Something I Learned At The Park

Children are so much fun to watch. And no matter where you are today, they are all around. Especially in the summer with school out. By watching them we can learn many things. Our biggest problem is, we think we are the teachers.
A good number of years ago, Robert Fulgham wrote a wonderful book we should all read. It is titled, “All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” In his book he shared a number of wonderful things to always remember. Here are the ones I like: Share everything,
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody, Flush, Take a nap every afternoon, When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. My favourite is, Remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.
And so we LOOK. We look outward, we look inward, and some of us even look upward. That’s a sermon for another time. Step back and watch those children. At the park you will learn something if you just watch. I have taken my grandchildren to the park on many occasions. Inevitably the same thing happens every time we would go. They walk right up to one of the other children and ask, one of two questions. “Will you play with me?” And the second one is, “Can I play with you?”
Amazingly our children teach us much about others. Most of us walk into the park, see the life dance the children engage in and sit down, without talking to any of the other parents. We start assessing them. Mentally writing a personality profile that would go well in one of Danielle Steele’s novels. And there we sit. Afraid of the monster parents . . . Wait a minute, they brought their children to the park. They can’t be all that bad, can they?
Every church I have ever been in has said, “We are a friendly church.” Hogwash. There have been a couple in forty years of ministry, but not many. In my experience, less then 5 percent. The same think happens in the church you attend. Maybe friendly to each other. Someone new walks in, they are handed a bulletin and go through the service of worship, leaving without one person saying hello. Well except for the one person who yells across the parking lot, “Thanks for coming, hope to see you again.” Really? I know this happens because it has happened to me in just that same way. Maybe just maybe people need to learn from the children that we need to just go up to someone new and say, “Hi, can I sit with you?” Or how about “Hi, I’m . . . ., I don’t think we’ve met.”
A few years back, I was standing near the door of the church when a new family came in. The usher said hello and handed them a bulletin. And I stepped forward to introduce myself. Before I could get each of their names, one of our church children ran up to the little daughter and asked if she would come sit with her. The family is still there and the girls hold hands each Sunday.
What have you learned from your children lately? Our children come home from the park almost every day saying, “I have a new friend.” How about you?
Something to think about.
Rob