by Becky Areekul
My journey with LBCSD nursery started when I was a junior in college. At that time I was a new member in the church, and I was looking for a ministry in order to serve and grow spiritually. With my very limited experience caring for young children I thought that joining the nursery ministry would be a great place to start learning this womanly trait. I realized that if I served in the nursery I would not only learn about children, but I would also have opportunities to build relationships with the moms at our church.
After the first few times of being scheduled in the nursery I was struck with great surprise. I didn’t realize how exhausting it was to spend two to three hours with 15 kids! For the first three months serving in nursery I remember going home immediately after Sunday School and passing out for at least two hours. Moreover, my initial perception that children are always perfectly cute and sweet was shattered by the reality of sin. To this day I see willfully sinful attitudes in the kids as they rebel against authority. This was the most humbling aspect of this ministry. Not only was I seeing rebellion and poor attitudes in these kids, but I also saw my own depravity in its most natural form. The only difference between my sin and their sin was my sophisticated tactics of hiding it or concealing it behind a mask of piety.
Serving in the nursery has provided me with a greater understanding of the weight of responsibility that we have to pass on the greatness of God to the next generation (Psalm 78:4). During my six years of service I’ve witnessed most of the kids grow and mature with godly teaching and discipline. By God’s grace I’ve been able to witness the fruits of godly parenting and the effects of raising children in the church body. I believe the greatest spiritual growth I gained through this ministry is learning how to love each child as individuals, to allow them to be the person God has created them to be, but also to temper that with teaching them about God and His righteousness. When I joined this ministry I sought to learn what it takes to love and care for children and to build relationships with the moms; I can now say with certainty that God has definitely grown me in these areas.
In addition to spiritual lessons I’ve also experienced many funny moments with the kids. Most of those times involve some kind of poo incident. The greatest lesson was learning that I should be absolutely certain that the child is finished with their pooing efforts before I attempt to change their diaper. My most memorable incident was trying to change one the young ones and not realizing they were not finished; as I was wiping them I had diarrhea squirt all over my smock and arm. Now when we have new nursery staff I try to teach them all the tricks and things to watch out for, especially when changing a poopy diaper.
As my service in the nursery at LBCSD is coming to an end (Ted and I will be moving to San Jose to join the church plant after our wedding), to our nursery staff I would encourage all of you to love the children as Christ loves the little ones. Ask God to reveal to you the significance of passing on the greatness of Him to the next generation and pray for wisdom to do it accurately. I would also encourage the staff to really get to know the moms that serve with us and also the parents who drop off their kids. We are so blessed to have many older, godly women in the church; use this time to practice the Titus 2 principle and learn as much as you can from these women. Lastly serve and love the kids as an act of worship to God! It’s been such a privilege to serve in the LBCSD nursery.