Conviction in Tiny Packaging
I had a moment in a preschool Sunday school classroom that brought me to my knees recently. The children sat in their designated spots, as they always do, and sat shoulder to shoulder with other littles who were present and ready to soak up some more talk about Jesus. Their eager little fingers plucked cheesy, orange Goldfish crackers out of plastic cups and it seemed as though the crunching and munching of their mouths could be heard from the sanctuary. I, as the preschool Sunday school teacher, offered up a simple, "What do we always do before we start our story?" Eager hands lifted and voices squeaked high to remind Ms. Kelsey that we always, always, always pray before we read our story.
Just as I was about to pray, I felt a stirring in my heart to start up an old practice I'd long forgotten of letting the children offer their own prayer requests. Whether it was for the sake of time, or my own convenience sake, I had stopped this trend when our numbers had gotten high, but now it felt wrong. Like I was depriving them of a true, connective experience of offering up whatever prayers their sweet, innocent hearts could muster. I placed my previously raised hands in my lap and said, "Does anyone have anything they'd like me to pray for this morning?" Tiny hands darted in the air all around in this small(ish) group of ten or so children. With the overwhelming knowledge that all of these little ones had something to say and we'd extend our Bible story time by an extra five or ten minutes listening to these requests, I quickly called on one of our more boisterous children and said, "What would you like to pray for this morning?" He answered my question by saying, "My daddy is traveling and I'd like him to stay safe." I was slightly taken aback at this. Prior to this day, many of the times I'd offered the opportunity for the children to make prayer requests, they'd offer me things like, "Can you pray that Mommy gives me candy for breakfast every day?," or even, "Can you pray that Santa would bring me a pet dinosaur?" I'd never considered that these children could offer up adult-like supplications. I nodded my head and moved onto the next child, one whose family is like my family and I knew he'd have something interesting to offer. He chimed in and said, "Can you pray for my auntie? She is traveling too and needs to be safe. Oh, and also can you pray that when she goes to Disney again she stays safe? Cause last time we were on Dumbo and she just fell off and broke her arm and I don't want that for her again." In his long-winded story, I picked out something grand. This child was praying, again, for things I would expect from adults. Safety. Well-being. Care. This prayer request was followed by back to back requests from little girls who'd recently lost beloved pets and were asking for prayers for comfort for both them and their families, as well as protection from the Lord over their lost animals. One by one, these children offered prayers for protection, for comfort, for healing for their sick loved ones, and for sunny skies on gloomy days. Then, in the back of the group, a blue-eyed boy who'd given me a run for my money the first few weeks of Sunday school shoots a hand up in the air like it was his job and chomps down on too many Goldfish in his mouth. All this as he desperately tried to make eye contact with me. "Teacher, teacher, Miss Kelsey!" He says with a mouth filled to overflowing with crunchy crumbs. "Yes? Is there something you wanted to pray for this morning?" He nodded, swallowed his bite, and said, "Yeah." He sighed, "My dad stayed home this morning." This didn't seem abnormal to me since this boy was always dropped off by another family member who graciously offered to bring him to church every week. He said, "Well, I'd just really like it if he'd be here and... I guess... Can you pray that my Daddy would come to church with me?" That was it. If I hadn't been sitting on the floor, I'm pretty positive that the I would've hit my knees when the wind got knocked out of me from that request. I couldn't tell whether it was what he asked for or the desperation in his precious, sparkly, innocent eyes, but his words had me undone in my seat and I paused, unsure of what to do. As this had been the last request, I ran through our little finger wiggling, hand-folding, head-bowing, prayer-readying ritual and closed my eyes. I froze at first. It felt like ten days, but it was likely no more than a few seconds and I regained my composure. And then I prayed. I prayed with all of the passion and desperation I could muster for the prayers of these sweet babies. Three and four year old children asking for healing, comfort, safety, and even for a changing of hearts distant from the King. In that moment, as I sat amazed, outwardly I prayed with a calm demeanor while on the inside I pleaded with our Lord to answer the prayers of these precious children, because it's connection and hope that build faith. I wanted them to feel His presence, I wanted them to understand the way that He can answer prayer and build relationship with us. The worries of these children humbled me in an incredibly powerful way, because I realized that before this, I'd removed their ability to feel connected to their Lord by revoking their opportunity to offer up their prayers to Him, no matter how wild and silly their desires might seem to me. If a child wants a talking dinosaur as a pet, who am I to stand in the way of connection between that child and his Creator? If the Lord sees fit, He will present that child with exactly that! Or maybe He will continue to show up in the everyday, because that child has been granted a lifeline to connect with their Lord and Savior. Whatever the case may be, I'm quickly learning to take a step back and understand Christ through the eyes of a small child: innocent, pure, and fresh. These days I find myself begging and pleading our Lord for the faith and assurance of a small child to ask for both protection for my loved ones and outrageous desires. Our God wants us to ask Him for these things. Is it because He will give them to us every time? Certainly not. Yet He desires that we come to Him, and I think I've come to the understanding that not only is it my job to seek the Lord myself, but to not stand in the way of the desires of the hearts of others'. No matter how outrageous it may seem to me.
