It’s Thursday, and whether you are at work, at home, at school or on holiday, I hope you’re having a good week.

As I have said in a previous podcast, I am a mum to 3 children, a qualified secondary school teacher, the manager of a nursery, and have worked with children and families here at STC Sheffield for the past 10 years. Given that teaching and investing in children has been such an important part of my life over the last 20 years, you would expect me to say that we should pay close attention when Jesus talks about children…….so that is what we are going to do today.

REFLECTION:

The Bible passage is Mark Chapter 9 verses 33-50, focusing on verses 42 and 50, which show us just how important children are to Jesus, and challenge us to make them our highest spiritual priority too.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me – to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung round their neck and they were thrown into the sea…..Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves.”

In Tuesday’s podcast we saw that at the Transfiguration God said, “This is my Son, whom I love, listen to him!”

Jesus talks about children a great deal – so there is a lot to listen to!

Jesus welcomes children and says that we are to do the same. Children are involved in a number of his miracles, showing that they can directly experience God’s blessing and power. Jesus says that the kingdom of God belongs to children, and that we ought to be like them if we also want to enter this kingdom. Jesus raises the status of children, saying that those who are lowly will be considered the greatest by God; and he speaks passionately about the fact that children can experience salvation for themselves.

Some of the first teaching that Jesus does after the Transfiguration is all about children. But what he says is definitely not easy listening…..

In verses 42-48, Jesus says that it would be better to be drowned in the sea, to have a hand or foot cut off, or our eyes plucked out, than it would be for us to cause a child to stumble in their faith.

Jesus leaves no shadow of a doubt that our responsibility towards the spiritual growth of children is something that we should be particularly concerned about.

As I said, this is not easy listening.

So, here is the challenge, how salty are we when it comes to our children……and I don’t just mean children we have given birth to?

Are we the salt – the taste and the flavour of Jesus – to our own children, to the children on our street, the children that we see at church, the children of our family and friends? How are we showing particular concern for their spiritual growth?

When we are in the presence of children, is there salt amongst us? What example are we setting? What Christian values are we teaching? What behaviours or attitudes of ours are copied by the children we know?

Because if we lose our saltiness with our children, or we cause them to stumble in their faith and become less salty themselves, then, as verse 50 says, it will be very hard to change this in future.

Having heard the challenge in Jesus’ words, how can we respond?

Here are a few suggestions:

* If you are a parenting a child aged 0-16, and you haven’t done the Raising Children course here at STC Sheffield – sign up today! Our next course starts in June. Spend 5 evenings reflecting on the present and investing in the future of your family. If you have done the course – do it again! Things change and need reviewing as kids get older. If you have children at the very top end of this age bracket, definitely sign up…..parenting teenagers is a challenge and everyone can always learn something new.

* Come to church regularly with your children, not just one in 3 Sundays, or once a month.