Seems like being a Children's Pastor that I should write my blog about being a parent or how kids learn the Bible, or ...
The longer I am in Children's Ministry the more I know; if we as the parents are healthy in all areas of our lives that our kids have a better chance of being healthy as they grow into young teens and adults.
I know I'm a little slow on the uptake and you probably all know that already. But since I'm sharing my new found revelation with you; you'll have to indulge me from time to time as I write about things that apply to us as adults. My hope and prayer is if we are doing the right thing, our kids with "CATCH" it and do the same. Don't kid yourself, we still need to parent and coach our kids, but working on us, may be understated! So here I go:
In John 15, Jesus describes sustainability in this manner: “Abide in Me, and
I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the
vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine, you are the
branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from
me you can do nothing. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you
that you would bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain” (John 15:4, 5, 16
NKJV).
David’s life is a great example regarding sustainability. His
“abiding” is seen through his constant inquiring of the Lord about every
situation in his early life. Unfortunately, we also see the sad
results for David, his family, and the nation of Israel when he moved away from
this dependency on God. The downfall began when David became confident in his
own ability to lead and make decisions on his own.
What about us? Are we living sustainable lives? Our depth of soul comes from the well of life in the Holy
Spirit. That well draws our roots deep, which in turn produces healthy branches
tightly grafted to the vine. A tree full of healthy fruit is a great picture of
what our lives can be when we are tightly grafted to Jesus
Christ. This is the posture of sustainable fruitfulness. Just some light thinking for a Monday morning! Pastor Julie
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