Wednesday's thoughts

"Go For the Gold"

Children's Sabbath calls for us to consider what we do with children here at the church and why we do it. The implications for our doing what we do are obvious. Our involvement with the children is a confirmation of our future. It is an investment in the values we hold and in the continuance of the faith that holds us.

There are many, many ways we like to influence the children here. These two strike me as two of the most important;
1. Go for the Gold
We want our children to understand that they are "number one" as far as we are concerned. We want them to have confidence to try to do some things they might be reluctant to try; to take some risk in life and to push toward excellence in all they do. We celebrate their victories and lament with them when they are defeated. We encourage them to strive and we are supportive when they fail. There are lessons learned and it is more important to be a good loser than it is to be a good winner. "Go for the gold" implies doing the best they can do and feeling that they are "number one" in our eyes.

2. Our children are more precious than gold. We lift up the importance of character. We want our children to be characters who have character. We want them to be able to express themselves and to use what they have been given to do good things in the world. We want to reinforce the importance of character.

How important is this for our church and its future? How important is this for the world and its future?

What do you think we ought to be doing for and with our children? How does the focus on our children at this time and place put the current election and the financial crisis into perspective?

If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have others read your responses click on the box below.


I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles Schuster