Ep. 64 | ... and you believe the children are our future

Maybe you're like me and you believe the children are our future.

In this episode, we talk about the importance of nurturing and protecting children, and how everyone can influence the next generation positively. Recently I performed in a children's play at an elementary school in Baltimore and it reminded me of the significance of faith and guidance in all children's lives. I share some practical ways to be impactful as adults and to give back (because they are our future after all).

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Transcript

You're listening to Maybe You're Like Me, the transparent musings of a God girl chasing after her purpose. Maybe You're Like Me is a podcast for dreamers and doers who take life's lessons and level up to look more like Christ. We'll connect through super relatable stories, growing pains, and aha moments that most of us share, just not always out loud. I'm your host, Alicia Watson, creative entrepreneur, playwright, author, wife, mother, daughter of the king, and so much more. And I can't help.

but to think that maybe you're like me. Hey, beautiful people. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Maybe You're Like Me with Alicia Watson. It's me, Alicia Watson. Happy Monday. It's a sunny Monday. It's a warm Monday. We're almost there. We're getting to springtime, spring forward. We're almost there. I'm feeling great. I'm feeling particularly great because as I told you last week, I was going to be performing with Hey Young World, which is a youth and literacy initiative.

that was created by my ambitions as a writer, which was founded by Stellina Goodwin. The performance we did was also written and directed by her, and she did a great job with that. So kudos to you, Stellina. Hats off, I had a great time. It was lots of fun. What I came away from remembering is that children are so wonderful. I think in the midst of everything that you have going on as an adult and in the hustle and bustle of life, you forget about these precious little people.

that God loves and treasures so much, right? And if you're not a teacher, you forget that there are ways that you can be influential in children's lives. And we should be influential in children's lives because all the adults that you see right now doing all the things that you may or may not agree with were once children. And the decisions that they're making today stem from what they learned, how they were guided, how they were taught, how they were handled as children.

That's on a micro level within your family, your friend groups, your relationship, and on a macro level, the leadership of this country, the free world, blah, blah, blah. Children are precious. Children need us. So maybe you're like me and you believe the children are our future. So the story we did was The Lion and the Mouse, which is one of Aesop's fables. Stellina adapted it, so it was really fleshed out.

Hilarious, she did a great job with that. I was enjoying just the rehearsals and I knew that I was gonna be able to go way overboard with the performance. Max silliness, maximum foolishness. I'm down for a good kiki, I'm down for acting crazy. Kids, they love it. I love kids for that. We vibe on the same level. I'm an actor fool when I can. And definitely did.

I was supposed to be the villain. The children, they love me. I don't understand it, but that's how children are. When Jesus said, let the children come to me, it's because they were just such a joy. They're so treasured. Like the faith that they have is so important for us to see because that's how our faith should be. They were so trusting of me, the villain. I wanted to find a lion. They were trying to be the lion. They were pointing out the lion to me where he went. They were just giving me all the answers. I'm screaming there, screaming. It was a hoot. It was fun.

great time with those kids. And I'm really just thankful that I was able to use my gifts in that way. Proverbs 22, six says, train up a child in the way that he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to train up children. And even if you're not a teacher, administrator, someone involved in the educational system, this reminds me that there are so many different ways to get involved.

with our children so that they don't turn out to be monsters. There is such an important call on us to remind our children of who the Lord is and what the Lord has done, to show them what He has done for us, what He's capable of doing for us, why we should worship Him and love Him and serve Him, to show them who they are in Him, to help them to find their identity in Him, not in who we say they are, not in who their teacher is, the world, anybody else says, but

First and foremost, that he fearfully and wonderfully made them, that he believes in them, he knows what he's doing, what he wanted to do when he created them, what purpose he had in mind when he created them. There's so many things that they need to be taught, so many ways that they need to be instructed. And we all have a responsibility, maybe not in math, like a full classroom full, but if you love sports, like I coached cheerleading for many years when I was fresh out of undergrad. I coached high school level.

at two different high schools in elementary level. And beyond teaching them the sport, I was teaching them life lessons. There were so many of my girls on the high school team that were there for the sport, that were there to get in shape and to have fun. But it was in those moments where we were in the car, on the bus, taking a break that I heard their stories. I heard their struggles. I heard the things that they were feeling and going through and I could offer them something. The sport won because that's what I used to help me cope when I was in high school.

and to my faith what he did for me and how he helped me through. being an example for them, being a lifeline for them, someone for them to reach out to was very important. In elementary school, the children haven't lived enough life to be jaded. They still believe they're full of faith. They believe everybody has goodwill towards them. They're happy. They're smiling. They're joyous. They're human. They have emotions, but there's an innocence about them that is so

beautiful and that should be protected. I don't try to listen too much about like the files, Epstein files and things like that, but it's really disheartening and disgusting and sad to hear about the things that has happened to children at the hands of people, adults who should have been protecting them, who should have been influencing them and affecting their lives in a way that they would grow up and be strong leaders, love well and know that they are loved.

We should be teaching children how to navigate adversity, not create the adversity for them, not traumatizing them, not harming them. But such is the world, right? We are in a fallen world. There's sin everywhere we turn. There's suffering everywhere we look. And that's why it's so important. It's imperative to train up children and instruct them in the way that they should go in the midst of all that we have to experience. And you don't have to be a teacher to do that.

You can be an artist like myself. You can be a mentor. You can be a coach. You can be a Sunday school youth group minister, big sister, big brother, a literal big cousin. You don't have to go far outside of your family. can be a mother, a father, an aunt, an uncle. You can be impactful because our children deserve that. Our future deserves that. I talk often about purpose. That can be a part of it.

your purpose may be to protect these children. I think that's all of our purposes to protect these children because they're our future. Even if you don't feel like you're equipped, even if you don't feel like it's your space, there's something that you can guide a child on through your life experience. Like, my son's gonna start driver's ed this summer and he'll learn all the basics, all the rules, all the instruction.

on how to drive a car. And because he'll learn that, and he'll go and he'll pass all his tests and get his license, he'll be able to join us in keeping the road safe, keeping each other safe. That's a part of it. We're training up children to keep each other safe. That's our responsibility. There's that father that just got convicted, I think a murder for the, I don't want to go look it up, but it was like a school shooter. He had given his son a gun.

and he was held accountable for it, he was held responsible for it, be careful what you're teaching children. Because even if the world doesn't hold you accountable for it, God will. Just because they're vulnerable, just because they're smaller, just because they're less wise doesn't mean we take advantage of that. On the contrary, we protect them, we instruct them, we teach them, we treasure them because God does. So if you have an opportunity to be a blessing to children, be a blessing to children. They're our future, they're God's treasure.

They need you. They need us. They're all ours. Even if they're not yours by blood, we're all connected. So show up for them. Well, that's all I have for you today. If you're like me, reach out to me on my website. Let me know. Or leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to Find Podcasts so I can see how much the show is impacting you. If you know someone who's like us, share this episode with them or whatever episode you feel is fitting and let them know that they are not alone and we can all connect.

I thank you so much for listening and I hope that you can make an impact in the life of a child this week in some way. k? Bye!