A short article by Pastor Edward on teaching children of New Hope..."So care for, with tenderness and wisdom, this thing that God has put in your hands. It is a gift, precious, fragile, miraculous: the heart of a child. "

The heart of a child is a pretty amazing thing if you think about it. It embodies so much of what we love about people. Often we leave interactions with our fellow adults and we feel as if didn’t quite interact. We exchanged information, got goals accomplished, but we did not actually interact. We were willing to work together but surely we would not open our hearts to each other. Much of the time, this is not so with a child ...

The Heart of a Child

The heart of a child is a pretty amazing thing if you think about it. It embodies so much of what we love about people. Often we leave interactions with our fellow adults and we feel as if didn’t quite interact. We exchanged information, got goals accomplished, but we did not actually interact. We were willing to work together but surely we would not open our hearts to each other. Much of the time, this is not so with a child. Most children retain the capacity to throw wide open their hearts and leave themselves so vulnerable. This is what I mean when I say, “the heart of a child.” They have no other protection from you than your love. Unlike adults, if you wanted, you could hurt a child so deeply. Love in this instance, means that, knowing this, you would rather be cut to pieces than see any harm come to a child in your care. This is a natural God-given instinct installed at the most profound levels of our psyche. So that, unless something has gone terribly wrong, all adults feel, by nature, the innate responsibility to care for children. The inner responsibility to care for a child spiritually, however, is a supernatural work of God. And if God has called you to be Sunday School teacher, it is I’m sure, in no small way because you have felt this, from the Lord. And therefore, God has gifted you by His grace and power with the one essential to be a Sunday School teacher: love for a child expressed through care for his or her spiritual development.

This special form of nurture in the life of a child is led, firstly by parents, that cannot be displaced. However, parents need help in this. They cannot do it alone, but neither will they get support in raising a godly child from the world. Often the world will be a place that will surround and seduce children, to the frustration and heartbreak of loving parents. Mom and dad will need the help of a community that will also surround their children and inspire them toward something better. In a sense when children are dedicated to this community at New Hope we all accept a share in this task. Sunday School teachers shoulder a special part of that task. What we hope to give them generally as a community, you get to instruct and model on a far more personal level.