Over the past few years, I have had the privilege of serving in Kid Village a few times a month in the toddler room. Our time there consists of playing, cuddling, and distracting adorable 1-2 year olds while their parents are in church.
A few weeks ago I was asked to move to the elementary aged kids space to help lead a group. We started out singing and dancing, and then settled into a Bible story. That week, they were learning about Nehemiah, and his task of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. While rebuilding, Nehemiah saw that people in the city were hungry. So he went to the officials, and demanded better treatment for his fellow people. The lesson focused on Nehemiah’s initiative – seeing something that needed done, and doing it. Nehemiah, even though busy with rebuilding the wall, saw the hungry people and knew something had to be done about it.
What Happened Next
I was then grouped with the kindergarten students to talk about initiative in their lives. They shared times when someone showed initiative around them, or when they themselves showed initiative. It felt awesome listening to all of their stories, and how they were starting to figure out how to act out what the word of God was teaching.
A few days later, while at work, God spoke to me. It was a busy day at work, and one coworker had called in sick. This left another coworker of mine doing the work of two all by himself. While standing around, many of us began to comment on how dirty the place was getting. I immediately heard the words Nehemiah and initiative in my head. I saw that my coworker was struggling to keep up with the task by himself, and I started to help him. When caught up, he was very thankful to have had the help.
This was just a little bit of initiative in my life, but the event stood out to me because it was one of the first times something specific from the Bible popped into my head and caused me to take action. Here I was thinking I was serving the children, and it ends up, I was deepening my connection with Scripture.
This is why serving with purpose is so important. You never know when God is ready to connect.
