The Kingdom of God Belongs To Children

And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. 

But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”

And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.

Mark 10:13-16 

One of the signs that a church is alive is the presence of children.  And, sadly many churches have few, if any, children.  It is not because there are no children, it is because their parents never went to church as children and still do not go to church.  This stems from parents in the 1970's not taking their children to church because they wanted them to have the freedom to decide what spiritual course they would take when they grew up without undue influence.  

Then parents were surprised when the children decided to be nothing.  This sounds far fetched, but I witnessed this phenomenon as an adult student in college where I and the instructor were the only ones in the class that had ever been to church. 

All this flies in the face of what Jesus said about children.  

So, what is the answer?  Well, I think we can take time to pickup our kids friends and take them to church with us, so that they can have the opportunity to learn about the church and it's ministries.   Then when they grow up, they will have something to base their decisions on and hopefully it will be to accept Jesus.

Remember, Jesus said the Kingdom of God belongs to children.