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Take time to hug a child
From Where I Stand
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Many years ago I heard my close friend Thomas Britton make this statement.... "We will probably never know in this life when we do our best ministry for the Lord.."

 

I have thought about this many times and have had it on my mind a lot lately.. When have I done the best.. Perhaps when I stood and preached before a large crowd, maybe when I led my congregation to build a new building..

 

Could it have been when I stood in a hospital room or knocked on some door to tell them about Jesus.. I doubt that any of these answers would be true..

 

I have come to believe God has used me most when I hugged some child somewhere, and took the time to be friendly with them, and told them I love them and Jesus did too. I believe it is often times like these that people remember longest..

 

I have had Brother Tommy Thompson on my mind this morning.. When I was a boy, long before I ever even got saved.. He sought me out in a large crowd gathered at the local general store and talked to me about fishing..

 

He had heard I liked to fish.... He asked me if I had learned yet the best way to tie the new monofilament fishing line so it would stay tied.... and then he took some line and showed me how..

 

Then he put his arm around my shoulder and gave me a hug.. It was ten years later before I got saved, and he had moved away and I never got to talk to him about it.. But I will someday..

 

Most of us have become afraid to hug the little children today lest we be accused of being pedophiles.. Let us live our life in such a way that no one would believe it and then let us once again hug the little children..

 

God may use that to be our best work in this life.. And one lifetime of preaching can be traced back to the day Tommy Thompson took the time to talk to a nine year old boy.. He was fishing for boys that day because God had called him to be a fisher of men, and I never forgot.

 

"But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19:14) One of my New Year resolutions for 2016 is to hug more children in the name of Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

And So Here I Stand