A Step Back

I'm letting go. And it's a really good thing.

I've been involved with our church nursery since Josh and I arrived here four and a half years ago. It has been a great privilege and joy serving alongside so many other men and women to bless the children and young families in our church.

And it's been quite a ride! In the summer of 2007, we set out to completely redo the nursery. We knocked down a wall to enlarge it. We had a custom changing table made. We spent hours painting and desiging. The church family purchased new toys off of a baby registry. We created a policy manual and began training volunteers. We put stringent safety measures in place. We added a few new roles.

And now, the nursery runs well. It's a fun place for little ones. It's a bright, inviting and playful area. And it's well stocked with delightful volunteers.

Except for me. I was not delighting in the nursery anymore. It had become a drudgery to me. Which was a very important warning. Whenever ministry becomes a "have to" instead of a "get to" you need to take a step back and evaluate. As I did so, I realized that I had served in the way God had called me to and that I now needed to let someone else step forward. Someone who had the vision to take it to the next level and to lead it through the next few years.

We've searched for quite some time and we finally found our new leader. I have officially served in the nursery for the last time, I have done my last nursery schedule and I've trained my last batch of volunteers.

Now it's time for me to focus on other areas. All of my children now sit in worship with me. I need to focus on teaching them to worship especially since Josh can't sit with us. As our church continues to grow rapidly, it's necessary for me to be in the sanctuary meeting visitors and helping Josh's ministry.

Will I ever serve in a nursery again? Very likely. I love children. I enjoyed the nursery. And when my children are old enough, I'll be happy to serve other young families by watching their children as others have done for me. But for this season, I'm done. It's with a sigh of contentment that I move forward, knowing it's the right thing to do.