Childlike faith

Can I just say that it is stinkin' hot? We had our children's ministry Easter Festival today. Outside. For 3 hours. Really hot. Ellie and I got a few shades darker despite slathering on sunscreen. Peter got darker too, from playing in his flag football tournament all day. But that's a different story.

Sometimes I think it's funny what we try to do with our kids. I took Ellie to the Children's Museum when she was 9 months old or something, as though she would understand anything. Peter wanted us to go to Disneyland when she was 6 months old. That was money well spent. And sometimes I think it's funny that we try to do stuff with our kids at church or house church.

Our house church in particular is kinda difficult. We have Ellie, who just turned two but wants to participate. Then we have Alex, who's six and a half and knows everything. Christen's almost 3, and Abby just turned 4, so it's hard getting crafts that are feasible for Ellie and Christen to do and don't warrant rolled eyes from Alex.

So a couple of weeks ago, we shared prayer requests for the first time when I was doing childcare at house church. Really cute. Alex wanted to pray that he'd do well at his soccer games on Saturday and Sunday. Abby prayed that her baby sister would stop crying and that she'd get more chances to watch her Calm Baby video. Pastor Jaemo was visiting, so his older daughter Abby wanted to pray that her baby sister would come out soon and that Grace Eemo would get better (after having had her baby a few weeks previous). I asked Christen if she had a prayer request, and she confidently answered, "YES." What was it? "Soccer." No specifics. Then I told Ellie her prayer request was that she and Christen not fight.

Then we went around and prayed. The big kids each prayed for their requests. I made Ellie and Christen repeat after me. Ellie said, "Please help me with no more fighting with Christen." Christen said, "Please help Alex with his soccer." Then I said, "Alex, wasn't that nice? Christen wanted to pray for your soccer." To which Abby (Pastor Jaemo's daughter) replied, "She didn't exactly say Alex's soccer. She just said soccer." This was true. Still sweet, though. I'm fairly certain Christen doesn't know what soccer is anyway.

Today at the Easter festival, they were doing praise and worship time with the 3-4 year olds. Bobby Bang gave a little message. He stated that we were all sinners and asked, "How many of you have lied before?" Josephine goes, "Ooh ooh!" and raises her hand enthusiastically. She was the only one. Then he asked, "How many of you have ever stolen?" They all go, "Oooh..." and no one raised their hands. Apparently, none of them had ever said anything bad about their brothers or sisters either. So Bobby concludes with, "Well, we're all sinners." So there. Then he prayed and asked them to repeat after him. Only Josephine did it. At least she'll be saved.

We're supposed to do a Bible lesson in Ellie's Sunday school class (of 1 and 2 year olds). I tried one week. Only 2 of the 6 really talk, and they were leaving the table at the rate of one per every ten seconds. Finally, I just told each of them, "Hey - Jesus loves you, OK?" To which most replied either, "OK," or "Yeah." Ellie kept saying, "Jesus loves you!" all week long, so at least something stuck with someone.

Off the topic of teaching kids about faith, I had a funny conversation with Ellie the other day. I was singing her a song called Snuggle Puppy. She goes, "No sing Snuggle Puppy Mommy." I said, "Why not? Mommy likes Snuggle Puppy." She replied, "I no like it." I asked her then, "What do you like?" She answered, "Um... I like monkeys and big girl bed." End of conversation.