I
was a Community Bible Study Core Leader with some great ladies. One day last
Spring our Teaching Director, Judy Bond, said, “I ask you all to simply be open
to the idea of working with the children. Maybe you’re ready for a change.
Being a core leader is intensive. Just be open to working with the children.”
I
sat there and felt she was speaking to me. I walked over afterward and said, “Judy,
I can hardly believe I am saying this to you, but I am open to working with the
children.” The rest is history. As September approached, I realized I had
everything to learn about working with two year olds. These little people,
around two feet tall, were going to teach me many things.
Over
and over in the scriptures believers are referred to as “children” of God. A
little child has every kind of need – for sleep, for food, for drink, for hugs
and embracing, for instruction, for being loved and received right where he is,
right where she is.
A
little child, not yet two years old, can say things that leave you reeling,
because you see he or she recognizes and understands things you would never
have imagined. I have interacted with and spoken to adults for many years, but
I realized I was clueless about relating to these little children.
A
little child’s trust and unquestioning dependence on its parent can be a model
for us. They take your hand and you lead them from building to another. How I
need to be led by the Lord minute by minute. I need to be instructed every day.
I need to be guided every hour or I will not say the loving word they need to
hear. I will not think the loving thought. If the Lord does not keep me every
moment, I descend into an abyss of self-occupation.
On any given day, if I get really hungry, having not eaten in a number of hours, I get desperate for something to eat. Our little ones eating their snacks is a perfect picture of how I feel. Nothing gets in their way. That bowl of snacks is devoured with purpose. I am utterly dependent on food and drink.hen I must ask myself, “How hungry am I for the Lord and for His Word?” I need to pray, “Lord, make me desperate for You and Your Word.” My very existence in a breath, a vapor/ He causes my heart to beat.
It is wonderful to work
with the little children at CBS. I am so thankful for CBS. It is wonderful to
be a child of God. God wants me to trust Him like a little child trusts, with
all my heart. So I pray, “Lord, make me like a little child, trusting in You
with all my heart. Amen.”
Hilda Tecklenburg
Originally presented to the Leadership
Council, Rutherfordton Day Class, January 14, 2015
