Kidco Labs - Resources


	LIVE. LAUGH. LEARN It's more that a motto. It's a way of life! by David Goebelbecker, Kidco Labs These three words are simple, yet they resonate with a powerful message for those who want to enjoy a full life. We should live each day to it's fullest, laugh at ourselves and in the face of adversity and seek to learn something from everyone we meet and everything we experience. These words are more to us than an advertising slogan. It should be a philosophy for living. When we first started putting Kidco Labs together, we knew that we wanted to do more than create the same old lessons. We wanted each lesson to be unique, different and special in its own right. Our goal was to make each classroom experience an event, and every lesson something that had a practical application that a child could walk away using that same day.
	Through the years, these words have been used over and over as we considered the lesson elements that would be used and what could be gleaned from each activity. As we took this approach to teaching, we found that we couldn t help but learn something new in the process. Teaching a lesson was no longer a one way task, but it became the vessel for God to open our eyes, hearts and minds to new possibilities.
	LIVE. As the first word in the series, there is more to this one word than meets the eye. It's true that we teach lessons on how to live each week, but we also make sure that each lesson is full of life, energy and drive as we share from our personal experience—our lives. Most kids today are used to television, videos and computers for information. Only a few experience live interaction with a performance or speaker except in school. If we, as teachers want the children to really receive what we are sharing, then we need to share from our lives—honestly and non-hypocritically—so that what the children see when they look at us is an example of God's word in action. We need to be excited about what God is doing and we need to share that excitement in a live environment in front of them. LAUGH. Life can be difficult if we don't learn how to laugh. Each day brings its share of trials and challenges. These cannot be avoided, so why not embrace this truth with a good sense of humor. We need to learn to laugh at our honest mistakes and ourselves as we strive to become more like Jesus. It doesn't mean that we take our situations lightly, but we should focus on God's resourcefulness in any situation. If we can look back at the many times He has pulled us through and keep a light heart, then we can know with confidence that will soon look back at today and laugh at the challenges once we're on the other side of it. The thing about laughter is that it is like a disease. It's infectious, and it only takes a little smile to lighten our mood, and soon the smile will change to a smirk. The smirk will transform into a giggle. The giggle will become a chuckle, and then grows to a laugh, and it won t be long before others join in. If we can learn to laugh at ourselves, our mistakes and in the face of any challenge, it is very hard to be discouraged or fearful. Our laughter has the power of building our faith, healing our heart and helping us move forward in life. Our laughter can have the same effect on those around us as long as we share our lives and our laughter with others. LEARN. It is a great gift to be a teacher, especially when teaching children. This is the most important thing that we can learn. Even though the children may be young in our eyes with so much to learn and understand, there is no greater joy than to see the face of a child when they finally 'get it' and we see in their eyes that something real has happened. We may all be adults, but in the eyes of God, we are just like these children. Nothing brings greater joy to our Father s heart than to see us really 'get it' after we ve been through a lesson that life has brought our way. These lessons are not for us to bury or ignore; we must share them with others. There is no situation that we adults go through that children will not face eventually, so we need to always learn all that we can from every situation and hold these treasure in our hearts until it is time to pass them on. Learning is a never-ending process. It's like treasure hunting, because we never know what nuggets from God or His word we will find as we set our hearts and mind to become a student of Jesus. This is what it really means to be a disciple and it's the only way that we'll see God s fullness in our lives. So let's live everyday with laughter and joy in our hearts as we set our minds to learn all God has to teach us. If we make these three words our goal, there is no way we can fail as a Christian or as a teacher.