Mark 10 - Jesus Loves the Little Children, and the Teenagers Too!

Today, God has placed a strong message on my heart that I would like to share.

“13People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 16And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.”

This passage, especially the actions of Jesus, tell us how we are to treat our children. As you can see, many rebuked the people bringing children to Jesus, in their mind, Jesus was not to be bothered by the children, they were not “important” enough to approach Jesus. However, Jesus was “indignant”, which ranges in meaning from annoyed to angry. Jesus said not to hinder the children, but to let them come, for the kingdom of God belongs to them and those like them.

What Jesus was saying, I believe, is that we can learn a lot from our children. They seek what they need and want, sometimes without regard for other’s perception of their action. They are more in tune with faith than we adults are, for they will seek without being easily swayed by the world. They believe when everyone will try to tell them differently. They will fight hard for their faith and, as the Bible says in Hebrews 11:1, they will be sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

The children are a testament of faith. So much so, that Jesus said that others must receive the kingdom of God like a little child or not enter, then He gathered them, touched them and blessed them. There is no doubt that Jesus loved and appreciated the children. Therefore, it is our responsibility to protect them, teach them, and bring them up in the ways of the Lord, so they will have a strong foundation to hold them up when they enter adulthood and the trials of the world try to bring them down.

With that said, the youth are still children as well. We must not only invest in our little children, but also in our “young adults”, for they need us as well. In fact, it is in the teenage years where the enemy appears to attack the most, trying to convince us that the faith we have in God cannot be “physically” proven, therefore is a fairy tale. The enemy is good at this, and unfortunately, we as adults help.

You see, we invest heavily in the little children, teaching them the Bible, the stories, about Jesus and God, and reward them heavily for their faith. But, we tend to shy away from them as they grow older, when they start to question and won’t follow blindly. We place them off to the side when they no longer listen easily to our words and have them “incubate” until they are grown, until they “come to their senses”. This is the time when they need God and us the MOST, and I don’t feel we are doing our best for them.

I’m not saying that teenagers are easy, or that they listen all the time, or that they aren’t hard headed sometimes, but do they treat us any differently that we treat God? Doesn’t God, our Heavenly Father, instruct us on the ways we should go and don’t we rebel and want to do it our way instead? If not, then why do we get ourselves in so many messes? Therefore, shouldn’t we be a little more compassionate to the youth? For if we act the same way, how can we really judge them?

My final point is simply this, instead of complaining and ignoring the youth, we should be focusing even more on their salvation and their walk with God. Instead of teaching them as children and hope they survive their teenage years to become Christian adults, shouldn’t we invest even more and focus even stronger on them than we did when they were young children? For life is even harder for them now that it was when they were little, so when the world (and enemy) turn up the heat, shouldn’t we, as Christian adults, increase our efforts to show them the goodness of God? I didn’t say it would be easy, but I know it will definitely be worth it! We reap what we sow, so if we don’t invest in our youth, then don’t be surprised when we don’t get a good crop of Christian adults.

Besides, you will be surprised what teenagers will listen to, many are starving for instruction, yearning to learn about our Savior, searching for hope. We have the answer in Jesus Christ, and it is up to us to teach them. For if we don’t, the enemy is eager to teach them his ways. Satan has no problem teaching teenagers, in fact, I believe he focuses on them the most. What are we doing to stop it?