Loving others

"Do as I say not as I do!" Have you ever heard that saying? Does anyone ever know if that works or not? It's funny to me that we perpetuate sayings that make no sense to children who need the example to follow. It's comical that God uses children as mirrors. You know what you're projecting to the world when you watch your children because how they learn is by watching what you do.

How can reflect the value of love for others? How do our children learn how to love others well?

As we discussed in the previous blog number one thing we establish in our household is loving God above all else.

The second commandment is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Matt 22:39

The second value that we must establish in our houses, churches, and schools is this idea of loving others as you love yourself. Now understand that you can't love others if you have not established a love for yourself. Many lies come in when we are children about how much we are worth loving and who will love us. At all times children deserve our love, respect, and persuit. They need to understand that their value is not based on performance or how much they can change themselves. Their value lies in just being. Many parents push the performance button on their children because we as a society are conditioned to have performance before being recognized as a valuable member of society. I'm not saying that wanting your children succeed in life or have success in school is a bad thing but it can not dictate how you express love to your children.

Lets think about it from a Kingdom perspective. Ephesians 1:4 says "just as He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him."

I don't know how many of you had done anything to get approval before being born but God chose you even before you could do one thing. Not only that before we were alive Christ died for us so that we could have a way back to the Father. This is the same perspective we must have as stewards of children. Knowing that we can't make our love conditional because we have received undeserved, unconditional love from the One who could and had every right to put conditions on His love towards us.

Once we establish as parents and teachers that the goal is to aim our love towards our kids the effect is dramatic. They start to do things because there's a desire inside of them to love us back and make us happy. There's a confidence where they know who they are and know that they are unconditionally accepted no matter what. We as adults can help establish within children a confirmation in their identity as amazing, intelligent, beautiful, and God designed.

When there's an atmosphere of constant affirmation and love the over flow of that is loving others. In 1Corn. 13 it talks about the elements and definition of love. Below is an article outlining that chapter and my thoughts that goal long with it. If you would like to read:

http://aileenthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/07/love.html

With the definition given within this chapter I can almost guarantee that it's impossible to love like this. The element and definition of love is God. God = Love. It's a supernatural element meaning that it goes beyond our nature. We have to tap into the nature of God to be able to demonstrate it. So when you're in the car and the car in front of you does something stupid watch where you aim your mouth because most likely your children are paying attention to what you're saying. Learn to bless and release love not in anger but tapping into the supernatural element of love.

That was just one example amongst the millions of ways throughout the day that your children are watching you. Realize that this is an impossible thing for you to accomplish on your own which should give you hope. If you don't have love for someone in your world stop a minute and tap into the river of love that God has flowing for them. Allow yourself to be a door way from His love to that person. Teach your children how even if you don't feel love for someone God has more then enough love and all you have to do is ask Him to fill your heart with His love for them.

Take every opportunity with your kids to teach them about love. Our love doesn't look like the world's. Love in the world looks like I need a reciprocation or it's conditional on how much I like you at that moment. God's love is never ending and always the same. It never ever fails no matter what that person has done to you or done in general. You can love the most violent person because God loves them more then you could ever imagine.

We must establish that the definition of love has to be met with the standard of love in our households. Love is the ultimate goal of our Christian walk. We have to create an environment where our children learn how to love well. If we revert to demanding performance we're tapping into the religious spirit who demands performance instead of fighting for relationship.

Let us change our houses into love bubbles where there's safety, identity, and a covering for a multitude of sins. With love there's no fear and it covers.

Sometimes in our households fear is established because there's a mindset of punishment. If we believe that Jesus took all punishment for sin on Himself why do we still punish our children and instill fear into their hearts? We will talk about parenting techniques and establishing the fear of the Lord later but I want to leave you with one final thought. Fear casts out love as much as love casts out fear. Which are you establishing in your household?

many blessings on your journey with you little ones!

