May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13

Americans are addicted to work. When meeting up with a friend for coffee, often the common question is, “How have you been?” The common answer is, “Busy.” We take pride in our busyness. We somehow feel that the busier we are, the more important we must be. Being a hard worker is a quality personality trait, but being a workaholic is not.

It is important during these quieter summer months to take time to renew your mind, body and faith. Your job of training young children to follow Jesus is so important. Being overworked, stressed and letting our faith grow weak is not being a faithful servant. There is only one solution to this: Jesus

We can find comfort in Jesus’ life. Jesus was a hard worker. He preached from dawn until dusk. He went from town to town healing, teaching, and training his disciples. His work was very important, but even Jesus took time away from his work. He would go somewhere secluded with his friends or even wander off alone to speak with his Father. He needed to renew his strength and faith so he could continue to serve others. That life is YOUR life. Jesus lived it perfectly for you and it became your life at your baptism when Jesus took his perfection and put it on you.

We can find comfort in Jesus’ death. There Jesus paid for all sins for all time, which also became yours at your baptism. He forgives us for the times we fail to trust in him. He forgives us for the times we forget to draw from God’s word.

The hope that we find in Jesus’ life and death fills us with peace and joy. Only when we are filled with those things will they overflow onto the children that we teach.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, continue to fill me with your love, joy, and peace. May I be a light to others as I go about my work of teaching little lambs. Amen.

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:3-6

Thank you notes. Such a simple gesture. You have likely gotten a variety of thank you notes. There are the ones from your students that are handmade and full of their love for you. You may get notes this time of year from parents that express their gratitude for your loving attention to their child. You might be working with your students on thank you notes to send to volunteers and others who have contributed in some way to their classroom this year. While it may be simple, a thank you note can encourage and touch the hearts of the recipient.

As the year draws to a close, we often reflect on the children and families we serve. We thank God for the opportunity and privilege to partner with parents and to share the gospel with the children and their families. We thank God for the blessings of relationships built and strengthened this year. Among those relationships may be those with whom we serve. Philippians 1 is a wonderful reminder for us to also take the time to stop and thank God for those with whom we serve. Those individuals may be in our classrooms and centers, at our own congregation, at a neighboring congregation, in our district, or in a congregation we don’t even know. You may serve in a center with just you or in a center with a number of staff members. You may have another center nearby or maybe the nearest center is hours away. But in each of those centers are people like you whose goal is to share the precious gospel with young children and their families. What a blessing! Today’s verses remind us of the fellowship we share with others who serve as teachers, directors, aides, and volunteers in early childhood ministries each day. The verses also provide the comfort and encouragement that we can be confident as this year draws to a close and each day that God is the one to carry our work on to completion. It is he who blesses all we do.

So today we send a thank you note of prayer. It is simple, it is sincere, and it is full of joy. We thank God for the privilege of serving, for those we are blessed to serve, and for those with whom we serve. Today I send a thank you note of prayer to God for each of you and pray that he continues to bless his work through you.

Prayer: Dearest Lord, I thank you for the privilege of sharing your gospel each day. I thank you also for all those who serve in the preaching and teaching ministry. Bless them, guide them, strengthen them, and give them the joy and confidence that it is you who blesses all that they do. In your name we pray, Amen.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
Matthew 1:21

Have you ever asked a group of young children what they think that first Christmas was like? Very likely they try to fill in some of the missing details. Perhaps they have extreme concern over the sheep that the shepherd likely left when they “hurried off” to see Jesus–they wonder if the angels stayed and looked after them, or, at the very least, scared off the wolves so that the sheep would be safe. Another child might envy the shepherds, the first visitors of Jesus, because “after everyone else found out about Jesus there was a very long line to hold that baby”.

God doesn’t give us every detail about that first Christmas, but we can be assured that everything we need to know is written down for us in his Word, the Bible. When we look in his Word, we see that he was more than just a baby. We needed Jesus to come! We fail to live as we should. We gossip or tell lies about people. We try to manipulate situations to work for our good and to someone else’s disadvantage. We live for ourselves.

And yet we see His glory. We see that God became a baby, a human, one of us. God sent his Son, who never did wrong, to be a part of our dirty, sinful world. Jesus was all God and all man. Jesus did all the things people do–he ate, slept, cried, felt emotional and physical pain. And he died.

The only “human” trait Jesus did not have was sin. He never lied, never gossiped, never disobeyed God. God’s glory was revealed to us through Jesus’ sinless life and his death on the cross. And now we have seen his glory! We share in his victory because he has taken our sins upon himself and has given us the crown of life. God’s glory is ours through Jesus!

Prayer: Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning! Jesus, to thee be all glory given, Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing. Oh, come let us adore him! Oh, come let us adore him! Oh, come let us adore him, Christ the Lord! Amen

Christian Worship 55 v 4