Six Things I Learned in Pre-K This Year

In December of last year, I began working in the afternoons with five-year-olds at a local daycare.  The school year ended last week, and while some of the children will be sticking around for the summer program, others have moved on and will be attending kindergarten in the fall.  I hope to see several of them again sometime, but even those I will never see again have taught me a lot over the last few months!  Here are a few things I learned from five-year-olds this year:

Every child is different.
Okay, so I already knew this.  Still, it was fascinating to learn some of their different personalities and interests: we had some who were loud and outgoing and others who were quieter but loved one-on-one attention.  One didn't like jellybeans.  Another could talk all day about snakes or underwater animals.  Each one of them brought to school their own way of looking at the world, and I enjoyed a glimpse into their perspectives.

Heroes are influential in a child's life.
One day I quizzed the kids on what they want to be when they grow up.  Most of them listed "veterinarian" or "teacher," but one five-year-old boy insisted on "herpetologist" (and no, I didn't know what that was).  "Like Steve Irwin," he explained.  "He got stung by a sting ray.  I want to be like him."

Frozen songs are catchy.
Have you seen the movie?  Then no explanation is needed.

Sometimes it's the little things...
In the spring we had caterpillars in a plastic box in our classroom.  The kids enjoyed seeing the cocoons, and absolutely thrilling was the day when one of the cocoons started shaking and vibrating.  It was snack time, but all fifteen children jumped out of their seats to watch the former caterpillar leave its temporary housing behind.  As I watched the butterfly adjust to its wings, I had to admit that it was truly fascinating.

What others think about me shouldn't be at the top of my priority list.
This is an interesting one for me - I've always struggled with this, and one of the five-year-olds who was in our class this year thrives on positive attention from others.  Countless times we talked about how to respond when someone didn't like the way she did something (or the song she sang, or the dress she wore, etc.), and how resting in what God thinks of us takes away our worry over what others think.  One day, I was trying to help her understand that even if someone didn't praise her coloring picture, she didn't have to be bothered by that.  She could enjoy what she was doing no matter what the other children thought.  As I was talking with her, I realized how much I needed to hear that, too!  No matter what others think of how well I do something - or anything else - it doesn't have to bother me, either.

The most meaningful gift isn't always the most elaborate.
Whether it was for Christmas, or Valentine's Day, Teacher Appreciation Week, some of the gifts the children (or their parents!) gave us were very generous.  There were flowers, gift cards, and candy - all of which I have truly appreciated.  But the gifts I will treasure the most are those that cost the children nothing but their time.  Coloring pages and cards with childlike handwriting and mistakes, with undecipherable artwork that they had to explain to me ("it's a machine that makes hearts") - those are what I will keep the longest.  It's a reminder, too, when it is my turn to give a gift to someone else: Do I just choose something that seems like a good gift, or do I really put myself - my heart - into it?

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Never Enough

They stood tall.  They stood righteous and devout.  To the common people around them, their holiness seemed out of reach.  They were part of the privileged few, the honored who were to represent the people to their God.

Then came One like no other, who claimed to be the Son of the God they served each day.  The God they honored by being...honorable.  But this Son of God did not praise their holiness as they expected.

"'You brood of vipers!'" He exclaimed.  "'How can you speak good, when you are evil?'" (Matthew 12:34).  "'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness'" (Matthew 23:27).  These men had been acclaimed as the spiritual leaders of their people - and that is what they were supposed to be.  How could they be full of rotting bones?  How could they be evil vipers?  Where did they go wrong?

We don't have to wonder!  In Matthew 23, Jesus gives clues as to what the Pharisees did wrong (and didn't do right).  Multiple times, He labels them "hypocrites," and at one point He explains, "'For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness'" (Matthew 23:23).  Tithing is not bad.  Neglecting justice, mercy, and faithfulness, however, is - especially for the spiritual leaders of God's people.

"And he said to them, 'Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."  You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.'  And he said to them, 'You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition'" (Mark 7:6-9).

Did you catch it?  Did you notice?  What was the accusation God made through Isaiah?  Their "'heart is far from me.'"  According to Scripture, it was even acknowledged that the Pharisees honored God with what they said ('"honors me with their lips'") and worshipped God, even if it was in vain.  What was missing in these Pharisees' way of life?

Their hearts.

Even though the Pharisees were tithing the littlest of spices, even though they were careful to do nothing resembling work on the Sabbath, even though they literally followed figurative commands in the ancient laws, it would never be enough.  And today, even if we tithe faithfully, attend church every Sunday, and regularly memorize Scripture, it can never be enough.  If our heart is not in it, all is lost.

