Art Linkletter used to have a show called, "Kid's say the darndest things". Bill Cosby recreated that show decades later. The premise of the show was to put kids on stage and have them interviewed about things in their family, life, and even politics. The hilarity came with the things that would come out of their mouth. Ask any Kindergarten teacher and they will tell you that you never know what you can learn about a family from the mouth of a 6 year old. It makes me wonder what my 3 angels (or devils depending on the day) would say about me? Would they say I'm playful, angry, busy, addicted to Penn State Football, competitive, loving, obsessive, vulgar, and hopefully Christ-like. I guess they could say all of those thing because in some ways they all could describe me. How would you and your Student describe God?
We could describe God as full of Grace and loving. No greater testament to that than Jesus Christ himself. We could call him powerful, he did speak the world into creation. We could call him jealous (Exodus 20:5). We could call him angry (Amos 1:3). We could call him forgiving, joyous, and paternal. Just like me, we could use all these to describe God and in some ways I personally like them all, even the angry part just as long as he's not angry with me! But there is one descriptor of God that really makes me nervous. There is one aspect of him that shakes me to the core and leaves me scrambling, God is intimate.
In Luke 12:7 Jesus tells us that God loves us and knows us so well that he even knows all the hair on our head (or lack thereof for some). Now that is what I call intimate! He knows my comings and goings. He knows my thoughts actions, dreams, ambitions, and even the little white lies I've told that no one knows. He knows my insecurities, my failures. He knows my successes, my faith, and everything about me. He knows me better than My Bride does. I don't know about you, but that is kinda scary. There are a lot of things I don't want people to know about me for obvious reasons, the main one being, will they still love me or respect me if they knew all of me? I guess it should be comforting to know that God still does but I don't know how he does. It is one of those things that just doesn't make sense and while it scares me it also in a way draws me closer to him.
Parents, talk to your Students about all the different aspects of God. My list above is hardly exhaustive. Ask them the parts they love about God and the parts that make them nervous or scared. Share with them your thoughts. Be honest with them and your Student will be honest with you. God will know if you are holding anything back and believe it or not, your kid probably will too.
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