boyfriend goes to the same church.
She said that since 9/11, her church has been full. She lives in New York. She said that 9/11 has sent people back to God. She has a good relationship with a God of Love.
Jesus says that unless we have the faith of a child, we will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus demonstrated his relationship with children while he was here on earth.
“‘I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.” Mark 10:15-16 (from New International Version)
God’s relationship with children is perfect. They do not fight him and they trust him automatically. The children in the Bible wanted time with him. He held them. They felt safe. They may not have the words for what they are experiencing, but their spirits accept His Spirit.
Life on earth can be difficult. Children are hurt much the same way adults are hurt. They certainly seem to deal with things better than adults in the very same situation. We often hear how resilient children are. Might it be because they accept the arms of Jesus without question or even having the words to explain where this comfort is coming from?
I had my first experience with God before I had a name for the experience. I was five years old. I was very close to my cousin. He stayed at my house for much of his life and our relationship was more like brother and sister than that of cousins.
Daily, after school, his grandfather would drop him off at our house. His grandfather drove a dry cleaning truck and our house was on his route.
My cousin moved away permanently without any warning. I did not understand that he was not coming back. I missed him terribly. I did not see him again for 30 years.
After he left, I would sit in the window every day and look for that dry cleaning truck. It would pass and not drop my cousin off. I grieved this disappointment daily.
As I sat in that window missing my cousin, I would stare at the beautiful lot across the street. Peace would come over me. I did not understand the feeling but I liked it. I felt better. It comforted me in a way that my human mother and father could not. Slowly, I healed and stopped grieving.
I sat in that window every day until we moved. I sat there long after I stopped grieving the loss of my cousin. I sat there the day my sweet little dog got killed.
I went back time after time because I liked the feeling that I got there.
I accepted Christ at the age of eight. I did not associate the intellectual understanding of Jesus Christ with the experience in that window. I said my routine prayers in my bed every night but I continued to go back to the window every day.
We moved when I was in 7th grade. I immediately found a window in our new home. By this time, I was reading my Bible in bed and going to the window to pray.
After praying, I would sit and stare. God’s peace would come over me.
I wish I could say that this experience sustained me continually but I wandered away from God in early twenties.
I stayed in church but I lost this sweet closeness. I got involved with life, raising children, and the difficulties of life.
Health problems and other difficulties brought me to my knees.
Once again, I sought this sweet relationship. Realizing how much better my life became with this daily contact, I promised myself that I would seek a close relationship one day at a time for the rest of my life.
That was 23 years ago. I have kept that commitment and I fall more in love with God every day. To this day, I look for windows for my prayer time.
Most adults I talk to can remember a similar experience in their childhood. When we get older, we let so many things get in the way. Many adults may even lose their memory of a God that gently loved them as a child.
Some adults let bitterness keep them from seeking the peace of God.
As adults, we can intellectualize God away.
We choose to accept or reject God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
We can choose how close we want to be.
Jan is an adult. She is very friendly and great fun. I met her while she was waiting on her husband and son to finish scaling a very steep cliff. She had plenty of time so we became friends. She joked that she was convinced that she was going to be a widow before the day was over.
Jan is also deaf. She reads lips and communicates amazingly well. As a child, she was injured playing the game “Red Rover.” She lost 80% of her hearing. She only hears noise now. She talks well because she learned to talk before she lost her hearing.
She climbed the same cliff her husband was climbing last year and will never do it again. I joked that climbing that cliff would make you want to get right with God. She laughed.
She then said that she is agnostic. Her husband is an atheist. She sent her children to church because she wanted them to get exposure. As adults, none of them are interested in God.
I asked if she had always been agonistic. She said she was raised Catholic. She said her priest told her that she would go to hell if she missed church. She rejected church first and God later.
I asked her if she had any kind of personal relationship with God. She said no. She said that she does sometimes get a “God feeling” when she feels the love of friends and neighbors.
She was very interested as I shared my love relationship with God.
I agreed with her that she probably experienced God with friends and relatives. I told her about Jesus saying to love our neighbors as our selves. If she found neighbors that understand that, she could not help but experience God.
She said that her experience was that many could not even love themselves. I shared with her how my relationship with God had taught me to love myself. I talked about the unconditional love of Jesus Christ.
I also told her God was love. She loves her husband very much. They have been married for 27 years. The love of God is even sweeter than that. She does not have to experience God second hand through friends and neighbors.
I asked if she ever remembered a warm sweet feeling that might have been a relationship with God. She thought for minute and said that she had felt that as a young child.
I told her that was what a relationship with God felt like. I told her my relationship grew stronger every day. I also told her that many adults did not associate that experience as a child with God but that I believed that was God introducing Himself to her.
She took my card and agreed to read my website.
What is your relationship with God like?
Are you in awe of God the Father?
Do you burst with praise for this God? Do you see him everywhere? Do you feel gratitude when you see birds, flowers, or a sunset?
Do you delight in your worship of Him?
If not, there is more for you to experience.
Do you know the Jesus Christ that loves you unconditionally?
Does his love fill your life and make you able to love your neighbors as your self? Do you love yourself and others unconditionally?
If not, there is more for you to experience.
Do you have a sweet personal relationship with the Holy Spirit?
Do you wake up in the morning with the thoughts, “I cannot wait to go to my special place and spend time with Him?”
Do you feel His gentle conviction when you make mistake?
Does his sweet peace fill your entire being?
Do you hear his voice and know what to do during your day?
If not, there is more for you to experience.
No matter where we are with God, there is always more to experience. To experience more, we have to get to know him better.
So many Christians miss the glorious personal knowledge of God because they do not spend focused time with him every day.
Find a place that everyone knows is your place. Make it comfortable. Put your Bible, journal, and books there. Eliminate distractions.
“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6:6-7 (from New International Version)
Go to this place every morning. Spend time praying, journaling, and reading your Bible. Sit quietly with God and listen.
Do not miss this time for any reason. It is better than thirty minutes of sleep.
No matter where you are in your relationship with God, if you spend this daily time with him, your relationship will improve. He will reward you. He promised and he will keep his promise.
Throughout your day, find places to pray. Take a moment and whisper a prayer.
Listen to Christian music in your car when you are driving.
Find a church that knows a God that is Love. Be faithful.
Learn to love God with your entire being. There is nothing any sweeter.
He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Luke 10:27 (from New International Version)
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