Later, a man who declared himself "blameless" when it came to matters of the Jewish law (Philippians 3:6) would write: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

So that's it.  Even if we have the highest spiritual gifts, prophetic powers, incredible faith, and a martyr's mindset - even then, we are nothing without love.  Where are our hearts?  Even as we go about our "duty," our "obligations," our "service" - where are our hearts?  Where is yours?

The Man Who Didn't Have It All

It must have been spectacular.  After centuries of nomadic life, slavery, and more nomadic life, the children of Abraham were living in their own land.  Their king had built a lavish temple to the God who had sustained the nation through every difficulty.  With a long, eloquent prayer, King Solomon sacrificed an abundant number of animals, cementing his fervor and dedication to the LORD.  There was truly a bright future for the nation of Israel!

But only a short time later, God was angry - angry enough to divide the people He had provided for and led through years of hardship and wandering.  Why?  What happened between the nearly-idyllic dedication of the temple to this catastrophic ripping apart of God's chosen people?

Solomon had it all going for him.  He was the heir of a godly king of a country blessed by God.  He built an impressive temple for God and sacrificed great numbers of animals, as the Israelites were supposed to do.  His father, King David, is often referred to as a "man after God's own heart," but Solomon is not remembered that way.  Instead we read:

"Now King Solomon loved many foreign women...from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, 'You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.”'Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father..." (1 Kings 11:1-5).

Did you catch that?  Solomon's "heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God."  As God had told Samuel when Solomon's father was crowned king, "'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature...For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart'" (1 Samuel 16:7).  And Solomon's heart had a problem.

Here was a man who had it all.  Or so it seemed.  As we read the story of Solomon, it's hard to imagine a man with so much potential or a story with so much disappointment.  Imagine having so much silver that it was considered worthless (1 Kings 10:21) and welcoming visiting world leaders who simply came to hear his wisdom (1 Kings 10:24).

But in the end, it didn't last.  The kingdom who had welcomed their second king with fanfare and pomp rejected their third, Solomon's son, Rehoboam.  The great nation of Israel was ripped in two, with two tribes remaining loyal to Rehoboam and ten tribes seceding from the country.  Eventually, the ten northern tribes would be carried to captivity and disappear.

Israel would never again have that kind of wealth, that kind of international recognition.

It was just as God told Solomon it would happen.  Before Rehoboam even came to the throne, while Solomon still reigned in Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob warned Solomon: "'Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you...I will tear it out of the hand of your son'" (1 Kings 11:11-12).

The close relationship David enjoyed with his God did not transfer to his son.  Solomon was visited more than once by God, and he enjoyed blessings we can't even fathom today.  But his heart didn't follow God like his father's had.

So maybe Solomon never did have it all.  How could earthly treasure ever compare to walking with God?  "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" (Matthew 16:26).

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What Matters More

I was playing piano during the worship service at our church.  This doesn't happen often, but I'm glad for the opportunity when it does.  I was nervous (as usual), and there were a couple of hymns I didn't know as well as I would have liked.  I suppose it was inevitable...

Sure enough, it happened.  About halfway through one of the hymns, I hit the wrong note.  I still don't know how many people noticed (I was afraid to ask), but it was loud and clear to me.

Suddenly, I was even more nervous than before.  I had a hard time playing notes and stanzas that I had easily played at home.  In one hymn, I even had to stop playing for a measure or two and then start again.  And everyone was there to hear it!

Finally, I finished the last verse of the last hymn.  Relieved (but embarrassed), I returned to my seat, only for my brother to point out that I had only played four verses of the last song (there were five).  I'm grateful that the music leader is capable of impromptu.

Back in my seat, I listened to the sermon off and on as my mind wandered.  Why did my mistakes bother me so much?  What was I so concerned about?

When I pulled myself back to the present moment (and the sermon), I heard: "You will know what a person's heart is like by their actions, attitudes, their words...and how they respond when things don't go quite so well."

Hmmm.  By "how they respond when things don't go quite so well."  Like when I miss a note on the piano.  More than once.  In front of the entire church.  And here I was, lost in my thoughts about my piano proficiency and embarrassed at what others must think.

There was more to the sermon, of course.  "A person's life is a reflection of what is in their hearts...Spiritual fruit in a person's life cannot happen unless the heart is set to glorify God."

"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?"

Galatians 1:10

As I sat in church that morning, I knew that my heart was not set on God's glory.  I was thinking (and caring) more about what others thought of me, my skills, my abilities.

But at the end of the day, what others may think of me or my skills will not matter.  At all.  What will matter more?

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ."

Colossians 3:23-24

That is better than the applause of man any day.

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