by Michiana Covenant | Sep 25, 2016 | Ginger Wallace, Women's Ministry
This is the question in the minds of many parents of small children as they struggle to parent in the pew. The answer to this question is pretty simple: those parents were YOU at one point. Those children were not born quiet and obedient!
A child’s natural, normal behavior is somewhat like a puppy: everywhere at once, peeing in the wrong places, chewing on the wrong things, barking/talking at the most inappropriate times! And in a similar way, it’s about training, lots of training. And lots of wondering if it’s even worth it…
The difference to keep in mind that it IS worth it, because they were created in the image of God and were baptized into His family, children can praise their Father, they can glorify HIm!
We are created in a beautiful way. Created in the image of our God! But tainted by SIn–But Redeemed by the blood of Jesus! This “sin” thing really messes with us, it twists something beautiful into something messy and hard–for right now. It confuses us and makes us doubt that we can change–or that our children can change. But remember that the promise of deliverance is for you AND your children. And that God gives His Word to all of us for knowing Him, for understanding Him and for Enjoying Him.
A few years ago, I was still struggling through toddlers beside me in the pew thinking ”What’s the point here?”. Why should I have my kids who don’t understand any of this in Worship with me? “Why am I in Worship?” I had conversations with friends, I listened to sermons (well, parts of sermons…I still had to leave during the service for kid-related reasons) and the thought came to me, “We come to hear the Word, we come to know and love God, to respond to His love to us with voices of confession, of thankfulness and of Praise.” All the rest, the sitting still, the snacks/no snacks, the Do-you-really-need-to-pee-or-do-you-just-want-out, the to spank or not to spank, all this was not the point, the point was, “These are children of God, the way that children learn and grow is to hear their Father’s voice so they can be like Him–so they can see His Power, know His love, feel His Grace.”
I actually like to imagine that we are all gathered (ALL the saints–not just MCPC) in a big yard, we are in the sunshine that is perfectly tempered so that each is comfortable, and we are seeing Jesus and hearing His voice. And we don’t want to be anywhere else.
“Yet you are He who took me from the womb, you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.” Psalm 22:9
So here is a thought, if we can focus right now on listening, on hearing the Word — the Word will change us. It will change our children. Our job is to teach them to Listen. God’s job is to change their hearts. When your child talks during the sermon, motion to them to quiet their mouths, and Listen with their ears. (No one can really listen while they themselves are talking…!)
When the congregation is singing, or otherwise responding verbally to God, ecourage your children to do so as well. Expect it of them. We ALL do ALL of this together, corporate worship IS worship together.
If you are going through a time in your training where yor child is having difficulty restraining their tongue, then there are mutiple options available: You can take your child out of the service to speak with them about “listening, not talking”– and then return to service (the Quieting Room works well for this), or you can make use of the Training Room so that you can train your child in a setting that allows hearing of the Word for you/your child, but also keeps your childs voice confined to that room. While we want our children to worship with us and to hear the Word. We also want to be considerate to the rest of the congregation and enable them to hear the Word as well!
And remember: we are all doing this together. Ask those other familes, “How did/do you do it?”. Ask for assistance for during the service. There are teens/families who would love to sit close by to help as needed. I used to have a friend sit with me every Sunday, she would hold the newest baby, and I could train the toddler. This is what family does. We walk through this together.
by Michiana Covenant | Dec 10, 2015 | Women's Ministry
A Facebook post from Rachel Jankovic (12/9)…
I can’t imagine that in 20 years when my kids get together they will look back in joy on the year Mom finally figured out a way to keep the snow clothes tidy. A bunch of adults sitting around, “Remember that year when everything was clean before Christmas? That was the best! I hope we can do that for our kids this year!” Somehow doesn’t ring true, does it?
It is as though when I become stressed about the home, my kids don’t become stressed about the home- they become stressed about me, and any joy a clean home would have given gets swallowed up in that. But when I lay that all aside and rejoice in the mess, in the kids, in the crazy boxes that don’t stop coming from Amazon- my kids rejoice in all that their hearts want to naturally, and in me too.
The kids will remember the diving into new Lego sets and not the little plastic baggie carnage and the random tiny ninja swords that show up everywhere. They will remember eating candy canes without a care and not the tiny shards of stickiness after. They will remember a home full of excitement, and joy, and anticipation over the birth of our Savior. And I hope they remember their mother, in the middle of it all laughing. With a mad baby in the Ergo, trying to pick up laundry with her toes and wrap gifts with her teeth. I hope they remember a Merry Christmas! All of it!
by Michiana Covenant | Nov 18, 2015 | Women's Ministry
By Lindsey L. Tollefson (FenleyFlat)
When Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, saying, “Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.”
Jesus saith unto him, “I will come and heal him.”
The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.”
