Episode 22 - Jesus Loves the Little Children

Pastor Dan and Little Lions Director Carol Smith talk about Jesus' call to care for children

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Hey everybody, this is Dan Metzgrim, the pastor of St. Mark's United Methodist Church, and welcome to a Sermon Prep Podcast. And I'm here today with Carol Smith, who is the director of Little Lions Play School that meets here at St. Mark's. Hi, Carol.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Hi, Dan. Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Absolutely. Thanks for being here. Is this your first time on a podcast? It is. This is your first time on a podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Well, I'm a seasoned veteran now. I believe this is episode number 21 or something like that. Or 22.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I guess it's better than four.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Yeah, we're getting there. We're getting there. We're getting we're really finding our groove now. So um, but excited to have you here today. We are going to be talking this Sunday um about children. And the the title of the message this week is Jesus Loves Little Children. And actually, uh Corinda Witt, who is our children's ministry director, is going to be preaching. So I don't know exactly what she's going to be talking about, but I have a basic idea because we know that there's a lot of places in scripture where Jesus talks about uh loving the children and inviting the children to come to him and uh how that's supposed to be an important thing for us. So we'll talk about that in a little bit, but I want to start off with uh you work with children. I do. Yeah. So how did that kind of start your your uh finding your um your your kind of calling or your passion or whatever you want to call it for for working with kids, especially really, really little kids?

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Yeah, so I um actually eons ago I joined Millstream, the vocational program here in Finlay. Um, and then it was called early childhood, not teaching professions, but um I I don't know, I've always just been gravitated towards children. Um obviously it's my passion, but man, oh that I don't know, I don't know anything else, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Yeah, it's just what you kind of always thought. Yeah, like I remember when I first went into ministry and I was I was pretty young, and people were like, Oh, so you're gonna be a youth pastor? And I was like, No, I don't think so. I think I'm gonna be a uh I think I want to work with grown-ups, and I was like barely a grown-up. And okay, still today, barely a grown-up, I feel like. Um so like for me, I felt like, yeah, there's like this certain age of people that I'm just kind of like there's some that I'm drawn to and some that like for me, um being a preschool director, uh man, that would be like on probably the bottom of my list of things that I feel called to or like passion about. Like, so I do chapel time here, which we can talk about a little bit. Yes, I could do it for five to ten minutes once a month, right? And then I'm probably done uh for a while. But I try to engage with the kids stuff, but I like the day in and day out, like, oh, this is my passion doing that. Like, has that just kind of been something that's always been a part of you?

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Pretty much when you first kids are just honest to a fault, um, they tell you it like it is, but watching them take on a task where they don't know, um, and they're a little fearful about it, just like trying to coach them through that and then watching them succeed is so rewarding. And so I've always I don't know that I've patted myself on the back necessarily, but like it's just I it just fills me with so much joy that I just keep coming back and like, okay, how could I help?

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah, and you just yeah, you're just kind of drawn to that. So where where have been some places where you've seen over the years where you've seen God show up uh as you're working with kids or or the kind of impact that they've had um on you or the way you've seen God have impact on them? Because I know that you do this as like a preschool teacher, but this is also a ministry for you. Yeah. Um and so where do you kind of see God in the midst of all of that?

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Um, well, God always places families and people like in the right spot at the right moment. Um and so I have watched God show up time and time again, even just in the classroom where maybe a kid is hurt or and another child comes to their aid, or just the empathy that you see. Um even coming over here at a chapel and the kids being overly excited to like dance and sing and just you know, or the man. I think this year one of the kiddos was like, Mrs. Smith, that was a Jesus moment. Did you see that? Oh man, and so you're just like, Well, uh, did I see that? I hope I saw that. So it's just I don't know. He just keeps showing up.

unknown 5:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

I I I feel like sometimes you'll you'll get a kid that will in those in those moments during chapel or or whatever, every now and then they say something that's like so crazy profound, yeah, and it's like they don't even maybe they don't even recognize that it is, and you're just like, oh yeah, yeah, that's right, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Like, don't cry, don't cry.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

That's why Corinne cries all the time. I don't know. Corinne, if you're listening, I'm sorry to throw you under the bus like that. Uh, but you know it about yourself. So um, so it was about it was it was a little over a year ago that um that we first got to know each other a little bit, and um, and you were looking for for a home for a preschool, and um, and it's something that we had been praying about because a part of our passion here was uh just like how do we how do we help families, how do we reach families and children? Um and where are some of the needs? And um without getting into the weeds too much, we we knew that there was a huge need in the community that there had been reports put out of about uh like for every, and you probably know this number better than I do, for every uh one child in preschool, there's like 10 on a waiting list or something of that of that nature. Um so we wanted to be able to be a part of the solution to that to that problem. Um, we just had no idea how to do it. We had really been praying about it for a year, and I think Corinne uh was um one of the ones who said who really kind of first said we need to do this, and we decided, all right, well, within a year we are going to do this thing. And it was almost a year to the date that we that we put that down as one of our SMART goals that we wanted to do that, that she brought you to meet with me in my office, and we just kind of talked about the possibility of doing it. So um, and now we're a year out, a little over a year out from that. Where have you seen God show up in this past year as we've launched Little Lions here?

