Northwood Parents

This week, our preschoolers will be learning from John 17.  They will hear that Jesus taught us to pray for others and ourselves.  This week, your preschooler will learn that he can talk to God about anything.  He will hear how Jesus prayed and how we can pray just the same way.  God cares about us and wants us to talk to Him about what’s going on in our lives.  Sunday night, ask your child who he can pray for?  Take some time before bedtime to pray for those people and their needs with your preschooler.

Elementary kids will finish up their month of focusing on orderliness – arranging things to make your day easier this Sunday!  Kids will learn that it makes more sense to put God first.  We want your child to understand that God is the most important part of their lives.  We want kids to learn that, when we choose to put God first and focus on Him, everything else falls into place.  On the ride home Sunday, talk with your child about ways she can put God first.  Talk with your child about church and how it is more important than practice, homework, or school!  Talk about reading your Bible and how we need to take time everyday to spend with God!  Talk about praying and how Jesus wants us to talk to Him!

I hope you have a great weekend and look forward to this Sunday!

Here’s how you can take what we’re teaching on Sunday and let it make a difference in your child’s life …

This Sunday, preschoolers will continue their month long discussion of how we can love God.  All month, your preschooler has been learning that we can love God just like Jesus did.  All month, preschoolers will take a look at the life of Jesus and learn how they can be like Him.  This week your preschooler will hear about a time when Jesus appeared to a man named Saul and taught him to love God and love other people.  Saul learned that the best way he could love God was to love the people around him.  Sunday night, during bathtime, talk with your preschooler about some ways he can show love to those in his own family.  Use a bathtub crayon and write the names of the people that your preschooler can show love to on the tub.  Before you tuck your preschooler in Sunday night, take some time to pray for the people in your family.

Elementary kids will continue to learn about orderliness this month – arranging things to make your day easier.  This week, your child will learn that one way we can get things done is through the help of others.  Your child will learn that  God gave us other people to help us.  At lunch on Sunday, talk with your child about those who help her get stuff done at home, at school, and at church.  Talk with your child about people God has placed in your life to help you!

A Decade Ago… 

I had just graduated high school 7 months ago. 

I had completed my first semester at North Greenville College, majoring in Broadcast Journalism.  This would be my career and I was so excited to get started.

 I was interning at WYFF 4 periodically and working in radio in preparation for my future. 

Weekends were spent hanging out with Jason, Stuart, Joe, and anyone else who happened to be nearby.  Other people were certainly not a priority of my life.

My heart was determined to never go back to any church that seemed traditional (choir, steeple, and coats and ties made it traditional in my eyes)

 I was serving in children’s ministry at a new church start, never imagining that I would one day lead children in a full-time capacity.

 I had no desire to work in the church as a full-time staff member.  It was mostly filled with stuffy, boring people and who would want to work with them everyday? 

I had never been through the doors of Northwood Baptist Church and had no plans to do so.

 I had never heard of a Pastor named Michael Joe Harvell, who would later become a mentor, friend, and pastor.

 I had no idea that I would lead a change in children’s ministry at Northwood and be part of creating an environment where kids can’t wait to get to church.

Today …

 I still can’t believe that I get to do this.  I am so incapable, unworthy, and unqualified.  There are days when I love what I do and days when I would be willing to do anything else. 

I have no doubt that God called me into ministry and I love serving parents and children. 

I know that there is a church where coats and ties, choir, and steeples are secondary and Jesus is primary. 

I am blessed to serve under a Pastor who sacrificially gives of himself to better the lives of me and his congregation.  I watch it happen everyday.

 I can only imagine what the next ten years will hold.  There will surely be good days and bad days.  There will be days when I rejoice and days when I struggle.  But – as I remember where I came from, I also trust that the best is yet to come!  I can’t wait!