Keeping On

Gid Prather was a Deacon and a Sunday School teacher in my first church.  When I started there, he had already taught elementary children in Sunday School longer than I had been alive.  Gid did not start teaching until he was in his forties - after his own children had grown past the class he taught.  I knew that was rare and unusual.  It was also rare and unusual for anyone to do what he did in teaching children well into his eighties.

Gid had his share of trials.  He and his wife lost a child because of a mistake a doctor made as their infant son was being born.  He raised two daughters, then lost a grandson who died in his arms after and accidental shooting on a hunting trip.  He grieved those boys all his life but he kept on loving and teaching children.

After seeing his perseverance, I wanted to know how he did it, so I asked him what was the secret of teaching children in Sunday School for over forty years and not giving up?  He thought about it - he had seen a lot of other teachers come and go.  After a good pause he said, "I don't know.  I just love them..."  He went on to talk about how he prepared each week and prayed for the kids.  He told me the secret even if he said he did not know.  It was in that phrase, "I just love them..."

The secret to keeping on in anything in the Christian life, especially the things that can wear us out, like teaching children for forty years, is love.  Paul wrote, "Love never fails."  That phrase means it never runs out of resources.  When we learn to love, we learn to last.

I hope you will join me this Sunday as we begin a new sermon series with another phrase from Paul, "Let us not grow weary in doing good..."  Paul had a few ideas on keeping on.  Let's come to learn how to do just that.

For the journey....

Tim