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Gosh, well, my my personal faith has grown even stronger because blindly walking into what I don't know how to do. Um, opening a business is no easy task. Um, but watching God just show up in people coming into my our paths, watching my staff's strength grow, um their their own faith grow, it's it's been crazy. Um it's a wild ride. I told Dan the podcast would need to be longer because there's so many times where God just meets us right where we're at. Like, you need that? Okay, we got you. Um, or a family comes in and is like, hey, I can I donate this. And it's like, yes, great. Thanks. I would appreciate that. Um and just watching him work through our our families that we get to um serve has been it's been really cool.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Yeah. I've I've loved most of the churches I've been at have had preschools in them. This and I've loved all of them. This has been one of my favorite experiences just because we've kind of been building it together um and in partnership in in some ways and um getting to kind of make it what we want to make it. And um, and I've loved uh again kind of going back to chapel time, just getting to getting to interact with the kids, yeah. Uh getting to have a uh possibility to sing a song and you know do a little puppet show or whatever it is that we that we do together. Um not to not to you know indoctrinate them or pour the Bible down there, you know, right or or anything like that, but just so that I I feel like they might not remember anything that we talk about over here, but they're gonna remember how they feel.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

And you know, and they do remember some stuff.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

I mean they know that they're oh they for sure do.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

They for sure do. But uh, but yeah, I I think there's just something about being able to um my hope is you know, for a lot of these kids who who knows where they're gonna end up in life, that they remember, oh, a place that I felt safe and happy and loved was at this church, at this preschool, at this in this place, uh with these people. And so I think that's just a super important thing to do. So, and yeah, I mean, definitely I think the faith aspect of it, there's been sometimes like we're gonna do this. How? I don't know. Like we're just gonna step out and see, see what happens. So are there are there some specific like do you remember? Like, there's I know there's been so many, but can you think of like a specific one where you're like, I'm not sure, but we're just gonna say, yep, we're doing this, and then we're gonna hope that it we're just gonna believe, we're just gonna trust.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Oh man. Well, so just opening in general was probably a huge leap. I mean, we opened a preschool in five months, which is literally unheard of. Um people that said, like, oh, that's gonna be a tough task for you to do. That person's not very kind, they're not gonna sign off on that. I I feel like those people showed up and I just tried to be as genuine as possible. And here's what we're doing, here's what we're up against. They're like, that's great. And they signed it. So, like, not carrying the expectations that somebody else maybe put on us and just truly trusting that God's got us, whatever this looks like. We're just looking to build the kingdom. That's yeah, whatever that looks like. I'm on board.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

It's just been so cool. And I mean, uh, I've I've got a a nephew that that's been able to go through who's who's gotta be your favorite student that's come through. It's ridiculous. But uh um he's a hoop, it's it's so much fun. Um, yeah, I've loved seeing just like how it engages him, how it engages his family, and then it's a great opportunity for us, you know, as a church to get to interact with some of these families also. So to kind of take it to like a broader thing, uh, it seems like there's a lot of places in scripture where Jesus says something about uh let the little children come to me. Like there's times where the disciples are like, hey, get the the kids are being too loud, get them out of here, you know. Um, or somehow pushing them to the fringes, pushing them to the edges. And Jesus is inviting them in, he's he's calling them in, he's and he's telling people, and be like them, you know, have faith like a child, uh, you know, unless someone comes to me with the faith of one of these little ones, they'll never enter the kingdom of heaven, like on and on, lifts up children as the example for us. Um, why do you think, and in your time working with with kids and getting to see kind of how how kids are, um why do you think Jesus does that? Why do you think Jesus calls us to make sure the kids are a part of uh a part of the kingdom, a part of the family? Um why do you think he's always calling us to bring kids to the center?

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Well, kids have less life experience than us, and they come so unapologetically themselves, and just they are inquisitive, they um there's just an openness and a rawness, sometimes brutalness, yeah, to their comments and to um they just haven't had hard stuff of life weigh them down, and so they're unapologetically themselves.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Yeah, there's not as much cynicism, there's not the the woundedness necessarily from from life, and they're able to come in just with like yeah, that childlike faith, right? I think about one of the examples that I think about when Jesus tells us to have faith like a child. I think of like the image of the kid jumping into a pool to a parent who's ready to catch them, yeah, and they just jump because of course they're gonna catch me, right? And me's because they haven't had the experience yet of feeling like they're drowning, drowning in debt, drowning in you know, expectations, expectations, drowning in guilt, drowning in whatever else it might be. They've not had that experience, so it's like, well, yeah, of course, of course they're gonna catch me. Of course the father's gonna catch me. And um, you know, there's a little bit you had to have some childlike faith to say for sure, we're gonna do this thing, and he's gonna catch us. Yep, yeah, yep, and he did, and he did, and he still is, and he still is, yeah, every every day. Yeah, so I think, yeah, I think there's definitely something, yeah, something to that idea of what it looks like for um for us to have that childlike faith, for us to to look at them as as examples and not something that hey, let's put them to the side until they get old enough to be useful.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Yeah, which is what we sometimes, which is what we sometimes do. Um you've had I I think there's also so there's there's being a preschool, you know, director and watching all these kids, and then there's also you and I are both parents, yeah. And so there's also there's a difference in in doing this with somebody else's kids. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

They go home at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

They go home at the end of the day and you have to deal with as much, and you know, they are continually for you three, four, five years old.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Yeah, you know, but your own kids at home grow up a little more as your kids have grown up. Um, how do you see how do you see that? Um, how has that maybe changed a little bit for you? Has it changed for you how you work with preschoolers, knowing like, oh, these are the next steps coming after that for them?

