New Community Thoughts

This week New Community was a child dedication and communion service. I have to confess I didn’t have a very good attitude about the evening. I’ve never really enjoyed child dedication services. As expected the place was packed with crying babies, small children making noise and parents embarrassed about it all. I’m sure Mark felt like he was screaming and having to talk over children all night. I thought, well Mark, welcome to the life of a teacher the first few weeks of school.

During the dedications where being done, they showed video images on the screens. They showed DB leaning down talking to a little girl and boy who were probably 4 or 5 years old. Everyone was smiling from ear to ear, including the parents as tears fell down their cheeks. Then God started to paint a small picture for me of how he could use each one of the children to further his kingdom some day. These children will some day be church leaders and the salt and light in their homes and places of work. The impact could be astonishing and here I was pretty much whining because I had to sit through the long process. How selfish I am?!

The truth is I wondered if those children seemed to understand something I had forgotten about. The trust they had in their parents and their innocence seemed to overshadow the fact that they were babies or too young to understand what was being said and done. I guess it just reminded me how we should be in our faith. Here I was coming to God complaining, thinking I wasn’t getting the type of corporate worship I needed. (Any suggestions or thoughts?)

God said, “No Sarah, what you need is a reminder that you are my child and your faith should be like that of these children. You have a classroom of students who need to be invested in just like these parents are going to invest in their children. Are you going to commit to investing in your students like your parents invested in you and all of these parents are committing to do?” As I approached communion that night I was humbled and ashamed I had raised myself to such a high place. Who was I to decide I was more important than celebrating the decision these parents were making? Again, God nailed it on the head.

I don’t really like teaching and had already said this school year was about investing in students. It wasn’t that I had lost that focus; it is more a matter of frustration. It has been hard to balance the teacher and youth pastor sides of things. In some classes I feel like have to play teacher so much the relationships will never develop. In other classes the relationships are there already and it is hard for me to focus on teaching the material because I just want to talk to them about life. The two biggest struggles I’ve decided about teaching in Christian schools is balancing the two roles and pushing students past mediocrity and complacency. And I don’t think there are easy solutions for either one.

Lord, forgive my selfishness, for thinking that I am higher than what I am. Be patient with me, for I find myself in that place far too often. Help me challenge these students to settle for nothing less than what you desire and demand from each of us. Start that lesson with me. Erase my selfish desires and unwillingness to push myself to the next level. Less of me and more of you...