Monday, June 25, 2012

A Humorous teaching moment


     I truly love kids!  They say the best things at times!  My kids are no exception to this truth.  Even as they have grown into the double digits, we still have moments of pure enjoyment from their comments.  This recently happend about two months ago.  I just have to share this moment since it turned into another teaching moment.
     Our church has communion once a month, a practice established years back.  This particular Sunday our church was quite populated, always a good problem, and we unfortunately did not get to sit all together as a family like we usually do.  At this time our middle child was sitting in a pew ahead of us and an aisle away. He ended up moving all the way down to make room for a family we did not know. That was very gentlemanly of him! A proud moment for a parent. Our Pastor started with asking all of us to stand if we have accepted Christ as our personal Savior.  Then he went through years of being saved.  Seth had taken note that the dad of the family sitting next to him stood up for being saved.  So the service continues and the Lord's supper is presented.  Our pastor always welcomes fellow believers for communion.  The contents of the small cracker are passed and Seth hands it to his neighbor who passes without taking one.  
     Seth simply turns to the man and innocently asks, "Are you allergic?" 
The man replies with a small smile and "No" and gently pats Seth on his back.
Now for us adults this moment just makes me smile and laugh.  I truly enjoy my kids!  Moments like these I even say that to them!  I was even shocked that Seth had enough courage to ask the man that himself. 
     Seth told me he was confused because the man had stood up in the service if you were saved.  We do have many friends who have very sensitive food allergies so he was just trying to make sense of this in his own mind.  So this was now my turn to make it a teachable moment.
     I explained to Seth that in the New Testament scriptures it says to examine ourselves.
     For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 1 Corinthians 11:26 (NIV)
I further explained that we need to look at our own lives and make sure we are in line with God's best for us.  If we find that we are outright sinning then we should pass on communion.  I also told him the man could have other reasons for passing the communion plate and it is not our job to judge him.
What a great moment for us to continue our learning of God's Word!