To those of us with children….
Here’s what I’ve discovered as I’ve been trying to love on and minister to others while I raise kids: Kids make it easier.
Usually.
Sometimes they make it harder. (Like, it’s harder to load everyone up and take everyone to an event when you have a nursing baby and two in diapers and one who’s potty training and one with a runny nose…) Your family comes FIRST, so make sure you’re meeting their needs first before you run out and start ministering to others.
But…if you have kids…please don’t use that excuse to avoid all other ministries. There are simple ministries you can be involved in and your kids can make it easier for you because their cute little selves can break the ice with the people you’re ministering to. They give you something to talk about besides the weather.
In case you missed it, I wanted to share Kari’s comment from this post:
Let’s not miss the fact that our children are little ministers too: children with a mission. I find all the time that my baby is a “conversation starter” if you will. I get to say things like, “I am so blessed to have this baby in my life” and “God is so good” just in response to some simple questions about the cute kid in my cart.
So, if you have kids…minister with them.
The first time I realized that kids were little ministers was on a tragic day that our friend’s husband was killed in a farming accident. Asa was a baby at the time and we went to see the grieving family. I was trying my hardest to keep Asa quiet and still in my arms while we hugged the family and visited. Finally I decided to put him down to crawl because he was getting restless in my arms. He immediately crawled over the the woman who had just lost her husband. Inwardly I cringed, thinking that the last thing this woman needed was a wiggly nine month old to crawl into her lap and slobber on her.
She reached down and picked him up, snuggled him, talked to him…and then guess what she did? She smiled.
Asa, as a nine month old innocent baby, brought joy and comfort to this woman who had just lost her husband.
After that moment, I have worked to involve my kids as much as I can when I do something for others.
If you are taking a meal to someone, let them help you cook. Talk with them about what you are doing. Ask them questions like, “We’re taking dinner to Johnny’s family. What kind of yummy food do you think Johnny would like?”
Encourage them to make cards for people. Who wouldn’t love a homemade card from your kids?
Help them learn to be comfortable around older people and sick people.
Use wisdom of course in involving your kids….but I really think that the best way they will learn to see people’s needs and meet them is by watching you and working with you. By the time they are adults, serving others will be natural to them.
Have you found that your kids (or someone else’s kids) are good conversation starters when you visit with people? What are some ways you’ve involved your kids in ministries?
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Join Amy for Finer Things Friday.
Tania says
I totally agree. This isn’t exactly a ministry…but quite a few years back we had been in our church a couple of years and really liked it. The only thing was we just didn’t seem to have any friends. As soon as I was pregnant things changed. People started talking to us and by the time the baby was born I had gotten to know many of the women. My conclusion was that people just didn’t know what to talk to us about. We can seem quiet at first and I think they needed an icebreaker and of course we did too. (-:
Emily Kay says
I had tears in my eyes when I read about your friend and Asa crawling over to her. Wow.
One way we are able to minister to people in my area is at a local soup kitchen. They actually welcome homeschooling families to come volunteer. I leave my 2 year old and 7 month old with my dad when I do this. It is a special time with just my 5 year old daughter. When the little ones are a bit older, I may have to alternate with them. My 5 year old is really learning to appreciate what we have when she sees people who have nothing and are so grateful for a bowl of soup! She also LOVES to make cards for people. She is a little tender-heart!
Annonymous says
What a heartwarming story about Asa. Reminds me of my own little one – only she’s not even born…quite yet. My husband and I are expecting her to arrive in the next few weeks. During my pregnancy, my sister-in-law has been going through a very hard time with her husband. They were separated for a while. During the heartache of that, she has spoken SEVERAL times about how excited she is to have a niece…and every time she mentions it, it brings a smile to her face. My husband and I have commented several times about how the Lord is using our child before she even has “skin on”!!! We wonder what amazing things he has in store for her after she arrives!
Allyson says
This is so important! My husband and I try to involve our children in ministering to others whenever it is possible. We’ve seen our littles ones bring joy to so many people.
Kari says
Amen and amen. I organized people to sing several times a week in the last approx 2 weeks of the life of one of our dear friends. I went a couple times with our baby who wasn’t crawling yet at that time. That’s when I realized that he was already ministering to others. He was simply giving of himself and the gifts that he had. And that has been a powerful lesson to me. Give of yourself from where you are. God will bless the giving, the receiver, and the giver!