With love,
Kelsey
Just as I was about to pray, I felt a stirring in my heart to start up an old practice I'd long forgotten of letting the children offer their own prayer requests. Whether it was for the sake of time, or my own convenience sake, I had stopped this trend when our numbers had gotten high, but now it felt wrong. Like I was depriving them of a true, connective experience of offering up whatever prayers their sweet, innocent hearts could muster. I placed my previously raised hands in my lap and said, "Does anyone have anything they'd like me to pray for this morning?" Tiny hands darted in the air all around in this small(ish) group of ten or so children. With the overwhelming knowledge that all of these little ones had something to say and we'd extend our Bible story time by an extra five or ten minutes listening to these requests, I quickly called on one of our more boisterous children and said, "What would you like to pray for this morning?" He answered my question by saying, "My daddy is traveling and I'd like him to stay safe." I was slightly taken aback at this. Prior to this day, many of the times I'd offered the opportunity for the children to make prayer requests, they'd offer me things like, "Can you pray that Mommy gives me candy for breakfast every day?," or even, "Can you pray that Santa would bring me a pet dinosaur?" I'd never considered that these children could offer up adult-like supplications. I nodded my head and moved onto the next child, one whose family is like my family and I knew he'd have something interesting to offer. He chimed in and said, "Can you pray for my auntie? She is traveling too and needs to be safe. Oh, and also can you pray that when she goes to Disney again she stays safe? Cause last time we were on Dumbo and she just fell off and broke her arm and I don't want that for her again." In his long-winded story, I picked out something grand. This child was praying, again, for things I would expect from adults. Safety. Well-being. Care. This prayer request was followed by back to back requests from little girls who'd recently lost beloved pets and were asking for prayers for comfort for both them and their families, as well as protection from the Lord over their lost animals. One by one, these children offered prayers for protection, for comfort, for healing for their sick loved ones, and for sunny skies on gloomy days. Then, in the back of the group, a blue-eyed boy who'd given me a run for my money the first few weeks of Sunday school shoots a hand up in the air like it was his job and chomps down on too many Goldfish in his mouth. All this as he desperately tried to make eye contact with me. "Teacher, teacher, Miss Kelsey!" He says with a mouth filled to overflowing with crunchy crumbs. "Yes? Is there something you wanted to pray for this morning?" He nodded, swallowed his bite, and said, "Yeah." He sighed, "My dad stayed home this morning." This didn't seem abnormal to me since this boy was always dropped off by another family member who graciously offered to bring him to church every week. He said, "Well, I'd just really like it if he'd be here and... I guess... Can you pray that my Daddy would come to church with me?" That was it. If I hadn't been sitting on the floor, I'm pretty positive that the I would've hit my knees when the wind got knocked out of me from that request. I couldn't tell whether it was what he asked for or the desperation in his precious, sparkly, innocent eyes, but his words had me undone in my seat and I paused, unsure of what to do. As this had been the last request, I ran through our little finger wiggling, hand-folding, head-bowing, prayer-readying ritual and closed my eyes. I froze at first. It felt like ten days, but it was likely no more than a few seconds and I regained my composure. And then I prayed. I prayed with all of the passion and desperation I could muster for the prayers of these sweet babies. Three and four year old children asking for healing, comfort, safety, and even for a changing of hearts distant from the King. In that moment, as I sat amazed, outwardly I prayed with a calm demeanor while on the inside I pleaded with our Lord to answer the prayers of these precious children, because it's connection and hope that build faith. I wanted them to feel His presence, I wanted them to understand the way that He can answer prayer and build relationship with us. The worries of these children humbled me in an incredibly powerful way, because I realized that before this, I'd removed their ability to feel connected to their Lord by revoking their opportunity to offer up their prayers to Him, no matter how wild and silly their desires might seem to me. If a child wants a talking dinosaur as a pet, who am I to stand in the way of connection between that child and his Creator? If the Lord sees fit, He will present that child with exactly that! Or maybe He will continue to show up in the everyday, because that child has been granted a lifeline to connect with their Lord and Savior. Whatever the case may be, I'm quickly learning to take a step back and understand Christ through the eyes of a small child: innocent, pure, and fresh. These days I find myself begging and pleading our Lord for the faith and assurance of a small child to ask for both protection for my loved ones and outrageous desires. Our God wants us to ask Him for these things. Is it because He will give them to us every time? Certainly not. Yet He desires that we come to Him, and I think I've come to the understanding that not only is it my job to seek the Lord myself, but to not stand in the way of the desires of the hearts of others'. No matter how outrageous it may seem to me.
With love,
Kelsey
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