I have heard the hearts and minds of children referred to as wet cement. I understand that analogy but I find it a bit to "construction" for me.
I prefer to refer the heart and mind of a child as fertile soil that will one day produce a harvest. They don’t have the hard soil of cynicism, they don’t have the thorns "cares of this world". But the question I would like to ask as a children’s pastor and a father, "What seeds are we planting in the soil that God has entrusted to us". Mark 4:1-8
Children have an unbelievable ability to retain, grow and learn. The kid in video above had to have watched Nacho Libre a few times. Am I condemning the movie? Not at all I watched it (with my 2 year old as well), and loved it, it’s a great movie with a great message. But the message is not life changing and doesn’t have the same power the gospel has.
We have a short window what are we doing with it? Parents, teachers, pastors train up your children in the way they should go…..
that "the greatest evangelistic window currently available is among
young children." According to the data gathered, children, ages 5
through 13 have a 32 % probability of coming to Christ while teenagers
and adults have just a 4% and 6% probability respectively of doing so.
Barna continued in the report to state "that if a person does not
accept Christ as savior before the age of 14 the likelihood of ever
doing so is slim."
"the most receptive group in America may very well be an age-related
group . . . More than any other factor-race, class, culture, etc.-age
seems to be the key to receptivity."2 Rainer’s research demonstrated
that over half of Christians today accepted Christ before the age of
13.3 History and experience both reveal that children are a fertile
mission field for the gospel.