Putting on a Heart of Humility

Humility..it's the word that the children in the Precept class are working on this week.
We're studying through Colossians 3:12, and are learning how to put on a heart in keeping with the new man, or the "newness of life" that we are promised in Romans 6:4, through Christ.
The first two characteristics that they learned about were kindness and compassion. Those seemed so much easier to explain to little children. They "got" those concepts, and rather quickly.
But..humility? I had a hard time trying to figure out how to teach them about humility.
Eventually, we acted again. And they seemed to get it.
I set up a "scene" with two of the children. Then I asked them both to sing a song, and told them that after they sang the song, I was going to compliment them..and then I explained to them how I wanted them to respond.
One said, "Oh, I know. I'm really gifted. I have a great voice. I'm glad you got to hear it!"
The other said, "Thank you. But, give the glory to God. He is the one who gave me this voice to bless Him and to bless you. The glory is His alone."
The kids INSTANTLY understood the difference.
That's what I think humility is. And, when I think of the first example we have of one who refused to walk in humility, I think of Lucifer.
He wanted to be glorified. He wanted to be like God. He wanted the praise. He forgot that all praise belongs to God alone.
By contrast, we have Jesus, of whom the Scripture says in Phillipians 2:5, "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied (laid aside His priviledges) Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men."
Wow! Our Savior, God the Son, when here on earth did not regard equality with God a think to be siezed!
He knew that He was a bond-servant to God Most High. Period! That was His role here on earth..to listen and obey God.
That's the believer's sole role too.
When we focus more on being right, then we do on emptying ourselves, we've missed the heart of Christ altogether.
That's what I hope the children learned. In order to truly "put on" a heart of humility, we must be willing to realize that we aren't here to be exalted.
We are here only to be used of God that He may be exalted in our lives...for His glory.
We'll see how the kids seemed to understand it, this week when we meet again.
They get to come to class and share examples of ways that they walked in the heart characteristic that we learned the week before.
It's so precious to see them learning to walk in newness of life..and to see how excited they are about it!
I love these kids so much! They bless me every single week by their hunger for God's Word.
It amazes me..we don't do any crafts..we don't have play time...we are just learning to study God's Word, and they are learning to interrogate the text by asking the 5Ws and an H questions.
They're marking key words, and making lists of what they learn from those words...then they have time to discuss what they see in Scripture...interpretation and application flow quickly for these little ones, but only because we spend the BULK of our time in observation.
Already they are learning not to jump from observation to interpretation...they are learning that God is the teacher, and He will show them how to interpret His Word, but that they must be faithful to spend time observing first.
We are also memorizing Scripture together by acting it out.
Everything we do during our class is based in God's Word, and their moms tell me that they can't WAIT to come to class!
It's so refreshing...even at these young ages... they aren't looking to be entertained...they are just hungry for the truth of God's Word.
What a blessing to be a part of their learning!
Oh that we would all be this hungry for the truth of God's Word instead of the philosophies of man.
These kids inspire me!
Have a great week,
Jesica













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