Sunday Spirit November 18, 2018

Gratitude

During the Children’s Sermon this past Sunday I showed the children various pictures. One was a picture of an empty kitchen table and on the back side of the page was a picture of a table filled with people. The next picture was an empty backyard and the flip side showed folks playing a game of baseball in the same yard. The final picture was of an empty sanctuary and the flip side showed the sanctuary pews filled with people. The children guessed immediately what I was trying to teach – gratitude for the people in our lives.

If I had to pick one thing to be grateful for this Thanksgiving, it would be the people in my life, my family, my friends, my church.

Spend some time with your children thinking about what it would be like for your dinner table to never have people sitting around it, or your yard to never have people in it, running around, playing or our sanctuary to never have people sitting in its pews.

Ask your children to share someone they are looking forward to seeing this Thanksgiving.

And to delve deeper into what Gratitude is all about I suggest the following Veggie Tales Video: Madame Blueberry. One of my favorites!

Pray together
Dear God, I am grateful for the people in my life, at my table, in my yard and in the pews of my church. Amen.

Sunday Spirit November 4, 2018 (click on photo)

God

If someone gave you a blank piece of paper and some colored pencils and asked you to draw a picture of God, what would you draw? Would it be a man with a long flowing beard floating on a cloud? Would it be a vision of the sun setting below a majestic mountain? Would it be a picture of your child’s face? Would it be lines all over your paper depicting the connection between all human beings?

As we tell our Confirmation students, there is no wrong way to draw God.

I read a quote somewhere that said, “We spend too much time talking about God and not nearly enough time experiencing God. So after you draw your picture of God ask yourself where or when do you experience God? To help answer, lets first answer this question – When you hear the word God what comes to mind?

I asked the children during this past Sunday’s Children’s Sermon – When you hear the word God what comes to mind?  Their response? Love, Kindness, Hope, Forgiveness.

So I told them when you experience love you experience God. When you experience hope you experience something about what God is about. When you experience forgiveness you experience something of what God means. When you experience kindness you experience God.

So get a piece of paper and some crayons and start drawing!