Heartprints

Lesson From an Egg

I remember one of the first times I hard boiled an egg.

I removed the eggs from the refrigerator, put them in a pot, covered the eggs with water, sprinkled a little salt to prevent cracking, and waited for the pot to boil. Ten minutes later, I removed the eggs from the pot and put them in an ice-water bath. The famous test of a “done” egg seemed to indicate that this was sufficient for producing a proper hard-boiled egg.

Some of you noticed my rookie mistake and are chuckling.

For those who don’t know, you are supposed let the eggs sit before running them under cold water (or putting them in an ice water bath) to let them finish cooking.

If you should forget and *not* let them sit, you will quickly discover that instead of a nice, hard boiled egg ready for deviled eggs or any other recipe, you are the proud recipient of an egg with an easily-peeled shell, the membrane just beneath the shell bursts, leaving the white, partially-cooked yolk starting to seep out.

This is, naturally *not* what the finished product should look like. 

In my hastiness to enjoy the deliciousness that is a deviled egg, I had omitted a crucial step—and had to re-cook my eggs to fix the problem.

“But”, you protest “This is not a cooking blog, or an eggs blog, or an ‘I-love-deviled-eggs blog’. It’s a children’s ministry blog—and besides, you’re making me hungry”. 

True, for the first count.

I apologize for the second. 

Teaching children to love and serve the Lord is a little like the process of hard-boiling an egg. It is done properly to everyone’s satisfaction. If, however, the child is not *internally* transformed as a result of the work of the Lord and is not properly discipled, the child will not become a spiritually mature adult when he is first “released” into the real world, and the less-mature parts will “run out” when exposed to trials and temptations.

Unlike eggs, children are unique and should be discipled in accordance with their strengths and gifts, that their own faith may be planted, grow and develop within them. Children’s ministers, Sunday school teachers and parents should all be involved in the process of leading a child to Christ and discipling that child, teaching the child how to become spiritually mature. 

If the adults in a child’s life are not themselves spiritually mature, then adults who are spiritually mature should step forward and reach out to that child, so that all of the children in a church may experience the “hardening” of their spiritual yolks.

As we train up the children in our churches, let us also look to ourselves and make certain that we, too, are hard-boiled believers, with solid “yolks” of faith.