I hate silencing the sound of happy kids. They are excited, let them be loud a little, is my approach for the most part. But then there comes a time when being loud is rude. It’s rude to giggle during a prayer. Not because it’s disrespecting me,(although that’s true) or because you are always supposed to be extremely quiet with eyes closed during a prayer (even though that’s one way to pray). Giggling about something completely off topic during a prayer is rude because it’s God we’re talking to. Wait a second, if I were talking to you, and someone came right into our conversation and laughs with a friend in the middle of it, distracting us from our talk, that would be rude. That’s just common courtesy. That’s manners we’re taught early on in life. So, why do some of my teen girls get the idea that they can be as giggly and giddy as they want while I’m speaking to our Father during Sunday School?

Here are a couple of possible answers: 1. they really don’t care. Simple as that. 2. They don’t see God as as reachable and tangible as they could. They subconciously think, “If I can’t see or hear him, he can’t see or hear me.” If I were talking to you out loud, but you were invisible, and two people came up beside me laughing in the middle of my words, would that be rude? Essentially, yes, but to them, maybe I was just crazy and speaking out loud to no one or to myself. Why should they have to silence themselves for someone who doesn’t even act sanely? I’m not saying those girls today thought that I’m insane for talking to God. They understand to a slight extent that it’s common to talk to God when you can’t see him. But I’m trying to dig dipper into why teens do the things they do. I can’t possibly let myself look down on them for where they are at the moment. I could blame myself, though, for not looking at them for who they can be one day. I think that’s a basic requirement, or, at least, an area of improvement, that you have to have in ministry.

It challenges you. Utimately, it will be on those girls if they continue to treat God that way through out their lives. But in the meantime, I have to look at it as a place where I can teach, a small portion of their clay hearts that I take the opportunity to help mold. How do I help them see what they’re missing? It all comes down to love and how I live my life in front of them.