The Many Hats We Wear

Every Friday night, there is a theme to our middle school/high school worship night. Last night, everyone was told to wear a hat for a fun hat night. We played lots of games like capture the hat, a scaventure, and myself and one other new member had to wear plain white hats while all of the kids got markers and had to sign their names on as fast as they could in a serious competition; I won of course :)

The worship theme however, was discussing the many hats we wear, as well as the hat we should always wear, and that is the "child of God" hat. The kids discussed what it meant to wear a student hat, son/daughter hat, boyfriend/girlfriend hat, employee//volunteer hat, etc. The part that many of them did not realize was that the "child of God" hat never comes off. As believers in Christ and followers of the word, it is our job to illustrate that in all aspects of our lives. For example, in school you do not cut class or talk back to a teacher, as a child of God would not do those things. In your house, you should not curse at parents or slap around your siblings, but show them love at all times and talk about your frustrations in a calm verbal way. This discussion carried over to stations, where each of the employees had a category and a small activity for the children to complete. I had the boyfriend/girlfriend station and my mind was blown away. I explained the importance of 1 Corinthians 13:4-13, which is an entire section on love. I explained that you do not need to be in a relationship currently to know what love is because God shows it to you every day. At my station, there were heart shaped cut-outs and I told the kids that on  one side they should write the ways that God has shown His love to them, and on the other side, they should write down how they want to show that same kind of love in their relationships in the future. This could mean writing down your relationship values, ways to keep Christ as the center of that relationship or what you hope to find in the person you date. The kids wrote down everything from I will hug my boyfriend/girlfriend everyday to I can and will save myself for marriage. Every child participated.

At the end, we circled up for a final song and prayer. My boss asked if anyone was feeling led to pray and show they want to lead others. There was one child (who I will call "Kay") that responded saying he would. Kay is still in middle school and that young inspiration made me so excited. While we were cleaning up, I went over to him and told him that he did a great job with prayer that evening. His response left me speechless. 

Kay said, "Mary, isn't it sad that no one would pray when its to someone who died for us?"

What could you say to that? The only thing I could say to Kay was that I encouraged him to share that message with the other children, because they needed to hear it! Kay recognized the love God has for us and later discussed with me that he wants to work on wearing that "Child of God" hat all the time. Have you recognized that Christ died for us and we should pray to Him, thanking Him for that incredible love and sacrifice? How can you make your journey through life more Christ-like? Think of the hats you wear, and think of the changes you could make that would make your growth continue in more positive ways :)

This journey has been one week long, yet it has been one of the most amazing weeks I have ever experienced.