“Friend” is common terminology used in preschool environments.  It is the term I use to refer to children in classes.

“How are all my friends doing today?”  “Come over here, friends, and let’s get started with worship.”

Everyone is deemed friend.  I like this because it assumes the best of kids, their relationships and intent.  Everyone starts out being a friend; it’s not an earned status.

This is quite a contrast to my adult life…

It’s more complicated than that, right?  I somehow justify the RIGHT to evaluate, assess, and judge whether people I meet are worthy of relationship with me.  They must meet some list of qualifications to deserve my friendship.  Friend is not an easily won title. 

I’m conflicted by the double standard I’ve established.  The Bible clearly states that God detests double standards of every kind (Proverbs 20).  Yet, I’ve created very distinct differences between child and adult friendships.  Children should all be friends, but adults have to work for relationship.  (Disclaimer: I’m not ignorant to the fact that not everyone should be involved in our lives.)

The Holy Spirit has convicted me.  If I am to preach the Gospel message and share the love of Christ with others (which all believers are called to do), the best example I can provide is through loving people like Jesus.  I should desire to be a friend and one that loves at all times.

My new list for friendship is directed towards me:

• I need to be a better friend.
• I need to seek out friends.
• I need to assume good intent and offer relationship to those I meet.

During the month of April we are teaching preschoolers that Jesus is my good friend.  We want to impact their lives with the amazing grace that Jesus provides through His death and resurrection as we celebrate Easter.  We will talk about how Jesus has prepared a place for us to spend eternity with Him.  We will expound on His faithful, just, consistent, and freely given love.

Friendship with Jesus is our goal for these young hearts.

“A friend loves at all times.” Proverbs 17:17

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God loves everyone.

Simple and powerful words for our humanity to understand.  How could He really love everyone?!?!?  As we try to understand this incredible attribute of God, scripture challenges us to love each other as He has loved us.  It seems nearly impossible to have such perfect love, but Christ left us with His legacy of love as an example of how to show compassion, mercy, care, and hope to others. 

During March, our preschoolers will learn more encouraging and empowering stories of Jesus’ love shown to those during His ministry on earth.  These are true stories of love being shared with those who were “unworthy” of the presence of Christ.  Kind of like the rest of us…

1 John tells us that people will know our love for Christ is real, because we can love like He loved.  I embrace the challenge of loving people, because I’m also one of those sinning, undeserved, difficult, and full of faults people who needs Christ’s love poured out from others. I long to be loved for who I really am and the potential dormant within me – and I think everyone has that desire!

I have purposed with my life to love others with a selfless, patient, unwavering affection that Christ shows me.  All believers should strive for this.  This month we will begin this journey for many preschoolers by focusing on:

Basic Truth: Jesus wants to be my friend forever.

Bottom Line: Jesus loves everyone.

Memory Verse: “Love each other as I have loved you.” John 15:12

I will never forget their smiles, their welcoming hugs, and loving faces. Who knew kids could have ALL these qualities at once? Especially for complete strangers! The result, we saw even bigger smiles, loving hugs, and teary-eyed faces. I am talking about witnessing a special opportunity we were able to give our kids and their families by learning about “HONOR: letting someone know you see how valuable they really are.”

In our midweek service, we like to think of creative ways our kids can work on community projects while emphasizing on our monthly virtue. It’s how we can put hands and feet to what God is teaching us. The very first week of our Honor series, we learned to “Honor those who are overlooked”. The kids and I brainstormed those who may be overlooked in our city and we decided we would honor a very special group of people.

During our Community Project Night, we invited our families to make over 200 chocolate kiss valentine roses, complete with a heart shaped tag that said: “I HONOR YOU” and “WE LOVE YOU” in child’s hand-writing. Some of our elementary students were so passionate about making these roses and what they stood for, that they insisted their parents let them go with me to one of our local nursing homes and personally give their valentine roses to some people whom they thought would feel overlooked on Valentine’s Day…in their words: “The older people, the grandmas and grandpas.”

We had over 10 of our families meet me at one of our nursing home facilities on Valentine’s Day. I distributed the roses to each family and off they went! I observed and my heart smiled. Families went together into the rooms, hugging the residents and visiting with them as a family. The kids would give the rose and say “Happy Valentine’s Day. We Honor you today.” One little kindergarten girl made friends and hugged everyone she saw! Her mother later told me, “She is so proud of what we got to do. She has been telling everyone how we honored those who are overlooked. She said, ‘Mom, we honored the grandmas and grandpas, when can we do it again?!?’”

I had no idea that a virtue called “Honor”, would strike such a chord with our kids. When we talked about Romans 12:10: “Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves,” we decided that this kind of love is not as easy as “loving pizza…”, as one of our 4^th grade boys described, “…It’s like a stronger, deep from within kinda’ love…below the surface!” They honored someone else without thinking of themselves, and are asking: “When? When can we do it again?”

Your kids can visit us each Wednesday Night in KidsMOVE as we go deeper into the Bible with our kids, and experience some great Community Service Projects.  We meet each Wednesday Night from 7pm-8:15pm in the Lower Floor on the main campus of Trinity Church!

We are gearing up for another fantastic Summer Camp Experience for our Kidsplace families.  Sign-ups have begun!  Get a camp application this weekend in Kidsplace and take advantage of our $275 Early Bird Rate today!  The Early Bird price goes away on February 28th, so don't delay!