“…Your sons do not follow in
your ways, so…” (I Samuel 8: 5). What a
great disappointment this must have been for Samuel and for God! But, let us
look at this from the apposite perspective:
What have we learned that invites a child to “follow in our ways?” Ultimately, what invites us to follow God’s
ways?
The research I did on
children forming compassion taught me that the children with whom I spoke suggested
to me a couple of insights:
- · These children’s development occurs through the interaction of the depth of relationships and the richness of experiences;
- · These children follow role models who exemplify persistence, consistency and authenticity, justice, holiness, hope and integrity
- · These children gave insights to how they learned, suggesting to me their development included interactive processes of receiving, observing, recognizing, responding and rehearsing (or reflecting with others).
We are tempted to wonder
what Samuel did that led to his sons’ demise and before we are too hasty, we
must consider God, also, faced rebellion in that His people sought a King to be
like their neighbors (I Sam. 8:20) against His design. But that is reflecting on the adult
behavior.
Instead, let us place, as
Jesus did, “a child in the midst” (Matthew 18:1-14), suggesting the child’s
position or traits are necessary to seek heaven.[i] As the children in my research reported,
if we look to our relationship with God, to His authenticity, His integrity, His
holiness, His justice, His hope, will we find it possible to live in His
ways? If we reflect upon our experiences with God, all we have received from God, the godly behavior we have observed in Jesus’ life,
if we come to recognize through God’s
eyes, if we respond as Jesus did, and
if, through contemplation and prayer and community we rehearse the relationship and experience we have with God, will we
find it possible to live more in His ways?
Questions to ponder with children:
What ways of being and living do you think Samuel
tried to teach his children? Why do you
think they chose not to be like their father?
In what ways do you want to be like your mother and/or father? What makes it hard to be like them? In what ways do you want to be like
Jesus? What makes it hard to be like
Him? What are the consequences, what
happens if you don’t follow Jesus’ ways? What makes it possible to be like Him even
when it gets hard sometimes?
Questions to ponder as adults:
In what ways do I, my friends, our community, our
country still strive to be like our neighbors?
Which of those will lead us to God’s ways, which will not? What parts of God’s way are hard for me to
follow? What parts are easier for
me? What makes it hard? What are the consequences? What characteristics of a child’s view might
be insight for me to shift? In what ways
does contemplation, prayer, reflection, gathering with other Christians make it
easier for me?
Questions to ponder as teachers/pastors:
How do I involve parents and families in being
attuned to God’s ways (reflecting) and living God’s ways (modeling) for their
children to model? In what ways am I
supporting parent’s attempts to raise their children to follow God’s ways? In what ways might I be tempted to supplant
the ways of the parents? How can I
adjust that to building parents up (edification)?
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
White,
Keith J. 2012. Introducing
Child Theology: Theological Foundations
for Holistic Child Development. Compassion
Intl. http://www.hcd-alliance.org. Accessed June 1, 2012.
[i] Child Theology is a movement which began in England at the beginning of this century
to invite us to theological reflection with the question, “What does it mean
for us today to respond to the teaching an example of Jesus when he placed a
little child in the midst of his disciples so they could be encouraged to
change and become like the little child in order to enter the Kingdom of
Heaven?” (White 2012 p. 8). It does not marginalize the child as the
church has largely done for hundreds of years nor does it glorify the child but
takes the child’s position as an entry point to reflect upon the glory of God
in Christ Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment