What's the Point? Church stuff, ranking systems and mistakenly excluding children.

Of continuing these blogs?  I don't know.  I'm probably going to stop this weekend.  It won't be a full year...but I think I've proven that I could if I wanted to.

It's been over 11 months straight without missing a day.  I'll most likely write next week but not not be able to post any of the blogs I write.  So maybe instead of 7 extra bonus blogs when I get back, I'll work on one complete project.

This is for church people.  You won't relate if you never went to church as a kid.  And I carry some deep wounds from growing up in the church.  I didn't realize that until much later in life.  Might be my own experience, but I can't help but think others feel the same way.

Anyway.  Memory Verses.  Who remembers those from church?  I don't.  Well, I remember the task to accomplish the memorization but I can't say I memorized them.  If anything, just for that moment.  Can I say that I think having children memorize verses is not important whatsoever.  Why?  Because it's not knowing the verse that's what's important.  It's about knowing what the verse means.  Remembering the lesson of the verse far outweighs the knowledge of every word.   Often times that includes memorizing, but for kids (and adults) like me, memorizing words from a page is very difficult.  And no, that's not what Phillipians 4:13 is for.

Reading your bible and praying.  There's no real gauge to tell if a child is doing this or not.  But again...You can't judge someones relationship with Jesus based solely on how much the read the bible or pray.  Although prayer can really be anything....

How about inviting friends to church?  I get the point.  You want children to have fun and learn about Jesus's love.  You also want to help kids share their belief.  I guess I just have to ask, why not just teach them how to love others?  Isn't that sharing their faith?  Isn't that spreading the gospel?  Inviting people to a church event isn't really a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

I don't want to throw all these things under the bus.  But I often remember and still see competitions or rewards for many of the activities shown above.  Earthly rewards.  Like candy or special parties.  I don't want to pretend I know how to do all the kids stuff.  All I remember is how those things made me feel when I was young.  I wasn't good at memorizing.  I wasn't good at reading my bible.  I wasn't good at inviting guests.  And all those rewards for that stuff I wasn't good at, made me feel like I wasn't good enough.

Not all kids are created equal.  Not all can learn and do the same way.  So to put a system in place that judges their engagement in the basics only one way is a great way to exclude certain kids.  Why not just keep the main thing, the main thing.

Just trust the system Jesus laid out.

Teach the children love all.  And they will reciprocate that.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self control.  Be an example of that.  That's what they need to learn.  Don't create a ranking system.  Don't create competition.  Don't do anything that will leave some children feeling excluded.

I remember a story in the bible that Jesus told.  About 99 people that were doing just fine.  But one wasn't.  One was lost and confused.  They didn't feel like they were good enough.  And Jesus made sure that that one person was found and cared for.  He made sure that one was brought along with everyone else.