Kids Say the Darndest Things......

Last Sunday, my wife and I received a wonderful surprise and a beautiful blessing. Just before I began the sermon, our Children's Ministry Director came up on the stage and announced that the kids in the Sunday School classes had made us cards to us for our upcoming trip to Greece. She asked all the kids to come forward and present them to us personally. Then she also announced that the children would be praying for us before every class until we returned home. As Kelly and I stood there, the children brought their cards up one by one and started hugging us!

It was totally awesome! We were both totally surprised and totally blown away.

Each card had been written and hand decorated by each child. It was such a warm and heart-tugging moment! Many of the little ones would give us a hug and whisper, "I love you." We'll count those brief moments Sunday morning as a blessing and a precious memory long after we've returned from our trip.

We've got a great group of kids and they are always a joy to spend a few moments with on Sunday morning or around the church during the week. I love when they come into my office just to chat for a few moments or raid my candy jar for some yummy treats. Kelly has gotten to know a lot of them by helping out with AWANA on Monday evenings.

Sitting and reading the cards at home on Sunday evening, we were touched by many but got more than a few chuckles as well. It reminded me of reading our own children's writings when they were much younger, at times trying to figure out what had been going through their young minds as they wrote.

Here are a few of the sentiments we found, all are sweet but some are funny as well:

"Hope you do good on your trip!"

"I hope you have a good trip. Don't fall in the ocean." (complete with a stick-figure drawing of me falling off a cliff and Kelly saying "No!")

"Thank you for that...and that's all."

"I love you so much."

"Don't come back!" (look inside before you judge). On the inside..."Just kidding, hee hee! We all love you." This one had a line drawing of Kelly and I in a boat.

One precious young girl wrote a song:
Let the Lord shine through you.
To other people in Greece
Spread the word to other people you make friends with
Let the Lord's hand touch your hearts
To touch other people's hearts with God's hand
Oh, yeah..that's right!

"Have God be on your side."

"I'm so happy that you'll get out of the hospital soon!"

"Have a nice trip to Greece. Come back soon!"

There were more than a few of these, "Thank you for being my Pastor." "We love you." and "I'll be praying for you."

Our response to all this can only be, "Thank you for being such great kids!"