This Children’s sermon was given August 9, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. I’m sharing it here in case it’s useful to someone.
Good morning, girls and boys! Today’s a special day here at church. It’s Promotion Sunday! It’s the day that kids move up to their new Sunday school class!
It sure doesn’t look or feel like it did last year on Promotion Sunday. We’d sit together, and I’d give you something from my basket for you to take with you to school, to help you remember that God goes with you to school, and our love goes with you too.
Now everything is upside down because of the virus, isn’t it?! School is starting late, some kids are going to school at school, and some kids are doing school at home. We’re making the best of it. Lucky for us I could mail it to you!
If you haven’t gotten it yet, you can let me know but here’s what it looks like. It’s a tag for your backpack- or just to hang up if you’re doing school at home, with our church logo on one side and some really important words on the other.
The words say Be loved. Be kind. Be you. No matter where you’re doing school, those are good words to remember.
BE LOVED. I hope that every morning, when you’re brushing your teeth and getting ready for school, you’ll take a few seconds just to be loved- to feel God loving you. You might imagine yourself standing under God’s faucet and letting God’s love pour all over you, soaking you to the skin!
BE KIND. This is so important, isn’t it? The virus has made us all a little more stressed. Have you noticed? Your kindness really makes a difference. Your teachers will need your kindness, and so will your friends. Your parents need it to, don’t they? And you need it. Be sure to be kind to yourself! Jesus asks us to be kind, to treat everyone as a treasure of God, because that’s what we are.
BE YOU. I hope this year, you will work really hard to be yourself! Not to try to be like other people, to be who you are, to like what you like. God made you YOU and God loves you exactly the way you are. And we do too. Be you!
Be loved, be kind, be you. As we pray, I’m going to ask God to bless you as you enjoy the last bit of summer and get ready for school to begin again.
Dear God, we ask for your blessing on all of our kids getting ready for school- and for their teachers too. When it’s time for them to go into their classrooms, at home or at school, help them to feel a closeness to you. Open their hearts and minds to new friends and teachers. Help them know they are loved so dearly. Help them to be kind and generous to those around them. And help them to be brave enough to be true to themselves, to be the people you made them to be. We thank you for them. We love you, God. Amen.
