Amelia KidZone - Amelia Church of Christ

I grew up in big family, so during Christmas that meant lots of presents to buy and to wrap.   I remember one year I had a gift idea that I wanted to buy for my dad.  His wallet was falling apart, and I found a wallet for five dollars at the local dollar store.   I wanted to earn and pay for the wallet myself.  My dad always complained about his wallet, and it was it was completely falling apart.  So I was so excited that I found a wallet to give him.  Because buying for my dad was always hard, he typically got shaving cream, after shave or candy.

The week after Christmas, he got home from work and wasn’t using the new wallet.  I was confused.  I asked him, “Why aren’t you using your new wallet?” He said he wanted to use it for Sunday only because it was too nice.  Of course, this wasn’t the whole truth.  It was because I had bought him a total piece of junk, and it was worse than his falling apart wallet, but my dad wanted me to know that he appreciated it.

In James it says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights….” So even though I worked so hard buying that gift for my dad, it really wasn’t ultimately my gift alone. I didn’t have a job and I didn’t have an income.  So it was basically like  my dad paid five dollars for me to pick out a crummy wallet that he would get on Christmas Day.

When God asks us to give, we are giving his money, which he doesn’t even need.  It’s like we’re buying a crummy wallet and expecting to wow him.  He isn’t wowed by our money, but by our heart and our sacrifice.  This time of year, and always, let’s share with our kids how important it is to give.

See you Sunday!

This week, we are focusing on the story of Jesus and his disciples having the last supper together.  Like the disciples, we aren’t always sure or understand why we go through tough times.  We don’t understand and we want answers.  But we still need to celebrate what God has done for us.  I look back and celebrate the tough things I had to go through that helped me grow and mature spiritually.  It stinks when we are going through it but sometimes that is the only way we can understand God’s plan for us.  Check out our Bible story this week it comes from Luke 22:14-20.

This week we will celebrate what God has done.  That is our bottom line this week, ” Take time to celebrate what God has done.”

See you Sunday!

Our family has been so busy lately.  We are adjusting to being a family of three.  Having a new baby this year has been quite the adjustment.  When we brought our daughter home from the hospital we had several people bring us food.  It was amazing.  For some reason, I know you mother’s out there can understand, the day of changing diapers, feedings, and burping, baths, and naps can make the day fly by and before you know it, it’s dinner time.  So when we had several families show up for a week at our doorsteps with food, we were thrilled to see them.  We had the best food that week.  Because we were so busy that week adjusting to this little person that was now in our lives permantely, I look back and wondered if I said thank you to all the cooks that brought us meals.

Our bottom line this week is “Take time to say thank you.”  So I’m setting the example by saying thank you all for helping take care of my family for a week.  We really appreciate it.  So make sure you take time out this week to say thank you to somebody that has helped you out.

Check out our “Thank you” story for this week it comes from Luke 17:11-19.

See you Sunday!

We teach our kids to share, take turns, and that if you work hard you are rewarded.  These things are very important.  Fairness is important.  But as kids get older they then learn another valuable lesson.  That fairness doesn’t always work.   Good kids get bullied, the teacher may show favoritism to another kid, the cafeteria is serving a mystery meat again, and not to mention kids have to follow mom and dad’s rules.  Life isn’t fair.

Our Bible story this week talks about unfair circumstances for some workers that have worked hard all day.  Once the shift is over and they are ready to get paid, they see the latecomers getting paid first.  Now they weren’t upset that these workers came late and were getting paid, they weren’t upset about that one bit.  They noticed what the boss was paying them and thought, “Since we have been here all day and a lot longer our pay is going to be a lot more.”   Because that would be fair.  But when they were paid they noticed the amount was the same.  That they had worked more than double the hours but were paid the same.  I can’t blame them for being upset.  Check out what they said,

‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’  Matthew 20:12

Now the workers agreed to work for a denarius.  But they assumed they would get paid more since the last workers, that only worked for an hour got paid this.  This was their boss said,

“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’  Matthew 20:13-15

Now this Bible story was a parable that Jesus was using to describe the kingdom of heaven.  And in this story it doesn’t seem fair that the workers didn’t get paid more for working more.  But God isn’t always fair.  And I’m thankful for that.  Because we all get to go to heaven whenever we decided to repent and follow him.  We can be 9 years old or 99 and we all get the same reward of living forever with him.  So thankfully life isn’t always fair.

Don’t let your kids miss this valuable lesson.

See you Sunday!