I am now at the beginning of my fifth month as an intern in youth and children’s ministries. There is so much involved with both areas. This week in particular has taught me so much about managing my time effectively. When we ask God to enlarge our territory like in Isaiah 54:2, He takes us up on it. A couple of weeks ago I had a paper due and I found out that I was going to be traveling with the Great Awakening Tour for an unspecified amount of time. I made sure that I had my paper done before I left.

This week however has been a little harder. I have to have 3 lesson plans made up for our children’s department because we have a conference next week. I do love making lesson plans. Then I received an assignment for school. Now we are switching curriculums for our Sunday morning children’s services and I have to study the message and train others in the new system. For youth, I’ve been put over worship because our leader stepped down and we’ve started a discipleship program with our youth which requires more one on one time being spent with them. Hallelujah! God took me at my request!

With the children in particular, it is so important to not water the Word down. There are many Christian programs that are out now that hint at Bible themes and lessons and never really get to the heart of the story. Society tells us that children aren’t prepared to handle the truths of life, but they live in the real world just like we do. They are tempted and situations arise that they need the truth about. We have done them a disservice if we don’t give them the real truth of the Word. These are lessons I couldn’t have learned volunteering once a month with the children.