Aileen Foos

children's pastor

Expression58

www.expression58.org

* Also available for conferences, speaking/teaching engagements, soaking seminars, and ministry consultations. For contact please e-mail: e58kidsmin@gmail.com

Love is the Goal

As our children grow up we think of all the possibilities, hopes and dreams that they are going to full fill whether it's our dreams for them or their dreams. Even in Christiandom we think about how amazing these little ones will be when they are functioning in their full gifting, calls, and destinies. Unfortunately what happens often is that our church communities are based on performance, we start becoming human doings instead of human beings. What our children see is that our significance or how they get to feel powerful is by performing. We unknowingly model that the most significant value in our culture is performance. Not that operating out of our gifting isn't good or that we shouldn't train our children in their talents, gifting, or calls but we have to keep first things first.

What is the first thing? What is the goal with our children? How do we create a culture where it's not based on performance but relationship?

Matthew 22:37 - And he said to them" You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."

Love is the goal, we are going to talk throughout this blog about many ways to create a Kingdom culture in the home, church, school, and community but above all throughout the different blogs I will address over and over the number one goal of our lives..is love...

If our children don't get this we have done them a huge disservice. We can't call ourselves a pure representation of the Kingdom if our goal with God and others is not love. Love is what we were created for, what we are called to, and what we die for.

In this blog I'm going to talk about the first commandment and how we can demonstrate that to our children. In subsequent blogs I will talk about loving others and then what love looks like. If we as adults don't know what love looks like how can we properly teach and model what love is. Our lives have to reflect these core values of love. The love that we profess has to line up with the definition of I Corinthians 13. If our love doesn't look like that I want to challenge you that it's not love at all.

How do we demonstrate how to Love the Lord with everything to a generation who doesn't know God yet?

Bill Johnson says " There are no grandchildren in the Kingdom of God." What does that mean?

When I was a child I remember telling my father that I didn't want his God I wanted my own God. While I expressed the wording of that wrong the idea and the concept was there. I wanted my own relationship with God I didn't want to live through my fathers relationship with God I wanted God to talk with me. While we as a body have come a long way in realizing that we can have personal relationship with our Maker, what I find is that a lot of people don't know how to create opportunities for children to have their own relationship with God. Either it's because of fear or because we think that the children will hear a demonic voice over God's voice or parents/teachers really want control over their children because they want them to perform a certain way so giving them rules is easier then letting them take their own journey with the Lord. There are numerous fears, concerns, and honestly they all come from a place where we don't trust our children with their Creator.

If you find yourself in any of these mindsets ask God to forgive you and to show you how to trust Him with your children. It's ok if your children don't get it right the first time we create a space for them to encounter God on their own, have their own relationship with Him and then we help them process that out.

So how do you create this opportunity for your child? Well...how do you hear God's voice? If you don't feel like you know how to hear God's voice or you wouldn't know how to explain that to a child there are some great resources out there on how to teach children how to hear the voice of their Father. I teach children everywhere how to hear the voice of God and I can tell you from experience that it's easier for children to hear God then adults sometimes and you don't have to get all theological or even biblical God tells them the things that you can find in the Word. It's amazing when children don't even know Bible stories and God will tell them by them just listening.

Number one thing teach them to hear the voice of God, then give them an opportunity to hear Him. For example as a family you can pray and ask God to show you all a picture for another person in your family or what He thinks of each of you. Then share as a family what you feel God is telling you. Of course this is always full of love, comfort, lifting up, and making someone stronger. Teach you children that even if God corrects you there is so much love through it all you don't even feel like you got corrected.

1. Teach kids how to hear Gods voice

2. Practice as a family

3. Journal what God is saying to you child it's important to keep a history.

4. Make it a habit in your family to hear the voice of God

Being a model and example of how to enteract with God helps children connect.

You as a parent/teacher can say something like.. I feel like God wants me to tell you that He loves it when you laugh..or whatever He's saying. Just make sure that you don't ever use the voice of God to manipulate, control, or use a child. When they hear the commonality of this language they will get use to the norm of hearing God's voice.

