Discipleship Happens One Drop at a Time

My family spends a week at the beach every summer for our family vacation. One year, our 2-year-old wanted to fill up her big bucket with water, but it was too heavy for her to carry with water in it. So she decided to use a small bucket to fill up the larger one. She placed the large bucket on the beach and started walking back and forth from the water to the beach, a distance of nearly 40 yards, since the tide was low and the shore was long. She didn’t start with much water in the little bucket each time, and along the way, most of the water in the little bucket got sloshed and splashed out.

I recommended she move the larger bucket closer to fill it up, but that was too logical for a 2-year-old.

So she walked back and forth, back and forth for over an hour, from the water to the beach, filling up her big bucket of water with drops from her little one. Her determination and focus were impressive, and the slow and steady process reminded me of an important thing about discipleship: it happens one drop at a time.

I define discipleship in the broader sense as the process of guiding someone into a deeper, more vibrant relationship with Jesus through teaching, encouragement, and personal connection. It’s applying Biblical content to people’s lives in a way that leads to continual transformation.

Discipleship in children’s ministry means partnering with parents in that continual process of growing kids deeper in their relationship with Jesus. We may have more hand motions in our worship songs and glitter in our supply closets, but the goal of discipleship remains the same.

Whether we’re talking about kids or adults, that process of discipleship is a slow and steady one. And here’s what’s easy to forget in the middle of it: drops don’t look like much, but they add up over time.

You teach a lesson and wonder if it stuck. You have a conversation that seems to go nowhere. You send a resource home and aren’t sure it was ever used. You show up week after week… and the bucket still doesn’t look full. But discipleship isn’t fast. It’s formed through consistency. One Sunday morning interaction with a volunteer. One conversation. One Bible story. One event. One family resource. One relationship at a time.

Those drops add up. They build trust. They shape identity. They lead to lasting faith. You may not see the bucket filling in real time. You may not witness the moment it overflows into life change. But that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

So when ministry is hard, and it feels like your efforts are not making a difference, remember my two-year-old on the beach: Back and forth, back and forth. Drop by little drop. It didn’t look like much, but she was still filling the bucket.

And so are you, kidmin leader.