Michelle says
I think you’re absolutely right, and I’m looking forward to finding more ways to serve as a family.
The other side to consider is what happens if you leave your kids out! My husband grew up in a Christian family where his parents were very busy ministering to and hanging out with the church body, but didn’t include their boys or even spend much time with them. My husband not only didn’t know how to minister to other believers, he didn’t even WANT to get very involved, as it had all kinds of bad associations for him. We’re only now getting to the point that we’re really reaching out to others, and I think a lot of that has to do with him seeing how much natural joy it brings our little ones to help others. It’s bringing him healing, and making him think about what we want to teach them in that regard. Children really are a blessing to all of us.
Tina says
This post brought tears to my eyes as well. What felt like bad timing was perfect timing.
A simple thing that comes right to mind for us is when we do an art project or our weekly writing from “A Reason for Handwriting” we send it to friends and family. Grandma always loves getting mail and the kids feel purpose in their work.
Babychaser says
We’ve found that babies are great during a time of death and have even traveled far to be with family (even when we didn’t know the deceased) so that the children can be a bright spot.
Melinda says
Excellent! I agree!! The GOOD Lord knows how to use us and our children, we just have to be available! Ministering and compassion have to be taught – just like everything else. Children need to see an example! The smallest things can mean the most to someone in need!
Catherine says
Before having my first baby I never knew how to start a conversation, but afterwards I always had something to say!
Thanks again Laura. I am really finding a lot of encouragement from this series.
Meg says
What a wonderful reminder… I had just been thinking about this, as our three year old and my husband are sitting in the living room “practicing” with their guitars for special music at church this weekend. I am so blessed to have a husband who feels strongly about having our children involved in ministry too!
Donna says
Another excellent post!
Have I ever told you about one of our ‘homeschool projects’ where we work and save money in a bucket for ‘our mission’? We then buy as many stamps as we possibly can, last time we ordered free Spanish Gospel tracts, and simply prayed and looked in the phone book for Spanish names and addressed envelopes and mailed tracts to about 40 people or more.
The kids find creative ways to earn the money, learn to use a phone book, share the Gospel, and learn to address an envelope all in one ordeal! ;-)
Kathy says
Your story about Asa reminded me of a time when I was a nanny for my sister’s kids. We had a friend who was going through chemo and I would go sit with him each week while he had the treatments. Since I was at home with the baby he went where I went. Mac (our friend) was in a room with several other people who were recieving cancer treatment at the same time. Every time I came in there little Alec made many people smile. I think I was just the “vehicle” to get Alec to the hospital to minister to these people. It was precious!
I have actually been thinking about this very subject a lot this week. Last Friday my husband and I went downtown to work with a ministry called Bridgetown Ministries in Portland. It is a ministry to people who are homeless. We were (a large group) there to hand out food, cut hair, wash feet, distribute clothes, Bibles and literature and most of all take time to get to know these people. It is always a wonderful time. We always take our boys (ages 2 years and three months). We usually get a few comments about how neat it is that we involve the kids, but they are always surprised. When we got ready to go home this time my son said, “That was fun!” It’s just been resonating with me all week how important it is for them to be doing things like this and learning to love people wherever they are from a very early age.
It’s a little dramatic, but I keep thinking–what good is it if we save their lives, but don’t teach them to love God and His people? Like I said, it’s dramatic because this is not a place where we are risking our lives, but you could insert any number of things in the first half of that sentence. It’s been helping me keep some things in perspective this week.
Sarah says
i also wrote something similar to this.
http://sarahlscott.blogspot.com/2009/02/claiming-your-children-for-kingdom.html
Rina says
I love this post. Would you mind if I liked to it in my “Sunday Linkage?”
Erin says
My husband and I are missionaries in Bolivia and we have one 9 month old daughter. This post has been so true in our lives here as everywhere we go people exclaim in Spanish, “Look at that beautiful baby with blue eyes and blonde hair!” It is so fun for us to take her places and of course we are just gleaming hearing such nice comments but in reality she has been an excellent ice breaker for us. It has helped us immensely not only by making us feel welcome here but also by helping us learn the language. What a blessing these little bundles of joy truly are! Praise God!