You Feed Them!

One of the most familiar stories of Jesus is found in Matthew 14:13-21. Jesus, having heard the news of John the Baptist's death, withdraws to an isolated place to pray. However, He is followed by a huge crowd of people on whom He has compassion. He then heals their sick and ministers to them. Afterward, the disciples have the following response, "15As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."

They were tired, had a busy day, they were probably hungry, so their response was reasonable, right? Note Christ's instruction to them, "16Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." If you have been to Sunday School, you know that in the following verses, Jesus works a miracle with a little boy's sack lunch and feeds the estimated 10,000+ people there.

OK, cool story, so what, I can't turn 5 loaves and 2 fish into a convention buffet. The Holy Spirit taught me a different application of the above mentioned verses. As parents, especially in the busy lives we lead, we too often tend to want to send our kids away to church, school (or Christian school), or wherever to learn about life and faith. But I think that Jesus' words to the disciples are apropos to us, "you feed them."

Much to the surprise of parishioners, it is not the church's responsibility to disciple our kids, but rather, according to Deuteronomy 6:4-9, WE are given that mantle. Too often we fuss and complain about what our schools are teaching or what the TV is allowing into our kids heads, but we abdicate our God given task to raise up our kids in the way they should go. We must be the primary source of information that our children receive, not the V-chip or the school board.

This is not a treatise on home school or Christian verses public school. The truth is I have seen both godly and pagan kids come out of both. By far the ones that the kids really rose above the culture were ones that Mom AND Dad actively pursued discipling their OWN children.

Our church is seeking a new youth pastor, and my pastor shared with me that one of the youths' parents had made the comment that if we didn't replace the youth pastor soon, we would lose our youth, since we didn't have, "anyone to disciple them." I think Christ would say the same thing to them and He did the disciples... "YOU FEED THEM!"