J-O-Y

This past week I saw a huge difference between adult and children. Even teens. From what I hear the teens wanted another impromtu session of prayer so they could pray together. How often do we adults say "hey lets pray one more time before we leave"?

During one of the RWG's at camp the kids learned about sacrifice and what it means to sacrifice something for someone else. Georgine made a little memory thing: J-O-Y: Jesus Others You: to help the kids see what sacrifice is: putting others before yourself. When we had prayer afterwards Pastor Marvin asked if any of the kids wanted to do more for God, sacrifice more for God; all of their hands went up, and they didn't know who put them up cause their heads were bowed and eyes closed. Kids ages between 6 to 10 all wanted to be more for God; I was slightly amazed.

When Pastor Paul asked the same question in church barely anyone stood up and said they wanted to sacrifice more. Is it because they didn't want people to know they fall short? If that is the case; we all fall short of God's glory. Do they think they don't need to sacrifice more? I had a teacher who always said "there's room for improvement" and I think the same goes for sacrifice; there's always room to do more for God.

For many J-O-Y doesn't exist. They think Jesus Me Others is a good order for things, but really it's not. Some find it hard to put others before themselves, but what I saw in my kids were the exact opposite. Granted there were fights and misunderstandings but that always happens, sometimes alittle selfishness, but most of the time they were willing to anything for one another. Should we adults have the same outlook? Shouldn't we be willing to help anyone out in the name of Jesus? When we have clothes we don't wear, don't throw them away donate them to a local shelter or Goodwill. There is always something more we can do. More we can sacrifice.