Explorers

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  Jeremiah 29:13 NIV

For the past few weeks I have been thinking about the names of our classrooms and how each name and age group correspond to our own walk with Christ.  So, over the next few weeks I hope that you will join me as I take a closer look inside our own children’s ministry and how God can use it to speak to our hearts as leaders and role models to our youngest believers.

This past Sunday, I had the awesome privilege to teach in our Explorers classroom at two different service times.  I must admit that I have been so afraid of leading our 2-3 year olds, and I have often referred to this classroom as chaotic and difficult. 

As someone who has only has only been an observer from the outside of this room in the past, I see now how I had this idea that there was no order or learning happening.  That this classroom was a transitional room from an hour of play in Toddlers to a structured setting in Adventurers.  Granted to expect any 2-year-old to sit still for 55 minutes is completely unrealistic, but I promise you this group of our youngest believers have the biggest hearts and desire to learn about God.

I got to thinking about my own walk with Christ over the past several years and compared it to the stages that our children experience as they grow here at the church.  As a brand-new baby believer, just like our Explorers, I was all over the place, easily distracted, and I struggled to focus on God’s word.  I often times didn’t understand what I was reading but I was eager to feel God’s love for me.  I would throw temper tantrums when I didn’t feel like I was getting my way and I often needed instant gratification by seeking verses that filled my emotional need in that moment.

Anyone who has spent any time with a 2-3-year-old can tell you that this pretty much describes this age group to a tee. But thank heavens we continue to grow.

In Jeremiah 29:13, the Bible says “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart.”  As we continue to explore God’s word and seek Him through prayer God promises us that we will find Him.  When we seek God, he begins to do a work in us and we begin to grow.

It’s interesting to see the growth that happens right inside our very own Explorers classroom.  When a 2-year-old moves up to the Explorers classroom for the first time they are scared and confused by the new environment and they don’t understand why they should focus and sit still.  Just like us as new believers, it can be a scary new world that we have just walked into.  We say the salvation prayer and ask Jesus into our lives, but then what?  The new disciplines of prayer and reading our Bible are foreign and confusing.

You can tell the difference in a child who has just moved up into Explorers and one that is just about ready to move on to our Adventurers (4-5 year olds) classroom.  As they grow and become more familiar with the way the classroom works the more involved and eager to participate they become.  As we continue to explore and seek God we also continue to grow.  We are eager to see what God is going to show us next and our selfish behaviors begin to melt away. 

If you have been a believer for a long time, sometimes it is easy for us to look at new believers and see all their faults and to sometimes pass judgement on their lack of knowledge or discipline.  For over a year I have avoided teaching in the Explorers classroom for that same reason.  I didn’t want anything to do with trying to control chaos or temperamental 2-year-olds.

But because I stepped out of my comfort zone, I had the awesome opportunity to see a little girl who couldn’t even speak real words yet follow my lead and praise Jesus with her little hands lifted high in worship.  I got to hear 3-year-olds shout out “God makes me brave” and you could see God impacting their little hearts. 

We are all at different places in our walk with Christ.  Some of us are like Explorers, babies in our journey, still trying to navigate this big scary world of being a believer.  While others are long-time believers and Christ is the center of your life.  No matter if you are just beginning your journey, you are a seasoned believer or somewhere in between; my prayer for you is that you will never stop exploring and seeking God.  That you will look at your journey of faith and never become content or complacent and that you will never be satisfied with where you are today. 

Continue to explore your heart and your relationship with God. Seek Him through prayer, devour His word and never forget what life was like without Him by your side.  Become a lifelong Explorer of Christ, you never know where your journey might lead.