Children's Talk 

Ephesians 6: 18 (NIV)

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. 

Since our Pastor has been on Sabbatical, and the pandemic means that we are conducting our Sunday services on Zoom, a few of the congregation have stepped up to deliver children's talks which are usually part of our services. I've just recorded my third one and I've really enjoyed doing it. Unpicking a verse or two, understanding it at your own level, and then trying to explain it to children who are as young as 3 is quite a challenge - but a really good one. I hope that this is something that can continue (though I definitely prefer the comfort of videoing it!) as I've had some really positive feedback. I think it's good for us all to listen to a range of different people when we are learning new things.

So the verse I have explained, which is above, follows on from the armour of God. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians (and he's in prison at the time), he talks about putting on the armour of God so we are prepared to fight the Devil and be protected from his lies. He talks about armour as his readers would've been familiar with the Roman soldiers and the armour they wore. By wearing our armour, we know what the truth is and we can share the gospel with others. But the verse I explained in my video talks about the weapon that God gives us to fight back - and that's prayer. 

One thing I tried to emphasise in my talk (and I'll have to try to put it on this blog!), is that prayer needs to become a habit. Having a set time to pray each day is great, but Paul wants us to develop the habit where we are talking to God about everything at every single opportunity. I'm getting pretty good at this but I waste so many chances to engage in that dialogue. I really hope that my talk for the children touches the hearts of some of the adults that listen too. It's certainly spoken to me. 

EDIT: You'll be sad to know that, when I tried to attach the video, it was too large! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The timing of going to church that first time was everything. It wasn't long before Mark and I made the commitment to go each Sunday - as soon as we were reassured that we didn't have the worst behaved children in the area and that, yes, they would be welcomed into the Sunday Club. Funnily enough, one of the very first people that came up to say hello figured out who I was because she recognised my son from when he was younger. She was a childminder and knew who he was from the various toddler groups that she attended alongside my son's childminder. God is so amazing as she is now one of my closest and loved friends (I'm going to need to find a way to get my other church bestie into this blog or she'll get stroppy!).  At that time, I was going through a pretty rubbish time at work. I'd started a new job possibly the year before and had inherited the most challenging class of my entire career. I worked my absolute socks off at the school and made such a differenc
Read more
Image
I've just finished reading 'Two Weeks' by Karen Kingsbury. She's a Christian fiction writer and I only discovered her when I had a gift voucher to spend at our local Christian bookshop. In the last few months I've read seven of her novels and I plan to read more.  I'm finding it really refreshing to read a novel where the characters are Christians and their love of Jesus is threaded through their stories. In so many novels, when the main characters are going through their trials and tribulations, they all try to solve their own problems in their own way. Finishing 'Two Weeks' today really made me reflect on what the main characters do when faced with their own trials and tribulations (they have enough of them!) and that's to immediately turn to prayer. It's their first response. I bet that's Karen Kingsbury's first response too. It's not often mine. My first response when faced with a problem is to consider what I need to do to fix it
Read more
Image
Hope is Coming I read this book by Louise Blyth a few weeks back but it was such a rollercoaster ride that I didn't feel ready to write about it until now. It was one that I had to keep putting down (hard to read through tears) rather than not being able to put down. But that's a compliment to the emotional power of Louise's words as she tells her story of grief and gratitude. Such an amazing testimony to how God worked in her life, and is still working in her life. The husband and I were watching Songs of Praise about a month or so ago and I caught an interview between Louise and Aled Jones. I was mesmerised by her story - albeit it only a few minutes - and even Aled had tears in his eyes! I immediately got onto one of the besties who happens to be the best personal shopper (#canaanchristianministries). "You need to get me this book!" It was hand-delivered to me just a couple of days later (a far nicer service than you'll ever get from Amazon!).  It took me j
Read more