Father, I would pray that You would enable me to get back into a groove again. Getting adjusted to a new routine of “early to bed, early to rise” has been difficult. I need a routine that gets me moving for sermon preparation and writing. Amen.

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I haven’t shared a bus story for a while…but then I’ve only been at it with kids for less than two weeks!

This morning I picked up one of only two kindergarteners that I have this year (last year I had 12!) He is a very precocious young man, and, boy, does he love to talk! I have my kindergarteners sit right behind me upfront and he sits in the seat directly behind my seat. Conversation is non-stop for the remainder of my route!

Well, this morning he was excited to share with me that he could count to 100…and he did! There was a little pause before each “ten”, but he did great!

In recent conversations with Karen, I know that they are supposed to be able to do that by the time they get to 1st Grade, so he’s ahead of schedule and not a thing wrong with that!

Now, if I told you that I could count to 100 and wanted to count it our for you, you’d probably think I’d lost it! It’s not quite as impressive for a man of my age, education, and life experience. But the sad thing is, as we get older that joy and wonder of learning and growing begin to fade for most of us. And unfortunately, we get pulled into the game of one-up-on-you. We feel that we always have to be better than our “opponents”. We have to show them up. We have to outdo what they did. Aren’t there a lot of circumstances where it would be great to just share in the joy of another in something they learned or accomplished, and regardless of what we know, that we could appreciate their excitement and cheer them on?

The verse that comes to mind is from the first part of 1 Thessalonians 5:11,

So encourage each other and build each other up… NLT

No matter the age or the circumstances – from kindergarteners to old friends – share in their wonder! Love them enough to build them up. It’s not us against them! We are in this together and there is no one who doesn’t need a steady diet of encouragement!

As has happened many a time, this brought to mind a song! And once more it is a song from my Children’s Pastor days in the late 90s. It’s another song from Steve Green’s Hide ‘em in Your Heart album – a collection of children’s songs taken straight from the Bible. For your listening pleasure, here is a link to listen to Encourage One Another! Take it to heart!

Sept 17th, 2020, Thurs, 12:51 pm