Jesus Loves the Little Children

“Jesus loves the little children.”

It’s a simple song many of us learned when we were young. But the older I get, the more I realize there is a pretty big responsibility contained in those words.

All the children.

This past week has been tough. When you put your name on a ballot, you expect disagreement and scrutiny. That comes with asking people to entrust you with public responsibility. But some of it became personal and reached the people I love.

It brought me back to why I stepped forward.

Some criticism focused on people with whom I’ve been photographed. I want to say something about those pictures and those rooms.

My job is to step into the gap between what our community needs and the people and resources that can help meet that need. That requires me to be in the room.

Sometimes it’s a Republican event. Sometimes it’s a Democratic event. Sometimes it’s a boardroom, a church fellowship hall, or a food line where volunteers are serving families.

I’m proud of those rooms.

My responsibility has never been to ask someone how they vote before deciding whether I’ll work alongside them for the good of this community. We haven’t always agreed. But working together has taught me to listen, challenged my assumptions, and made me better.

An educator reminded me this week of something their school practices every day: “We will treat everyone with dignity and respect.”

Everyone. Someone who agrees with me. Someone who doesn’t. Someone who supports me. Someone who never will.

That doesn’t require us to surrender our convictions. It requires us to remember the humanity of the person standing across from us.

Growing up in church, I learned something simple that I’m reminded of at First Presbyterian today.

Love God. Love people.

Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves. I’m certainly not a perfect Christian. Thank God I have a Savior who forgives me and gives me second chances. That’s the grace I’ve received, and it’s the grace I try to extend.

The person on the other side of a disagreement is still my neighbor.

When I think about serving Anderson Five, of course I think first about Ramsey and Creed. They’re my kids. I think about their friends, my friends’ children, and the young people I’ve gotten to know through church and Scouting.

My wife works in this district. Through AnMed, I serve families who depend on this community and its schools.

Those relationships make this personal.

But it can’t stop there.

If I’m asking to serve as a Trustee, my responsibility must include the kids I don’t know and the kids I may never meet.

I won’t know all their names or their parents. Their families won’t all look like mine, worship like mine, vote like mine, or see the world as I do.

But those are our kids too.

There cannot be my kids and somebody else’s kids when you accept responsibility for helping govern a public school district.

They’re all our kids.

That responsibility means listening to parents, teachers, administrators, staff, students, and our community. It means gathering facts, asking thoughtful questions, understanding the budget, and being accountable for the resources entrusted to our schools.

It means supporting classrooms where teachers can teach and students can learn. Expecting results. Respecting the professionals doing the daily work. Helping create safe schools and preparing students for life after graduation.

We won’t always agree around that table. We will need to listen, disagree respectfully, make decisions, and remember who we’re there to serve.

That’s the kind of Trustee I want to be.

My faith doesn’t require everyone around me to agree with me.

It requires something of me.

Love my neighbor. Serve. Listen. Treat people with dignity. Admit when I’m wrong. Never forget who this responsibility is supposed to serve.

So I’m going to keep showing up. Keep listening. Keep learning.

Because somewhere along the way, many of us learned a little song.

“Jesus loves the little children.”

All the children.

May we remember that in the way we speak, disagree, serve, and care for the children entrusted to us.

Love God. Love people. Put Kids First.

Because they’re all our kids.