Out of the mouths of babes.

"I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children." -Matthew 11:25

One of the benefits of working with children is that you learn more often than you teach. Kids have the most profound ways of saying things and often putting things in perspective.

I teach preschool (3 and 4 year olds) and it is easy for me to get frustrated with my students for continuing to break the same rules over and over again. For example, Ian, one of the most intuitive kids I've met, kept getting in trouble one day for getting angry and hitting. After punching another boy I called Ian over to have a conversation with me. It went like this:

" Ian, why do you keep hitting people today, why are you angry?"
" Well, I have this thing in my nose and it keeps pulling me around."
" Ok, it's pulling you around; like pulling you around and making you do stuff?"
" Yeah, it's like this germ that's in my nose and it's pulling me around and making me do things. I've tried to take it out and squash it with my foot, but it keeps coming back."

After this I was stunned, I let Ian go back to playing and I sat in meditative silence for a few minutes. I realized why I couldn't make these children behave consistently, they were sinful. In a few words Ian had reiterated to me what the fallen state of man was, and both of our inabilities to fix it. I then remembered the gospel, that though we were still slaves to sin (i.e. hitting people when we got angry), Christ died for us and it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Freedom from sin and freedom to abide in Him. Now, that doesn't make working with rebellious children easier in the moment, but it does remind me that I am not in control and I can rely upon the grace of God for the struggle.