Culture of Honor

There are a couple of twelve year olds that come to our Kids Club on Wednesdays that have quickly become two of my favorites. Let’s call them Tim and Tom. I think I like them so much because it can be a little bit of a challenge to love them.

These guys are at the age where they’re waaaay “too cool” for the things we do at Kids Club, and they get in trouble quite frequently. I’ve had several talks with these boys about honoring others and treating me with respect.

So today, they decided to get clever with the whole “being respectful” thing. They called me away from playing a game with the rest of the kids to have a little meeting with me.

Giggling, they handed me a paper and said that I needed to sign it. The paper read something like this: “I will be respectful of Tim and Tom at all times.” And then it had a place for me to sign my name.

I told them that they were very smart for coming up with something like this, but I wanted to change a couple of things.

So I got a new piece of paper, and with Tim and Tom watching, I wrote: “We will honor and respect each other at all times because God loves us and because we are His awesome kids.” And then I put three blanks at the bottom for us to sign.

I explained to the boys about our covenant. That we were agreeing with each other and making a promise to each other that would last forever.

After the boys signed their names, I signed mine, and then taped the paper on the wall (way up high so that they couldn’t reach it). I told them that the paper will be a reminder of the covenant that we made with each other so that we won’t forget how important it is to honor one another.

Here's the thing - I really want to see A CULTURE OF HONOR spread among our kids.

And because these two boys have so much influence in this community, I know that the covenant that we made today is more than just words on a piece of paper.

I'm declaring that there will be transformation in these two. That they will soak up the extravagant love of our Father, and respond by loving others.

There's not a doubt in my mind that this whole community will be changed when Tim and Tom choose to honor others. So pray!!! Pray that they will simply receive the Father's love. Everything else will happen out of that love.