Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Building a Relational CHAIN - #5 NOTICE

For those of you following my series on building a relational CHAIN to your kids,  I bring you the last link in the acronym!!! Yaay!!!

Connect    Honor    Ask    Invest     NOTICE

Today's link is brought to you by the letter "N" ...NOTICE. As in, notice what is happening in the lives of your kids. The three keys to noticing are as simple as crossing the street. In fact, if you can do one, you can do the other! The secret to both is to Stop, Look, and Listen.

1) STOP - Often the greatest ministry opportunities show up when we're busy, and too many times, we miss them. When faced with a choice between a child or a chore, we need to stop what we're doing, kneel down, and invest some time to make that child feel special.

2) LOOK - Appearances can be deceiving. There can be hurts and worries behind well-groomed smiling faces. As leaders, we need to be intentional about pausing our busyness long enough to look children in the eyes and see into their hearts.

3) LISTEN - You can find out a lot about a kid's life if you simply listen to them. Listen for comments that will give you clues about their family, friends, school, likes and dislikes. These clues will help you see what is truly going on in the life of a child so you can know how to pray for and minister to the kids in your class.

As children arrive in your ministry this week, beware of being so busy that you miss the opportunity to truly notice what is happening beneath the surface in the lives of your kids. Building a relational bridge sometimes requires us to put something down and empty our hands, so that we can reach out to our kids, "hands free" and fully available.

Johnny Rogers

Check out Johnny's personal blog here

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