Daily Devotions

This is not to say that it is so important to do your devotions. Or to say to you that I myself do devotions each day. I maybe do them twice a week in a good week. (see my next edition of chronicles of the crazed children's pastor) :)

I was reading Oswald Chambers this morning, My Utmost for His Highest. If you don't realize it already, today is Leap Day, The only February 29th that we will have for another 4 years. Needless to say, given my inconsistent patterns of "daily devotions" and the likelihood of having done them on February 29, I found something that was simply profound in my reading.

I read with interest the devotion of the day in Chambers' book, "What Do You Want The Lord to Do for You?" In this segment, he reference Luke 18, where Jesus healed a blind man. The author referenced the limitations that we put on Christ based on our own presupposed ideas of what God may find as a priority or significant enough to consider.


One sentence however, really jumped out on me:

The agony we suffer is only the result of the deliberate shallowness of our
own heart.

WOW, I really hadn't considered that. In our limited finite being of self we are truly incapable to put those kinds of limits on God. We have not be cause we ask not. (James 4:2)

Just think what could happen in our lives and our minsitries if we simply let God be God and remained solely an instrument of His choosing. The results could be astounding.

The best things in life....

are never free.... they take dedication, sweat, tears. Fears of failure, and faith in God to surpass the fear.

Today I have had some of the most rewarding and hard experiences of my life in children's ministry. Both of which really didnt involve the children I work with. It involved parents.


There is a girl I sponsor in a christian program. I love her like she was a part of my own family. She isnt a child. She is a young adult. I have known her as a teenager, college student and now a young adult. Her parents have served in our church. I recently had the priviledge in supporting her as she shared with her parents some of the growth she has experienced in the program, and tonite I received such a beautiful email from her mother today thanking me. The truth was, that was one of the most nerve wracking things I have ever done in ministry service. I was scared out of my skin the whole time. But God went before us and carried us the distance that we needed to span. To Him be all the Glory.

Today I also had the opportunity to support a parent with a child who is ill. I was not sure how I could offer any support. I am not a pastor: merely a children's director but somehow God gave me the words she needed to hear and we cryed and prayed together. God is so faithful to us.


The best things in life are never free, but God is there in all of it. I surely felt that today as I served my church family. Thank you God for always being there when we need you, and also when we think we don't.

I was just thinking about how blessed I am to be able to serve in such a way that uses so many teaching styles and is so much fun. Despite so many hurdles to jump, I can't think of a better thing to do or a better place to be. Children's ministry is the thing to be do on Sunday morning.

the Hard Work and Heart Work of Children's Ministry

I thought to myself recently how things that happen in Children's Ministry to children's ministry leaders are SO unique to children's ministry experience, that I thought it might be good to find others to share in it with me. Sometimes the humor in it all is so funny that no one else could really even believe it unless they too were in children's ministry. Sometimes the responsiblity of reaching kids and families for Christ is so embattled by the circumstances, it feels overwhelming.

I had a friend once say that children's ministry is the hardest ministry in the church, and I would agree with that. Keeping track of wiggly kids with food allergies and special needs, and volunteers that come and go, parents who depend on us for the spiritual upbringing of their kids (whether or not that is good is another discussion) and then the simple business of running such a detail focused ministry can all become so burdensome.

On the other hand, children's ministry is so rewarding. The free smiles and hugs that come with each Sunday. Hearing the fervent prayer of a child. Seeing the fruit of a changed life. Experiencing the beauty of a child's tender heart. Seeing God change families through the children. The miracles of Children's Ministry are too many to count.

Does God take joy in Children's Ministry? Does He value what so many individuals pour their heart and soul into? I would say a certain "YES". Jesus left what he was doing to heal the daughter of Jairus. God spoke breath into the Shunammite's son. He allowed children to come to Him when the disciples turned them away. God called to Samuel in the night. Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. Yes, God does delight in the hearts of children.

Tomorrow, delight in the hearts of the children that God brings to you. He knows the plans that He has for each of them, their families, and He has ordained you for that moment to share in a part of that plan.