Another thing I feel is important is for parents is to show that God is the number one priority in the home. Whatever this looks like for your family. For example, mommy is going to have her quiet time with Jesus while daddy plays with the kids or every morning we start with reading the Bible and see what God is saying for the day. Demonstrate that you have a personal relationship with God and that they can have one too. You can even make a fun thing out of it say," would you like me to set up a time for you to meet with Jesus today? Would you like to clean your room, put your best clothes on for you "date " with Jesus?" This helps them see that you value their quiet time as well. I know as parents we want to know everything that our children are hearing from God but it's their relationship with Him. You don't tell your children everything God tells you so you shouldn't demand that from them. Tell them that Jesus has secrets just for Him and them to keep between them. This really makes their relationship with God special and helps them see you aren't violating their relationship with Him.

As a family you can create core values that make God the head of all decisions. For example if there's a major family decision to be made ask all the family members to pray and ask God what He thinks of the problem. Then listen as your children start telling you what they feel God is saying it will shock you how accurate they are.

Make God the priority throughout the day not in a religious way but in a relational way. God is a relational God. Think how you would act if you had this really important person in your life that your children didn't know but you wanted them to get to know Him and get to love Him as much as you do. This can not be an external pressure but an internal desire. You as the parent/teacher demonstrate throughout your life the power of the relationship you have with God. Include your children in the testimonies of what God has done in your life or what He's doing in your life. Share your testimony with your children. Let them know how good God has been to you and how amazing He is. The children of Israel would tell stories of their forefathers and How God showed up and these children grew up in a culture of hearing how amazing God was and all the things that He did. They were surrounded by the testimony all the time and it created in them this reality that God if He did it once He can do it again!

You as a parent or teacher have this amazing opportunity to shift the culture in your home to one of freedom, love, relationship, and peace. A new generation of parents are rising up imparting Kingdom culture into their homes. I have to encourage you all because I know that it can be hard to go against opinions, traditions, mindsets, and norms but Heaven is Invading this earth and where it invades is your homes, your children, and your lives that's the power of the transformation of the cross. So be encouraged till next time be blessed...

Aileen Foos

Children's Pastor

Expression58

www.expression58.org

Normal Kingdom childhood

" Yes, there's an angel standing over there and He's purple."

"Jesus gave me a microphone and told me I'm going to talk to many people."

" I went swimming with Jesus and the whales because He loves me."

These are the things that I hear on a weekly basis, what is that you might ask? These are the voices of a generation of children walking out a relationship with God.

When I was a child, Sunday school consisted of felt boards and memorized Bible verses. The goal being..well I don't remember what the goal was. I do however remember the stories, some of the scriptures and I know how to navigate through the Bible at lightening speed. Do I regret the Sunday school education that I had.. no not really, do I believe there is more, absolutely!

As I've walked out my life coming from relating to God through my parents to finding my own path to intimacy with God I've discovered so major keys. Before I share what the Lord has reveled to me over the last several years of my life I want to give a brief description of my life and my passion.

I was raised in a non-denominational church in the deep south. While the presence of God saturated the sanctuary the amount of legalism and religion was intense. During the time of my formative years encounters with God where quite common. Pretty profound encounters with angels, demons, and Jesus. The Spirit realm was a reality for me at a very young age but there was a lack of understanding and no real knowledge of stewardship. As most stories go there was a fissure in our church over hidden sin. This removed me from my reality that had been so closely guarded launching me into a world of unknown realities.

Where did the presence go? Where were the signs and wonders? Where in the heck was God and why in the heck did He leave me? Teenage land contained all these questions as we stepped into another church world know as Evangelicalism. Far from the home I knew and loved launched into a world of harsh realities and unknown norms I found myself questioning everything I had ever been told. Is God real? Are we real? What's real anymore?

My years of hiccuping where 7 in total. Yes, to describe walking away from the Bride of Christ I describe it as long hiccup. Did I walk away from God? No..never, I had seen too much to know that He was real if that was the only thing that was real at least I could cling on to that.

