3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
Luke 15:3-7
This scripture has an important message about how we treat children. Like all of us, children get lost sometimes. Yes, they can get lost literally, but they can also get lost figuratively. We typically think about this parable as people lost in sin, however, I hesitate using the word “sin” when we are talking about the behavior of children. I believe this is too powerful a word to use with children. Yes, they misbehave and they have inappropriate behaviors, but to tell a child that he or she is sinful, is inappropriate. Children are sensitive and they take things very literally. The younger they are the more this is true.
However, children do get lost. Children can be lost in their behavior, in their emotions, and in the sin that others have put in their lives in the form of overly harsh discipline, abuse or neglect. It is our job as parents, caregivers and teachers to go and find them, to not be angry with them for getting lost, and to rejoice when they are found, bringing them back into the fold.
To find a child that is lost in behavior, we need to look at what they are going through and not just become angry with them because they are misbehaving. The shepherd did not get angry with the lost sheep, but he searched and searched until the sheep was found. To find the child means to find out what is causing the behavior and to work with that.
In my work as a preschool teacher, a little girl got lost in her behavior one day. We were done with our work time, and I asked the children to help clean up. This little girl, who had a complicated home life but usually did well in school, got lost as soon as I told her it was time to pick up the toys. She started screaming and threw herself on the floor in a tantrum. Being human, I admit that anger started building up inside me at this child’s strong reaction. However, I also realized that her response to my request was way over the top, and something else was probably going on with her. So I picked her up and took her to another room so she could calm down. As I held her and patted her back, through her tears these words came out: “We have to move and we can’t keep our puppy.” With this statement, I knew why she was lost. She was lost in grief and sadness. Because of her home life, many things were not stable for her. This was one more thing that was being taken from her that she had absolutely no control over.
I truly believe that Jesus helped me be his hands that day to find this child that was lost in her behavior. And I’m thankful that even though I initially got angry at her out burst I was able to see passed the actions and see what was truly going on with her. If I had have gotten mad at her and punished her for the behavior I believe she would have gotten even more lost and it would have been even more difficult to find her. Jesus calls us, just like the shepherd, to search and search until the lost are found and then rejoice.
Thanks for visiting today and may God bless you in your work to be the hands of Jesus in the lives of children.
Kathy
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