Stop and L E A R N.

Our “job” as adults is to teach the ones that are younger than us; whether that be as a teacher, a parent, a coach, or just an adult in the life of a child. Right?

Eh, if that’s where we stop with it we have missed the complete blessing of it all. 

So my answer is yes and no. However I tend to err more on the side of no simply because it seems, daily, that I learn more from the tiny humans than I could ever possibly teach them. 

You may be thinking, “Then why in the world did you embark on the endeavor of owning a childcare center?” 

Simply put, because the Lord told me to and it was a step, full of faith, into a world that I feel totally unqualified for. 

Not so simply explained... yes, my heart is to shepherd, guide, and teach these tiny ones ever so graciously placed into my care and i will pour all i have into that for as long as i have breath in my lungs. BUT, Lord help me, help US, if we fail to learn from them daily too. Because if we stop, listen and pay attention they have so much to teach us. 

For brevity’s sake, I will confine this post to just three things I have learned from the tiny humans in my life, but, don’t worry, I’ll be back to share others along the way.

1) The most important thing, in my humble opinion, that can be learned from the tiny humans around us is about the heart of the Father. I believe the heart of God is a lot like that of a child in these ways... just to name a few. Forgiveness is important but also stopping and confrontation of the things that are wrong for the sake of making it right - not condemnation. I watched it this week and it was one of the most beautiful examples of grace, yet honesty, I’ve ever seen. A little girl hurt another one the day before, but that next morning the first thing the one who got hurt did was walk to the other one, sit down beside her and say, “You’re not going to hurt me again right?” And the other little girl said, “No” and, while it was confronted, it was forgiven, and just a short while later they were playing together again. The Lord doesn’t hold our sin against us, but instead He confronts those places in us, but gives us the grace needed to make it right. Also, the loving nature of children is liken to that of God - their love isn’t based upon status, or what we can do for them, what we look like, and doesn’t change based on whether we’ve always been the kindest to them or not. It’s unconditional. That’s one place I know I can learn better to be like Christ and the Lord uses tiny ones around me daily to show me what it truly means to love well.

2) It’s easy as adults to find ourselves looking for the possible bad that could come in, through and by any situation in our lives, right? Why? Because we’ve been burned in the past, life has a way of kicking us when we’re down sometimes, and we think we can beat vulnerability to the punch. Kids don’t live like that... they don’t peer around every corner looking for the “monster” lurking there. They don’t live their lives governed by fear and anxiety of what mind be if ________ happens. Yes, there is wisdom in considering possible outcomes, but, what can be learned here is not to live from a place of fear and anxiety. There’s one boy at the school who isn’t afraid of anything (okay, yes, I know this can be bad, but for the sake of this example, bear with me) like ANY thing. He’ll smash spiders. Climb fences. Ride dump trucks down the slide if we’d let him. Jump off roofs of things just because he can. Fear isn’t a hindrance for him. He learns from the mishaps and presses on through the failures but fear is never something that stops him. I want to be like that. So often the fear of what ifs and maybes stop me in my tracks, especially if it’s new or something I’m not certain I’ll be successful at. But that’s not real life, that’s not what life is supposed to look like. May we be courageous, like children, through the twists and turns of life... even if we have to feel the fear and do it anyways. Just don’t let it stop you.

3) Vulnerability isn’t weakness. Children don’t worry about whether their tears will be perceived as weak or make them seem less than. They don’t worry about whether voicing their feelings will cause someone to judge them or think differently of them. They don’t stop to think about changing themselves for the sake of other people’s comfort. So, why do we? Take the walls down. Let people in. That's the only way that true life can happen. The walls we place as adults only serve one purpose - isolating ourselves and not living in relationships. We don't start out as children isolating and hesitant to trust so why do we allow the struggles to make us that way? May we, today, begin to more like children in hoping and choosing to see and believe the best about people.

Children have so much to offer us adults if we only stop and pay attention. Stop and listen. Stop and allow them to impart their wisdom on us - even as those "more experienced" because of age. The things we learn daily here at Pine Knoll from these kids are priceless treasures.

I challenge you, too, to stop and pay attention more - it really is worth your time.

Thank you for entrusting your children to our care. It truly is a priceless blessing that I, for one, will never take for granted.

Until next time,
Love wins,
Miss Megan