After enduring 7 years of hell on earth discovering in all reality the choices I was making where literally leading me to death I cried out for sovereign deliverance. In a matter of a couple months my life was completely shifted from the kingdom of darkness back to the kingdom of light. I was home..home..what did that mean? Was it going to be controlling, full of rules and condemnation? Was God really a mean manipulative God? As I stepped back into the Kingdom of Light, the light literally came on in my Spirit. I entered into a whole new world that from my formative years had never been experienced. I entered into a powerful, loving, life giving, healing, peaceful, full, Kingdom.

This reality of the Kingdom was completely new and foreign to me but my spirit drank deep and ate ravenously from the truth that was being released. I'd never felt so hungry or so thirsty for truth before not knowing that Truth it self was a person, was the Son of God. The eyes of my spirit where once again opened. Once again the reality of seeing in the spirit realm broke on me like a violent wave. Angels, demons, God, and encounters of all kinds came like a flood. Still not being in an environment where there was an understanding of how to steward, grow, and shape my gifting I began to seek understanding, wisdom and knowledge.

Breakthrough happened, as much as I reached out for God he reached back out to me. I found a place where the gifting, the culture and the love all lined up with what I knew was true Kingdom Culture. So I ran after that. Diving head first discovering God on a level I had never seen, heard, or felt before. Knowing that this part of the Bride of Christ was unlike anything I had ever encountered in my whole life. There wasn't manipulation, control, rules..it was replaced with a grace, honor, and freedom to be myself unlike I had ever experienced before.

So I ate and drank again and again until the orphan that I had been transformed into the daughter that I was created to be. During my rehabilitation into the fullness of what I was created to be, I asked God what I was called to in my life. Clearer then I've ever heard rang the words "I've called you to a children's revival." My spirit vibrated with that reality but what did that mean? Felt boards and memory verses flashed through my mind at the thought of children's ministry but that's not what God had said..He said revival.

Let me take a moment now and define revival... revival- an act or instance of reviving: the state of being revived. To revive someone means there was once life but there no longer is, it's returning a state of something to it's original purpose. Revival in the Kingdom of God means an awakening to original design. We are originally designed for Glory and intimacy with our Maker.

On the day the Lord called me to a children's revival I had to ponder the fact that there was something that was out of original design. You mean felt boards are not in original design? Hmm, I thought and pondered and set out on a journey of discovering what the journey of revival was for children and what was their original glory? What and who where they created to be in the Kingdom? What was their rightful place in the body of Christ?

Answers of all sorts started flying into my net. Revival for children was not a new thing it has been happening for centuries. Children were predominately encountered along with adults in every major revival in fact some revivals where started from the contending of a child. The history of God moving always had this element of children, then why do we separate them from the body at large during "revival meetings"? This made we wonder what our value system as the body of Christ was for children? Why did we stick them in the back rooms just to keep them quiet feeding them snacks and sitting them in front of TV's watching veggie tales. (Not that I'm against any of that) There was a desire in me to understand the importance of what children carried and how God could use them to bring the fullness of Heaven on Earth.

God started to connect me with people who championed children in every area. From the poor children to the rich ones there is a movement of God stirring. God, called to those who would listen and stirs them up to carry a transformation for children. As I started talking and learning about what God is doing amongst children I realized that we as a Body of Christ have so long not seen the fullness of the Bride. Not seeing that these little people are part of the body. Unfortunately we have missed in passed years the gold that can be gleaned from the faith of a child. Unknowingly we, because of fear or lack of knowledge have limited our desire to put any effort into learning how to steward children and their giftings correctly.

But...there is a new generation rising that is seeing the potential in the children, learning how to steward their giftings, calls, destiny, and learning that Sunday school is not a time for entertainment but for learning about the Kingdom.

The revival starts in our hearts, we are revived with the reality that God is passionate about encountering His children no matter what age. As adults God has given the honor to us to steward a generation that will move in the fullness of the Kingdom. Learning that hearing God's voice in normal, signs and wonders are normal, and walking in the Kingdom is fun!

God is bringing back what it's like to live a normal kingdom childhood. What does that mean? what does that look like? I will be exploring several topics in this blog that will hopefully bring you and the children in your environment freedom to encounter God in a way that has never happened before.

Many blessings,

Aileen Foos

Children's Pastor

Expression 58