{"id":1838,"date":"2015-09-24T22:02:07","date_gmt":"2015-09-24T22:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/?p=1838"},"modified":"2015-09-24T22:02:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T22:02:07","slug":"no-child-left-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/2015\/09\/24\/no-child-left-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"No Child Left Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reading in Hebrews last week and this verse jumped off the page to me, \u201cSee to it that no one misses the grace of God<\/em>\u2026\u201d (Hebrews 12:15). My first thought was one of conviction, wondering how many people had missed an opportunity to experience the grace of God because I failed to express it. That made me sad. My second thought was one of motivation, thinking about how many opportunities we have, as parents and volunteers in children\u2019s ministry, to \u201csee to it that no one misses the grace of God.\u201d No one – no child, no parent, no volunteer \u2013 missing out on experiencing a piece of who God is through us. That energized me.<\/p>\n

As parents it\u2019s so easy to get consumed and even overwhelmed with the logistical task of parenting \u2013 getting everyone to the right place at the right time with the right clothes on (hopefully clean) and ready to behave in the right way. It\u2019s a lot to manage. While there is nothing wrong with any of that, it is easy to lose sight of our real mission. \u201cWhat is our real mission?\u201d you might ask. Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says it pretty clearly, \u201cLove the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength\u2026Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.<\/em>\u201d That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about \u2013 giving our kids a picture of what it\u2019s like to love and be loved by God in such a way that they want to be His friend and follower, too. Parenting is about leading our kids to Jesus, showing them the grace of God. That\u2019s where every other need they have will be met \u2013 self-esteem, work ethic, right choices, caring for others \u2013 everything.<\/p>\n

As those serving in children\u2019s ministry in a local church, we, too, can lose focus of our mission. Ours is simply to help parents with their mission \u2013 to remind them of the mission, to encourage them that they can do it, and to partner with them every chance we get to love and teach their kids. In other words, showing them the grace of God. Sunday School, Kids Church, Royal Rangers, Girls Ministry, small groups, etc. is all about creating a desire in kids for a relationship with a gracious Jesus. We want kids to want what we\u2019ve got. And don\u2019t underestimate the value of an encouraging word to parents. I\u2019ve had moms break down in tears when I told them how much we enjoyed their sons and daughters, how they demonstrated kindness, or were engaged in worshipping Jesus. Take advantage of every opportunity to express God\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s readjust our sights, realign our missions, and \u201csee to it that no one misses the grace of God\u201d \u2013 not on our watch!<\/p>\n

\"Ellen<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Ellen (Eby) Moore serves as the Consultant for IPHC CHildren\u2019s Ministries, as well as the Children\u2019s Pastor at The Ark Church, in Conroe, Texas.\u00a0 An Oklahoma native with a rich IPHC heritage, Ellen earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership from Oral Roberts University after receiving her undergraduate and masters degrees in Education from Central State University (now the University of Central Oklahoma).\u00a0 After years in public and private education she now enjoys serving kids, parents, and volunteers in her local church by creating environments where kids are connected to Jesus and encouraged and equipped to follow and serve Jesus for the rest of their lives.\u00a0 Ellen is convinced that God has incredible plans for every child\u2019s life right now, not just for when they grow up, and they are changing the world.\u00a0 Ellen has been happily married to her childhood sweetheart, Phillip, for over 25 years, and they\u2019re about to enjoy the \u201cempty nest\u201d as both of their children, Joshua and Meagan, will soon be in college.\u00a0 When she has free time, you\u2019ll usually find her in the kitchen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,20,4,27,171,26,33],"tags":[216,113,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-1838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boys-ministries","8":"category-childrens-ministries","9":"category-discipleship-ministries","10":"category-girls-ministries-childrens-ministries","11":"category-leadership-2","12":"category-royal-rangers","13":"category-small-groups","14":"tag-children","15":"tag-ellen-moore","16":"tag-kid-min","17":"entry"},"title_es":"","content_es":"","author_name":"","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/09\/no-child.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T9u2-tE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}