A Blast from the Past: Loving Children

I was looking some old files the other day and I found this article I wrote back in 2006! It was used in the my old church’s magazine under the volunteer section. I thought I would post it here

The Importance of Loving Children

By Erik Davison 09/12/06

In our culture, children have been viewed as an inconvenience, a pain, something that just needs to be over with. As a result people have begun to treat kids as if they are unimportant and unwanted. So throughout the years this idea of thinking has elevated until it was made legal to murder unwanted babies. Abortion is the “politically correct” term we give that. I think it’s important to love, teach, and care for children while they are still young.

When the subject of childcare comes up in church, most people consider it to be the thing to volunteer for when you cant find anywhere else to serve. They may think all they’re doing is watching kids so someone else can minister to their parents (i.e. the real ministry is going on outside the nursery). Well that is one of the things you do while watching kids but did you ever consider that you’re ministering to the kids? The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Pro. 22:6.

How do you think Billy Graham or Mother Teresa got to be who they were? What about Britney Spears or even Adolph Hitler? Do you think they were born the way they turned out? No, they were raised in a way that affected who they became. Not just their parents but their friends, family, and peers helped them along that road.

When I look at kids I sometimes think, “Who will they be?” Then I remember that I have a chance to affect that, we all do. Just by taking a few hours of your time to help in the nursery or to baby-sit for a family you know, you are affecting the future. This doesn’t mean preaching to them, or trying to tell their parents how to raise them. For me it just means to love them and to be a good example for them, not treat them like they’re just something to be put up with.

So instead of being annoyed and inconvenienced by children, embrace them as a gift from God and as a chance to show His love to the kids so that when they are old, they will not depart from it.

Is the Heart "Desperately Wicked?"

Yes and No. It depends on who you are!

I think we all know this verse:
"The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
Jeremiah 17:9

However far too many don't realize that this verse was not about Christians. If you study this text, It was referring to an unsaved heart. Continue reading:

"And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart." Ezekiel 36:26

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:16

When you become a Christian God gives you a new Heart! It is essential to realize this because it gives you a new sense of self. Now you know who you are. Yes, You still have your flesh but it's not the deepest part of you anymore. Paul made the distinction between the new heart and the old one (our flesh).

"So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh."

Romans 7:17-18a

You have no reason to sin, no excuse because it's not who you are anymore! Here is a quote from John Eldredge on the matter:

"...what Paul concludes is just astounding: ‘I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it' (Rom 7:20). Did you notice the distinction he makes? Paul says, ‘Hey, I know I struggle with sin. But I also know that my sin is not me, this is not my true heart.' You are not your sin; sin is no longer the truest thing about the man who has come into union with Jesus. Your heart is good. ‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you ...'(Ezek. 36:26). The Big Lie in the church today is that you are nothing more than ‘a sinner saved by grace." You are a lot more than that. You are a new creation in Christ. The New Testament calls you a saint, a holy one, a son of God. In the core of your being you are a good man. Yes, there is a war within us, but it is a civil war. The battle is not between us and God; no, there is a traitor within who wars against the true heart fighting alongside the Spirit of God in us... .

-John Eldredge