LOVING THE YOUNG
Loving the young is a natural instinct in the animal kingdom. Loving the young is caring for them with great devotion. We can learn so much from the animals:
-monkeys are known to carry their young for as long as one year after birth.
-leopards keep their young with them for one-and-a-half years after birth, at which point the young are just as big physically as the parents, in order to make sure that the young are equipped for survival before being left on their own.
-when a herd of elephants comes under threat, the adults form a circle around the young and face the threat with tusks and trunks raised while swaying their heads and making loud noise. The safety of the young is their priority.
We, too, must protect the young in the church - the young, recently baptized disciples.
1 Peter 2:1-3
Our responsibility is to feed the young with milk and help them grow in their salvation.
Converting people is giving them a taste that the Lord is good. Now that they have tasted, we need to feed them.
What we do so often is unnatural - we pull away from people once they have been baptized.
1. DON'T LET THE YOUNG OUT OF YOUR SIGHT
You must have the conviction that the young are precious.
We must baptize only as many as we can adequately and effectively take care of. If you baptize more than you can handle then many will leave the kingdom because they get neglected.
John 10:11-13
The difference between the hired hand and the good shepherd is that the good shepherd cares and so stays to protect the sheep while the hired hand cares only for himself and so abandons the sheep.
Illustration: babies - you have to keep an eye on them to make sure they are not doing something dangerous. So it is with young Christians. How can you protect them if you do not know where they are?
Parents make time for their children because they enjoy it. We need to enjoy spending time with young Christians and never ever see it as a waste of time. Make sure that somebody mature is with the young Christians, helping them out and raising them up.
2. BE PATIENT WITH THE YOUNG
Ecclesiastes 7:8
We expect baby Christians to be spiritual giants and so get exasperated with them when they make "baby Christian" mistakes. We get irritated, frustrated and angry. This is pride. We need to be patient. Remember that as a young Christian you too made mistakes, and even now you still do.
Illustration: mother lion allows her cubs to climb and kick all over her and she just lies there calmly. That is patience. That is love.
Colossians 3:12
Be patient and loving because God - and people - have loved you and been patient with you.
Any species that does not love its young will die. Let us love the young with a caring and concerned fatherly, motherly, brotherly and sisterly love.