Teaching Grace: Jesus Must Have Been a "Kid Person"

Kid People:
I’m not a kid person.

I know.  I know.  I’m a woman.  I’m a mom.  Statistically speaking, I should be a kid person; however, I can absolutely assure you that I am, in fact, not a kid person.  

I like my own kid, so I feel like that should count for something, but I’ve also raised that kid and talked to her like a little adult since she was...well...born.  I don’t do baby talk.  I feel like a complete moron when I even attempt to talk like that.  It’s not natural to me AT ALL, and it has to be obvious to even the youngest audience that it is not my forte.  

And to all of you kid people out there:  God bless you.  I don’t know how you do it, but God bless your souls.  You have a gift.  Seriously, an amazing gift that God did not bless me with!

My brother has 4 kids: an 11 year old daughter and sons that are 9, 4, and 2 (God bless his soul as well).  I spent the weekend with them, and I didn’t even lock myself in a bathroom or bedroom one time, so I consider that a complete win!  I did threaten to at one point, but that’s another story!  

Within the first five minutes of being in the room with his boys I haven’t seen in a year, I was surrounded.  I sat down on the couch and was immediately climbed on by multiple small children who clearly did not get the memo that I am not a kid person.  Quickly, I became an expert on preschool, trucks, songs, and girlfriends.  Then, I became an expert on blankets, soccer, siblings, and school.  And finally, I became an expert on snuggles.  

All within the first 10 minutes.  

Despite the fact that I hadn’t seen them in a year, these three boys were the epitome of excitement, grace, and love.  And, they modeled that (for the most part) the entire weekend.

I wonder what would happen if we could somehow manage to embrace that excitement, grace, and love and teach our children to continue to live with it as well.  I wonder what would happen if, instead of allowing ourselves and our children to become jaded and cynical, we sought to empower ourselves and our children with that endless capacity for excitement, grace, and love.  I wonder at exactly what point it is that some of us and our kids abandon that excitement, grace, and love and replace them with skepticism, judgment, and apathy.

And I wonder what role we play in that change.

Childlike Faith
I think Jesus was definitely onto something when he talked about becoming like children (clearly he WAS a kid person!).  Matthew 18 describes Jesus’s perspective on being like children:  

At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, “Who gets the highest rank in God’s kingdom?”

For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me...Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time! Hard times are inevitable, but you don’t have to make it worse—and it’s doomsday to you if you do.

There’s something so simple and yet so difficult in these words of Jesus.  When the disciples questioned Jesus about who would be greatest in the kingdom, he didn’t hesitate to answer that it would be those who return to the simplicity of children.  I can’t help but think that is precisely the excitement, grace, and love I experienced from my nephews all weekend.  That seems like such an easy idea until you get to the end of Jesus’s words here.  

He explains that hard times are inevitable. 
He explains that people will make these hard times even harder.

And that’s where this gets difficult.  

Somewhere along the way, too many of us have been met with hard times and hard people.  Our childlike excitement, grace, and love has been replaced with skepticism, judgment, and apathy.  

Maybe it’s time for us to trade in our skepticism, judgment, and apathy for the childlike excitement, grace, and love Jesus talks about.

Maybe it’s time for us to forgive the people who have made our hard times even harder.

Maybe it’s time for us to model for our children what excitement, grace, and love look like so they are never tempted to trade them in for skepticism, judgment, and apathy.

Teaching Grace
There is no question that life is hard, that people are hard.  And, I would be lying if I said that some days it seems easier to shut myself in my house than to deal with life and hard people.  But, if I shut myself in my house and avoid the hard, what am I modeling for my own daughter?  If I turn my back on the situations that are hard and the people that are hard, what message am I sending her?  

Most definitely not excitement, grace, and love.

Instead, maybe, just maybe, I can attempt to lean in to the messy and the hard of life with a little bit of excitement, grace, and love. 

Maybe, just maybe, I can embrace the hard people and the hard situations and show them unconditional excitement, grace, and love.  

Maybe, just maybe, that example will be enough to teach my own daughter to never abandon her childlike excitement, grace, and love.

One of the most amazing things about God is His promise that it is never too late for us to change; we are never so far gone that God can’t reshape and rebuild us.  I pray that today will be the day when you begin to relearn the simplicity of childlike excitement, grace, and love.  And, if you have children, I pray that today is the day you encourage them never to lose their excitement, grace, and love.  

Until next time...

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