Amelia KidZone - Amelia Church of Christ

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!

This month we are talking about gratitude.  It fits perfectly since we celebrate  Thanksgiving this month.  We all get together with family and friends, we cook a huge meal and eat leftovers for a week.  We are so thankful for what we have.  We never have to worry about our needs.  So we can thank God for those things.  But do we thank God for everything?

Lately I had a conversation with a close friend and stated that “I wish I were normal.”  In the past I’ve struggled with depression and though I am no where near feeling that way again, I still struggle with just being content and having joy.  I have every reason to feel joy.  I have a healthy baby girl, a wonderful husband, close friends that I love dearly but yet I feel something is missing.  So why can’t I just enjoy it?  Why can’t I just ignore the feelings of sometimes feeling blue?  Why do I constantly need to pray to God about this and lean on close friends?

Then something hit me when I looked at our memory verse.  “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

We are not meant to have it all figured out.  And we don’t have to have it all together.  And our struggles causes us to draw closer to our Savior.   We need him to save us constantly.  He didn’t make us to be self-reliant but the opposite.  Jesus is the only one who can be self-reliant.  He made us to have this need that only he can fill.  And just because we are occasionally picked up by Jesus doesn’t mean that we can’t stay up.  But as long as we know that we will always need carried at some point in our lives by our heavenly father.  And I’ve decided, I’m ok with that.

So this week I’ve decided to be thankful for my struggles.  I’ve decided to see what can I learn from theses circumstances. Because all it does is causes me to pray and talk to Him a lot more.  And I’m thankful for that.

See you Sunday!

This is our last week talking about creativity: using your imagination to do something unique. I am so lucky that I get to work with a group of volunteers and staff members that are so uniquely gifted. I am surrounded by very gifted individuals. They can do things that I could never imagine. And it’s exciting to be a part of something that is bigger than us all. We all play different parts in this in this ministry, but we all share the same passion. We all love Jesus and want to share him with the world.

Take time this week to talk to your kids about their own talents and gifts. If they don’t know, ask them what they love to do. Have them write or draw their talents and bring them Sunday. Make sure they realize we need each and everyone’s talents to be the hands and feet for the church.

See you Sunday!

My husband gets aggravated almost every time I cook for others – not because my cooking stinks, but because I apologize over and over and make it out that I can’t cook and pretty much critique my own cooking before anyone takes the first bite. Sometimes I’m not very confident in my cooking. I love to cook, but I’m no Iron Chef.

I’m not sure about God’s culinary skills, but I do know that he is great at creating great ingredients. I mean bacon was genius. It goes with everything. Everything God created is good. And when he was creating the earth and everything in it, he knew that it was good. He didn’t apologize for anything. He never had to because he is perfect and doesn’t make mistakes.

Even though we are not perfect, and sometimes we need to apologize for our mistakes (or our cooking), God still has a plan for us. We can use our talents and abilities to show how good God is; to show more of him and less of us. We can use our imagination to do more good.

Check out our story this week, it comes from Matthew 5:14-16.

See you Sunday!