We had just arrived home from church. Everyone began piling out of the van,
except for my 9 year-old daughter; she held me back. For the next 30 minutes,
she and I sat in the van as she told me how the morning sermon had revealed the
ugliness of a habit of sin that had comfortably settled in her heart. She
repeated to me all the parts of the sermon that had spoken to her listening
heart. The Holy Spirit was speaking in a gentle voice and my daughter received it.
Oh, how my heart swelled with joy! We had been trying to reach our
daughter’s heart for a couple months in regard to this particular sin. We had
been frustrated at the lack of response on her part. And now here it was – a
moment of breakthrough!
I realize that it didn’t have to be a Sunday sermon that God used to reach
her heart. The point I am trying to make is that a preacher’s sermon is no less
understood by a child. He may be preaching to adult ears but the Holy Spirit
will take that message and meet me, you, or even a child, exactly where our
heart is. The Holy Spirit gives us understanding. It’s not necessary for a
preacher to dumb-down a message in order for it to be understood by a child.
What a privilege it was to have been sitting beside my daughter in the pew
and together receive the Word of God!
except for my 9 year-old daughter; she held me back. For the next 30 minutes,
she and I sat in the van as she told me how the morning sermon had revealed the
ugliness of a habit of sin that had comfortably settled in her heart. She
repeated to me all the parts of the sermon that had spoken to her listening
heart. The Holy Spirit was speaking in a gentle voice and my daughter received it.
Oh, how my heart swelled with joy! We had been trying to reach our
daughter’s heart for a couple months in regard to this particular sin. We had
been frustrated at the lack of response on her part. And now here it was – a
moment of breakthrough!
I realize that it didn’t have to be a Sunday sermon that God used to reach
her heart. The point I am trying to make is that a preacher’s sermon is no less
understood by a child. He may be preaching to adult ears but the Holy Spirit
will take that message and meet me, you, or even a child, exactly where our
heart is. The Holy Spirit gives us understanding. It’s not necessary for a
preacher to dumb-down a message in order for it to be understood by a child.
What a privilege it was to have been sitting beside my daughter in the pew
and together receive the Word of God!