When we love the least of these

Just finished with my congregation's Family Bible Week (like VBS, but parents also have a speaker). I had the privilege of being the group leader for the Kindergarten age. It was a wonderful and encouraging time! God never ceases to reveal things to me almost every time I am working with children.

What did God teach me this time? To keep loving them. The ones hardest to love. The ones who seem to be raised rough around the edges.

Many of us are aware of the sad and confused state our society is in nowadays. We can clearly see the horrors of the effects of a sinful culture and media on families. Case in point: we had a little girl in our group whose tongue was pierced and whose bellybutton was pierced (apparently so it would hurt anyone who tried to punch her in the stomach, she said). Broke. My. Heart. A six-year-old with a bellybutton piercing?! Anyway, she was definitely our challenge this week.

I don't know her background but I can assume she has not had many boundaries in place because she would not respond to a simple, "Please do not touch that anymore." Getting her to obey took time. 

I also learned about this girl that she came with a relative who had recently been baptized and started attending our church. So there is no telling what the background our challenge-girl came from.

With children like that it is easy to get quickly frustrated. It is easy to be upset at having to make the effort to discipline them, what feels like endlessly. But tonight God taught me to keep at it. Keep giving them the boundaries that help them feel secure. Make the effort.

Why? Because to trouble-kids, I might be the only correction they get. At home they may not be surrounded by adults who are seeking after Jesus like they are when they're at Family Bible Week. The "discipline" they receive at home might be destructive rather than constructive. Our pierced-tongue girl desperately needs to see examples of what godly girlhood looks like. The Lord put her right where she really needed to be. Praise God for the relative that brings her to church!

If you are a young lady striving toward Christ centered femininity and Biblical womanhood, may I encourage you to be involved with the children in your congregation? Especially to visiting children, your example to them can mean the world.

I love the song by Audio Adrenaline that says, "Girls will be queens, boys will be kings wrapped in Your majesty when we love the least of these." How powerful those words are! Oh to love the child that is troubled, who needs someone to patiently take the time to guide them in God's paths and teach them His word.