Last month, our team spent a lot of time interacting with the children at the church in El Salvador and doing a lot of street VBS with the children. Also the contact we were staying with had two boys who were 8 and 10 years old.
This month we are staying at an orphanage in Nicaragua where we get to spend each day with the children who live there. It has been a true blessing, because one of my favorite ways to minister is to play and interact with children.
However, the Lord has been using the children to teach me about my own walk with Him. He has really been teaching me what it means to have child-like faith and live like a child.
Let me explain:
Just watching and playing with the children these past couple months, I realize how joyful and carefree they are. They have no worries, no problems, and no stress. They are so joyful always. These kids at the orphanage have had such a terrible life, before coming here, but they are still so joyful at the simplest things. I feel this is how God wants us to live. He wants us to live a joyful life. David says it the best in the book of Psalms; “cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.”
Live a joyful life because of what the Lord has done for us and live with the joy that one-day we will get to spend eternity with Him. These petty things in this world that we put so much priority on will one day disappear.
Another thing He has been showing me through children is that the Lord is our father. We know that the Lord is our father but I feel sometimes we don’t actually understand what that looks like. One night we were coming back from church and one of our contacts children feel asleep in my arms. This made me think what it would be like to lay in the arms of God. He is always there to embrace us, yet sometimes we are hesitant to turn to Him. He has showed me that we are truly Sons and Daughters of Christ! Just think about that. God the creator of the universe and the One, who is perfect in everything, loves us so much that He doesn’t just acknowledge us but calls us his Sons and Daughters!
In Mark 10 we read of the story of Jesus and the children:
“People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
This has changed how I look at God and how I live my life. I am learning what it means to have child-like faith and I now daily try to choose joy no matter what the circumstance. When you combine choosing joy with realizing what it truly means to be a son or daughter of Christ, to steal a quote from a squad mate; “These days I don’t have to choose joy, because it just comes so naturally”.