When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, “Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
And Jesus said unto the centurion, “Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the same hour.” (Matthew 8)
I often hear faith equivocated with being bold, with putting everything on the line and not being afraid to take risks. I hear people talking about faith as a lack of worry when things aren’t looking so great. I hear of faith as a reassurance in your heart and soul that you have been bought with His blood. Faith has many facets, and faith manifests itself in our stories in many different ways. In His interaction with the centurion, Christ gives us another angle on faith that many of us miss. The centurion tells Christ if He will just say the words then his servant will be healed. How does he know this? Because he understands authority and submission and obedience, and he believes that Jesus is God the Creator, which means that Jesus has authority over words and bodies and “the palsy”. Jesus says this is the greatest faith he has seen in all of Israel! It is so easy to skip over the centurion’s explanation of his own ranking in the military line of authority and think that his faith is praised because he believes Christ is a healer. But that is not what is happening here. Jesus praises the centurion’s faith because the centurion understands authority, and he understands that if Christ is in authority of heaven and earth then His words cannot return void. He merely has to speak the word and the servant will be healed.
We are drowning in a culture that has no idea how authority should function. We are a people who dishonors parents, who disrespects teachers, who humiliates pastors, who pokes fun at political leaders, who complains about bosses, who tears down husbands. We think we have a right to disrespect men or women in authority because we disagree with them. It is possible that the only place where we even begin to properly recognize authority is within sports, on the ball-field, with coaches and umpires and referees, but even then we feel it is our right to scream and yell if we do not get our way. Perhaps the military has a small grasp on how to respect an authority, which was the case with the centurion. Of all the men in Israel, Jesus had found no one else whose faith was as strong as the centurion’s. His understanding and respect of Jesus’ authority was attributed to him as faith.
How can we even begin to understand faith when we are so confused on what it means to respect authority? Christ is our King! I think we spend more time meditating Christ as a servant than meditating on being obedient to His marching orders. We focus so much on the cross (which is wonderful!!), but we forget that our faith is not only believing in that event. What happens next? Christ says that if we love Him we will obey His commands. Our faith is manifested in following His lead, in obeying Him, in recognizing His authority over all words and events. Our faith is manifested in joyful submission to whatever He is doing in our lives and however He has chosen to tell our stories.
And what has He done in your life? Has he given you parents? Honor them, speak kind words about them. Has He given you a husband? Praise him, defer to him, obey him. Has He given you a pastor? Treat him with respect, listen to him, trust him. Has He given you a boss? Obey them, work hard for them, speak kindly of them.
We are quick to think of exceptions, aren’t we? We are quick to say “yes, but what about when an authority is mistreating you? When an authority is not acting wisely? When your boss really does overwork you and underpay you? When your parents act selfishly?” We are quick to think we are all Abigails and it would be Godly to call our husbands fools. We are quick to compare our authority figures to Sisera and think of ourselves as Jael. We are quick to think that because an authority figure has made a mistake or has a weakness it gives us the right to speak out against them and demand an apology. We are quick to say that because it is possible to abuse authority, therefore no one should have authority, and we mock and start name calling so everyone knows that NO AUTHORITY IS ABSOLUTE. It is very possible that we are focusing on the wrong end of the spectrum. Christ equivocates the centurion’s faith with his understanding of obedience under authority. Maybe we should spend more time looking for ways to respect authority than looking for exceptions, and maybe this would be accounted to us as faith. Maybe the faith that Christ is asking us to show is faith in the ones He has placed in authority in your story, faith that He wants you to honor and respect them, faith that He knows all their faults and shortcomings and He knows how obedience to them will work in your story for your good.
There will be situations where authority is abused, where husbands are lazy and ask too much of their wives, where parents are selfish and put ridiculously restraining rules on their children, where governments tax too much. Remember David? When his King and father-in-law was chasing him through the Desert of En Gedi trying to kill him and Saul fell asleep in the cave? David’s men were urging him to kill Saul, but instead David just cut off a corner of his robe. And afterward “David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt. And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD. So David stayed his servants with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul.”(1 Samuel 24) David was on the run. He fled from Saul multiple times. He did not put his own life in danger or the lives of the men with him, but He refused to harm the one that God had chosen to put in authority over Israel. That was the Lord’s decision, and David’s faith was manifested in recognizing that he had no right to harm one whom the Lord put in authority over him. There is obviously a time when fleeing from an authority is right, when disagreeing with an authority is wise, and turning an authority over to a greater authority is prudent, but we often think that this is a free pass for disrespect. We are often more interested in making sure everyone else knows about how we were wronged than about forgiveness and having faith that the Lord is the judge and He will not let our righteousness be overlooked.
For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.
The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.
The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.
The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.
Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.
I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.
Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.
But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.
But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble.
And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him. (Psalm 37)
