We teach kids their importance to God.
Day
2 Corinthians 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day
The 21rst was my 64th birthday. I think I stopped enjoying my birthday when I hit double digits. (10) No idea why, but all of those kinds of days have lost that ‘specialness’ around that time. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, my birthday etc. all of them just seemed to have lost their magic.
Then we got our own children (both our own children and our children that we serve). Now, although the days still don’t really matter to me, I know that they matter to the children. Because they matter to children, they matter to me again. When you love someone, you love what they love. What’s important to them becomes important to you.
Before, I always looked at those kinds of days as an interruption. Even as a Christian, they seemed to hinder that ‘day by day’ process of spiritual growth that I sought. Once I saw how important it was to the kids, and how happy it made them, everything changed.
At PureHeart we try to celebrate every one of these special days for the children, as much as we can. We happily spend a good portion of our budget and energy trying to make these children happy on their special days. We don’t have enough resources to do it right, but we are trying.
The point is, even if we have an agenda or strong opinions about a day (good or bad), we have to consider others. If someone wants you to come and be with them on a special day, don’t ruin it for them. Go! If they don’t ask your opinion, don’t give it. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter all of them have their critics. You should see the caustic notes I get from Christians about our Christmas events. Birthday parties as well. If someone invites you to a birthday party, go! Even if they don’t believe like you, Go! Take a present. Be kind!
WWJD (what would Jesus do?) is a phrase that modern day theologians use disparagingly. WWJD is my life’s theme. WWJD if He was invited to a homosexual’s birthday party? WWJD if he was invited to a party where He knew there would be drinking? Sorry to break it to you, but He’d go, and He’d be nice and get invited back.
Jesus was called a drunkard and a sinner because He hung out with those guys. He went to their kind of parties. He got invited to all the good parties because He was more worried about reaching the lost than He was about meeting the demands of His agenda, or worrying about what others would say about Him. Jesus associated with sinners and drunks, never sinned. He was in bad company so much that He developed a bad reputation.
Jesus always put the importance of others over the importance of a special day. Even the Sabbath. The old testament said the Sabbath was Holy, to be observed on pain of death.
Numbers 15:32 & 36 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day…….36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses.
Yet Jesus and His disciples did a lot more on the Sabbath than just picking up sticks. He healed people. His disciples harvested wheat. The list goes on. When confronted about it, Jesus replied…
Luke 14:5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?
And Jesus went on to say…
Matt 2:27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath
For the good of your fellow man’s soul, always put the man before the day. If it’s for his good, if you might form a bond where you can lead him to Christ, it’s always worth it. Whether it’s ignoring a special day or embracing a special day, OTHERS FIRST is the WWJD rule, always.
When invited to spend a special day with someone, don’t ruin their day with your mouth or facial expressions or gestures. I love hearing kids run after easter eggs or squeal with delight when they see Santa Clause. Their parents usually don’t know any better. Although you do, maybe, WWJD? Criticize the kids? Correct the parents in front of the kids? I know too many ‘followers’ of Christ who would just that. People doing these negative actions aren’t following Christ, because Jesus wouldn’t do that. Do you think He would have been a friend to prostitutes and drunks if He yelled at them all the time? If He had a disapproving look on His face?
Wouldn’t you rather grow, day by day, into Christ’s image? It’s much more important, and will gain more souls than pouting about a single ‘special day’.
2 Cor 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
WWJD? Is a totally valid and Biblical question
With much love in Jesus
Dean and Winnie Peters
Joyfully serving the ‘least of these’ in Managua Nicaragua