Today’s Junior Church theme was about “treating other people with kindness”.
If you only treat other people as they love you then you will get no reward. We talked about being nice to people who don’t like us. This can be hard but it is the right thing to do.

We started by playing outside in the playground with bubbles. We ran among the bubbles bursting them. This was easy. Then, we had to run through the bubbles, but this time making sure we did not burst them. This was hard, but with a lot of control, we were able to do something that was hard.

Thinking on this, we went inside an onto the carpet. Richard read a famous quote about being nice to people even when they don’t like us…

Matthew 5:43 is the forty-third verse of the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and is part of the Sermon on the Mount.

Love for Enemies

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Next, we had some great fun as we had set up an Obstacle Course in the Hall!

There were a number of challenges that we had to do, you can see them listed above. Our children threw themselves into this with great enthusiasm! Rolling like a sausage seemed to get the loudest laugh for sure!!

 

Then it was back onto the mat, to think about what we had just did and the obstacles we had overcome. Our journey through Life puts many obstacles in our way, and sometimes it’s hard to be nice and kind. But Jesus still wants us to be kind to people even when we do have obstacles. The instructions were written on a heart because we should listen to our hearts for the right thing to do, and treat everyone with kindness.

We then thought about people we didn’t really like, and whether we could change anything. We said a short prayer for those people, even though perhaps they were not our friends.

Then, it was Craft time! Some went to make Houses out of Lego, and others made Prayer Hands.

Whilst we were doing this, we noticed an elderly couple who walked up the path to the Churchyard from the Road past the Centre. They stopped at the “Kissing Gate” at the top of the hill, and gave each other a kiss on the way through. This small thing was a lovely sign in the world that love is ageless.

Then it was time to go back into church for a blessing as part of Communion with the rest of the Church family. Afterwards, we had the opportunity to show what we had done to the congregation, who gave us a great round of applause!

Join us again next month!

Growing Saints is our Junior Church here at Brixworth. If you would like to know more, please get in touch.  We meet on the third Sunday of each month and offer friendly & fun activities for infant & primary  school children (4+). You are welcome to accompany your child with us if you prefer, or stay and enjoy the main service!