{"id":3575,"date":"2019-04-14T08:48:19","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T12:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/etheriedge.wordpress.com\/?p=3575"},"modified":"2020-09-20T14:46:10","modified_gmt":"2020-09-20T18:46:10","slug":"last-of-innocence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/14\/last-of-innocence\/","title":{"rendered":"Last of Innocence"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love\u00a0teaching<\/em>\u00a03rd graders at our church’s Sunday school<\/em>. It’s not really school and I’m not so much a teacher -it’s more listening and sharing with little people. How I love their hearts.<\/p>\n

Large group with the other grades is where the bulk of Sunday’s message happens. There’s music, dancing, a story and fun video. The boys and girls usually sit apart and whisper.\u00a0Far too soon this will change…\u00a0<\/em>I pray for them silently.<\/p>\n

Back in our classroom we do arts and crafts, play games and talk about what they learned.\u00a0On the whole, the girls are better listeners than the boys… but I’m usually surprised at what they retain -even while talking video game strategy. 🙄<\/p>\n

How I love those kids. Just like my own, they hold a special place in my heart.\u00a0They live in the precious years of Santa, Easter baskets and make-believe.<\/p>\n

The girls love their dresses and sparkly shoes. Sweet faces glow of natural beauty.\u00a0The boys still let me give a quick hug and tell them “God made you to be\u00a0brave, strong men of God.”<\/em> They don’t resist or laugh at that yet.<\/p>\n

Too soon all this will change.\u00a0Childlike innocence will give way to hormones, worldly knowledge and the pressure to look\u00a0cool. <\/em>Middle school and PG13 movies will become hot topics as high school approaches at lightening speed.<\/p>\n

Oh God, guard these precious little hearts that You’ve given me just a moment with. Keep them, protect them, tie them to You. 15 is coming fast and they wont be prepared for the onslaught of testing… nor will their parents! I pray for grace for what’s ahead.\u00a0<\/em>❤️<\/p>\n

ForGlorySake! –<\/strong>Anna<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love\u00a0teaching\u00a03rd graders at our church’s Sunday school. It’s not really school and I’m not so much a teacher -it’s more listening and sharing with little people. How I love their hearts. Large group with the other grades is where … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[125,624,954,953,800],"class_list":["post-3575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-practical-life","tag-children","tag-prayer","tag-prepare-hearts","tag-sunday-school","tag-teenagers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUt4s-VF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3575"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6233,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575\/revisions\/6233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}