Children's sermon, 1-1-06

Children’s Sermon, January 1, 2006

Riddle:  What seems to melt away, sometimes is not enough for some folks and too much for others, and sometimes goes too fast for some people and too slowly for others?

Snow and time.

What are some ways we measure time?

            Watch

            When school is out

            When mom or dad come home for work

            When we get hungry for lunch or supper

            Clock

            Hourglass

            Egg timer

            Stop watch

            Sundial

            Daylight

            Calendars:  Wall calendars, Desk calendars, Pocket calendars

We seem to be very conscious about measuring time, don’t we?

It’s almost if we don’t keep track of it, we feel like we’re losing control of it.

But we can’t, because time is not in our hands.

Who controls time?  God

We are not in control of our time.  We are not in control of our lives.

God is.

But there is something we can control:  our attitudes.

When we think time is going too slowly or if we think time is passing too quickly, the difference is in our attitude.

And we have a choice about that.  We can choose how we feel about something – that’s our attitude.  We can choose to be happy or sad.  We can choose to be angry for forgiving.  We can choose to hate or to love.  God gives us that power – the freedom of choice.

How we experience our time, whether it goes quickly or slowly, is largely our choice of attitude.

Our time is in God’s hands.  Our lives are in God’s hands.  But our attitudes are up to us. 

Sometimes it is hard not to be sad or angry or unhappy.  Sometimes it seems like nothing is going right.  But when we have times like that in our lives, it is especially important to remember who REALLY is in charge and to remember that God is with us absolutely every moment of our lives.  For God, “there is a time for everything under heaven.”