Out of the Mouths of Children.

Atmospheric Seascape.

I was reminded last night of an occasion in my past while I was a minister. It was during the summer holidays for schools so the Sunday School was not operating for a few weeks. This meant that there were less children in the church as would be normal, and those there would tend to stay for the whole of the service. On some Sundays there might be a member who would take out the younger ones and tell them a story in the church hall. 

On one particular such Sunday i was in full flight with my sermon and feeling it was going fairly well. People seemed interested, the sermon was being listened to. All of a sudden there was a movement in one of the aisles. My son walked all the way to the front of the church and in a loud voice heard by all he said, " Dad i am going to just go out and play. This is going on too long, and you need to childrenize it.

There was a loud laugh from most of the congregation except from my wife. The whole flow of the sermon was lost but everybody seemed happy so I drew it to a final conclusion and the service ended a little earlier than usual. 

I do no know where my son got this idea that you just said what you thought and believed. 

Children do have a habit of seeing the world in a completely different way than we adults, and who is to say they are wrong. Maybe we all need to strive to keep the spark of childhood within us.

There is a lovely story of a minister giving a pictorial lesson that he hoped would add strength to his sermon.

He began with this visual aid at the beginning of the service. 

 Four worms were placed into four separate jars.

1. The first worm was put into a container of alcohol.
2. The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke.
3. The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup.
4. The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil.

At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results:

1. The first worm in alcohol - Dead
2. The second worm in cigarette smoke - Dead
3. Third worm in chocolate syrup - Dead
4. Fourth worm in good clean soil - Alive!

So the Minister asked the congregation -

What can you learn from this demonstration?

Little Nancy, sitting in the back, quickly raised her hand and said,

'As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!'

That pretty much summed things up for that particular service.

I hope this little tale helps you find the child within today. Have fun and smile.