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Yeah. Um, well, I guess for me it's not at this point, it's not mostly about the children, it's about the parents. Like, they don't know what's coming for them, right? Like this, they're like, this is so hard. And I'm like, oh well wait till they're driving, right? Yeah, bigger, bigger kids, bigger problems, they say. But um yeah, I don't, it's caused me to pause a little more because I started out and I didn't have children, right? And so um as I've my kids have grown and I have grown, I've realized there's sometimes you have to be a little gentler. I'm pretty black and white about things. And so I've learned to maybe not be so calloused or uncaring in my approach to parents because life is hard, life is hard, and we need community to get through it, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

I and that's one of the things that I've loved watching you all do is that the community that you formed. Like there's a great community of people. We just did a uh I say we, I mean nothing, you just did a garage sale, yeah where we're you know, raising money to do a little bit of construction work to try to expand some space and all of these things, yeah. And yeah, just watching the community kind of rally around it has been really fun to watch. And I love I love the way that you guys are are building building that. I think that's really, really cool. Thank you. Um just to kind of wrap it up, for you as a follower of Jesus, I I know that you uh you've got a great faith, and I know that doing um doing what you've done over the last year has like you said, it's grown your faith. How do you how do you feel like as a Christian um you've evolved and you've changed over not just over this last year, but as you've been working with the kids um over all the years you've been doing with that? How does how is your life as a Christian different because you get to do what you do?

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Oh wow, that's a big question. Uh how is my life different?

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Or just how is your or let me ask a different question? How do you think how do you think your I I have a hard time separating, and maybe maybe you don't, maybe this is a me problem. I have a hard time sometimes separating my faith from my job. Um that's just it though.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

I don't because that's you I live and breathe it. Like that's part of who I am. It's all encompassing. Um because you you can't. That's like that's my walk. That's my walk. That's who I am.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Right. And so I love I love that it's a struggle for you because you're like, well, why are those two different things? They're not. Yeah. It's not. That is the way you live out your faith. Yeah. Is by doing what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Which is I I love that we all get to have a unique experience. Everyone's Christian walk is not exactly the same. Correct. Right? I'm not, I'm not living out my faith as a preschool director. Thanks, thanks be to God. Um and you're not doing it as a senior pastor of the church, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's it's different for each of us, but you've found you've found this place where it feels like all of your giftedness, all of your um who he created you to be, you're getting to use it and live it out to build, to build the kingdom. So I think so. I think that's probably maybe a part of why that's hard to answer that question. Like, oh, this is just what it is.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

This is just how I live my faith. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

That's fair.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

I love that. So as we're going in, we're coming up into this uh new year, uh new school year.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Um, what are some of the things you're most looking forward to?

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Uh well, Dan talked about the wall being taken down. Oh, yeah. So our five-day class was separated into two classrooms last school year, and it will not be rolling into the fall. And so I'm I'm really looking forward to that so we can take on some more kiddos um and help build more relationships. I am gosh, my co-teacher's having a baby, so I'm looking forward to that. Oh man. I'm not looking forward to finding somebody to fill her stuff, but I am looking forward to the biggest thing. But babies are all babies. Yeah, they're a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

In a future little while. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Maybe getting a onesie. Oh yeah, no, I'm just I'm excited for things to come. Yep, very cool. And see, keep watching God move.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Yep. Well, we're I'm so so thankful that this partnership started last year. Me too. And um, just so excited to see what God continues to do through all of it. Yes. And um, as you who are listening are um are thinking about this, a couple things I'd encourage you to think about this week. Um, where does God uniquely put you for you to live out your your faith? Um, maybe it's with kids, maybe it's not, maybe it's somewhere else.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

But looking for subs if it is.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Looking for subs if it is. We're also looking for people in the children's ministry here on Sunday mornings. Yeah. Uh that's a part of what we're talking about, is like that. It takes this whole sermon series that we're doing right now is is is that we all it's called all together now, and we need all of us, yeah. It children included. And so another thing to think about is um how are you or are you in your life living in such a way that you've that you are calling little children to to get to live lives where they are feeling loved and safe and secure and feeling like they get to um experience the love of God, which is I think a part of all of our jobs. Um Jesus didn't say let the little children just go to the nursery. It was let the little children come to me. And so, how are we all helping the little children come to Jesus? Um, I think that's a part of what we're called to do. So thank you so much for doing this today. Last minute.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Yeah, thanks, no problem.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Appreciate you. And uh thanks for listening, and uh, we'll see you next time on another Sermon Prep Podcast.