Kyle and I have walked through Colossians 3 with Keegan & Josie for the past two weeks.  It’s the scriptural focus of the message series, Road Trip, they’re watching in LifeKIDS each weekend.  I love the fact that our family is focused on this one chapter in scripture.  The time spent just reading together has been refreshing.

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience... Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.  Col 12 & 14

I wish I could say this has been my demeanor the past few weeks.  Yet I’m amazed at how difficult it has been to live this out.  Ministry has been challenging, to put it lightly.  It seems that the simplest of processes in kids ministry aren’t so simple right now.  The level of patience, gentleness, and humility I’ve shown is less than I care to confess.

Why is it when I ask God to increase my patience, gentleness and humility… He likes to show me all the areas where it lacks the most?

Here we are… The 5th and final faith skill to build into our kids… (cue drumroll)

Skill #5:  Give to God

It’s important for children and teens to know how to give back to God and serve Him in the way they live their everyday lives

Again, I don’t think we’re hearing anything new here.  It’s the simplicity of living a life focused on God and not ourselves.  Whether it’s worshiping through song, the tithe, serving others… the key is focusing on God and following His desires for us, not our own.

Now, here’s the kicker question that applies to every faith skill.

1. Navigate the Bible
2. Personalize Scripture
3. Dialogue with God
4. Articulate Faith
5. Give to God

Do these faith skills only apply to kids?  Or are these skills each of us need to develop/sharpen in our own lives?

We tend to plan out the things kids are taught to ensure the objectives are clear. Consider this ‘continuing education’ for adults.  Which faith skill needs sharpening in your life?

Talking about the 5 skills to establish faith in our kids.  Catch the first 4 here.

Faith Skill #4: Articulate Faith

Create a safe place to discuss and wrestle with what kids believe.  This is key for our kids to make their faith their own.

Not just as parents, but as individuals, we can fear doubt.  We are scared of questions.  Sometimes it freaks us out when people question their faith.  We think we might lose them forever.  They might go off the deep end.

“Just have more faith.  Have more faith!”

I’m not discounting faith.  It’s a vital component to your relationship with Jesus.  But in order to make something your own, sometimes you’ve got to wrestle it down yourself.   I appreciate a good sermon, but I value scripture more when I labor through, question and digest it myself.

Give people in your home the space and the safety to question.  Have less faith in your explanations of God… and have more faith in the work God is doing in the midst of the wrestle.

Some of the best parenting advise I’d ever heard came from a 23 year old single man.  He said…

Talk less.  Pray more.

Do questions make you uncomfortable?  Do you allow people to question and wrestle with their faith?

I’m a ministry ‘rookie’.  Less than 10 years.

And there are certain things I don’t understand about church.

We don’t always like to deal with problems.

As Christ-followers, it seems we expect the challenges of life to wrap themselves up and resolve as quickly as the 30-minute sitcoms we grew up watching.  When someone reveals a problem we fire a combination of scripture hoping to vanquish it like the foe in a video game.  We’re not always comfortable with process when someone deals with life’s twists and turns.

Genesis 32 reveals a story of Jacob wrestling with God.  For years I read that story and figured Jacob got what he deserved.  You wrestle with God and you’ll walk away with a limp!

Don’t wrestle with God!!

I’m rethinking that now.

God blessed Jacob.  Made him the father of nations.  Why is that?  I don’t know.  I have no doubt commentators have written on this for years.  I have no new revelations here.  But today I look at the wrestle differently.

Jacob never let go of God.

He fought to hang on.  It had to be an ugly fight.  Not the pansy, stand-back-and-slap-a-little, kind of fight.  If he was relentless enough that the angel realized he wouldn’t overpower Jacob… I’d say Jacob was fighting to hang on to God no matter the cost.

I think when God is weeding out deeply rooted stuff there is going to be a wrestle and church needs to be a safe place for that wrestle to happen.  What does that mean?

It means messy things like broken marriages, sexual addictions, the loss of a loved one, disease, disability…  some will wrestle with God for years as they learn to give their pain/their sin/their will over to Him.

I think the point of blessing came because Jacob never gave up.  In fact, that was the moment God renamed him Israel (God-wrestler).