Sitting here...

So I'm sitting here coloring color pages from the last 6 or 7 Bible story handouts (cringing over my coloring skill) intending to cut them into puzzles to add to our assortment of distraction-into-worship activities. Asking myself, "Why exactly am I doing this? Why am I not more focused on "spiritual" things..."

Well, at least one preschooler isn't into arts and crafts but LOVES puzzles. A couple of kids don't always like to listen but if they're pretending, they're actively engaged. Right now, the older kids like word games. A couple kids are physically and mentally very active kids. (Playdough!) A couple of kids are very very social.* Most like music: listening, singing, playing rhythm instruments, moving, dancing.

I'm sitting here asking, "Why is it important (for me) to find quiet activities to engage every child (all different kinds of kids) and to help them focus on the story (apart from the importance of the story itself and interacting with it). Why?"

Just because I/we think an activity is actively engaging, it doesn't mean the child will. If a child isn't engaged during our worship time in a way that's personally meaningful to him/her (whether they can articulate that or not) all our good intentions, planning, and activities won't mean anything personal. There are other things imaginary and real that will draw their attention and as they grow, those things will grow with them. If the things we plan don't mean anything to them, they won't make it theirs.

"It"? Faith? Christ Jesus ? God? To make God's story, my story. We're focused on basic sensory, language experiences for the under 7's that will cause them to ponder God's stories. Then we watch and see what God will do. Don't know if anyone else is thinking but I'm not sure including kids in worship will work any other way. Activities that allow children using one of their five senses to encounter God's stories, and learning the words to go with the experiences, will probably open doors for most kids. But most kids will remember some sensory experiences better than others - thus the need to offer a variety of choices. That's what we're doing for adult kids.

My prayer is that the Spirit of Jesus saturate the work of our hands and engage these little people in spirit and in truth as they interact with the Greatest-of-Storytellers through His Story in as many ways as we can think of.

*Social: That's the hardest one to tap into during worship but maybe the inability to socialize with peers forces a social child to think about Jesus as the only one left to interact with and to encounter Jesus through the adults he/she interacts with. An idea that deserves more thought. :)