Attitudes
Children's sermon
Cows In Church
80 Biblically Based Children's Sermons
Object:
A brown paper sack in which I have placed several different styles of calendars, an egg timer, a mechanical timer, and an alarm clock.
Whether by serendipity or grace (if, in fact, there is a difference), light snow during the night has conveniently set the stage for my talk with the children. I begin with an imagined conversation:
" 'There's just not enough of it,' Sarah wailed to her brother and sisters.
" 'It's melting away!' Mary cried with distress.
" 'It IS going much too fast,' Jason agreed.
" 'I don't think it's going fast enough,' Sally objected.
"Just then, their mother stepped to the door and said, 'Come in for supper, children. It will be gone before you know it.'
"What," I ask the assembled children, "do you think Sarah and the others were talking about?"
Almost before there is time to blink, several of the children say, "Snow!" Obviously, this answer is not unexpected, aided by the overnight gift with which Mother Nature blanketed the ground.
"Yes," I agree, "they could have been talking about snow. But, they weren't. Is there anything else that sometimes seems to melt away, something that sometimes is not enough for some folks and too much for others? Is there anything else that goes too fast for some people and too slowly for others?"
The children think for a moment. Then with a triumphant look Jeff exclaims, "Time!"
"You guessed it, Jeff," I continue. "That's what these children were talking about. And it seems like an appropriate thing to discuss here at the beginning of a brand-new year. What are some of the ways in which we measure time?"
"With a watch," Beth offers. I agree, noting that I have a watch on my wrist, then ask for other ideas.
"A clock," Brad says. I pull an alarm clock out of the big shopping bag I've brought and set it on the floor in front of the children. "What else?" I question.
"One of those sand things," Carol answers.
"Yes," I agree, "and I have one of those in here too." I take out an hourglass egg-timer and set it on the floor by the clock.
"Do you have a sundial in there?" Keith asks with a grin.
"No, I don't," I answer. "But that is a good suggestion. I might have found a picture of one in a catalogue if I'd had time to look for one."
"Daylight," Sarah pronounces, looking around the sanctuary at the windows.
"Yes," I respond, "we can tell what time of day it is by where the sun is in the sky, by which windows it is shining through in here or in your homes. And daylight brings up the issue of days. How do we measure days, weeks, months ..."
"With calendars!" several children simultaneously respond before I ever get to "years."
Now I begin pulling calendars out of my bag -- wall calendars, desk calendars, pocket calendars.
"These come in many different shapes and sizes and can be found with subjects from sports to angels, cartoons to quotations," I tell the children. "We seem to be very conscious of time in our lives, don't we? Just look at all these things we have to help us keep track of time.
It's almost as if by keeping track of it we have a sense that we can somehow control time. But we really can't. Time is not in our hands; it's in God's.
"We are not in control of our time. We are not in control of our lives. God is. But we are in control of our attitudes. And, if you think back to the story we began with, that was the difference between Sally and her brother and sisters. Sally thought time was going much too slowly. The others thought it was getting away from them, going too fast. The difference was their attitude.
"We really do have a choice about our attitude. We can choose to be happy or sad. We can choose to be angry or forgiving. We can choose to hate or to love. God gives us the power and the freedom of choice. How we experience our time, how we experience our lives, is largely dependent on our choice of attitude.
"Our time is in God's hands. Our lives are in God's hands. But our attitudes are up to us. Sometimes it is difficult not to be sad or angry or unhappy. Sometimes it seems like nothing is going right. When we are in those times, it is especially important to remember who really is in charge, to remember that God is present in absolutely every moment of our lives. For God, 'there is a time for every matter under heaven.' "
" 'There's just not enough of it,' Sarah wailed to her brother and sisters.
" 'It's melting away!' Mary cried with distress.
" 'It IS going much too fast,' Jason agreed.
" 'I don't think it's going fast enough,' Sally objected.
"Just then, their mother stepped to the door and said, 'Come in for supper, children. It will be gone before you know it.'
"What," I ask the assembled children, "do you think Sarah and the others were talking about?"
Almost before there is time to blink, several of the children say, "Snow!" Obviously, this answer is not unexpected, aided by the overnight gift with which Mother Nature blanketed the ground.
"Yes," I agree, "they could have been talking about snow. But, they weren't. Is there anything else that sometimes seems to melt away, something that sometimes is not enough for some folks and too much for others? Is there anything else that goes too fast for some people and too slowly for others?"
The children think for a moment. Then with a triumphant look Jeff exclaims, "Time!"
"You guessed it, Jeff," I continue. "That's what these children were talking about. And it seems like an appropriate thing to discuss here at the beginning of a brand-new year. What are some of the ways in which we measure time?"
"With a watch," Beth offers. I agree, noting that I have a watch on my wrist, then ask for other ideas.
"A clock," Brad says. I pull an alarm clock out of the big shopping bag I've brought and set it on the floor in front of the children. "What else?" I question.
"One of those sand things," Carol answers.
"Yes," I agree, "and I have one of those in here too." I take out an hourglass egg-timer and set it on the floor by the clock.
"Do you have a sundial in there?" Keith asks with a grin.
"No, I don't," I answer. "But that is a good suggestion. I might have found a picture of one in a catalogue if I'd had time to look for one."
"Daylight," Sarah pronounces, looking around the sanctuary at the windows.
"Yes," I respond, "we can tell what time of day it is by where the sun is in the sky, by which windows it is shining through in here or in your homes. And daylight brings up the issue of days. How do we measure days, weeks, months ..."
"With calendars!" several children simultaneously respond before I ever get to "years."
Now I begin pulling calendars out of my bag -- wall calendars, desk calendars, pocket calendars.
"These come in many different shapes and sizes and can be found with subjects from sports to angels, cartoons to quotations," I tell the children. "We seem to be very conscious of time in our lives, don't we? Just look at all these things we have to help us keep track of time.
It's almost as if by keeping track of it we have a sense that we can somehow control time. But we really can't. Time is not in our hands; it's in God's.
"We are not in control of our time. We are not in control of our lives. God is. But we are in control of our attitudes. And, if you think back to the story we began with, that was the difference between Sally and her brother and sisters. Sally thought time was going much too slowly. The others thought it was getting away from them, going too fast. The difference was their attitude.
"We really do have a choice about our attitude. We can choose to be happy or sad. We can choose to be angry or forgiving. We can choose to hate or to love. God gives us the power and the freedom of choice. How we experience our time, how we experience our lives, is largely dependent on our choice of attitude.
"Our time is in God's hands. Our lives are in God's hands. But our attitudes are up to us. Sometimes it is difficult not to be sad or angry or unhappy. Sometimes it seems like nothing is going right. When we are in those times, it is especially important to remember who really is in charge, to remember that God is present in absolutely every moment of our lives. For God, 'there is a time for every matter under heaven.' "
