BY GEORGE! ANOTHER VOICE

Joan Hammons, Minister to Preschoolers

Arms for Hugging

By the time Jake was 4 years old, his behavior made Sunday School teacher recruitment for his age group difficult. His kindergarten year started with a bang, but ended a little better than most other years thanks to his teacher, Mrs. Jenn. But at this point in his life, most church members still didn’t think well of Jake.

Then Promotion Sunday came, and Jake went to first grade crying for Mrs. Jenn. His mother told him to be good and left him in his class. He stayed a few minutes and disappeared, sending everyone on a search to find the missing first grader. By the time we had given up, I went to the class to find Jake sitting there doing quite well. This same scene happened week after week.

Then one Sunday, he was found sneaking back into the kindergarten class. He stayed a few minutes and then went to first grade. I talked with Mrs. Jenn to see what she wanted me to do about this. She smiled and said: “He isn’t interrupting my class. He comes in, gets his hug and goes on.”

I knew enough to know that Jake was much better behaved after his weekly hug, so we decided to encourage him to go see Mrs. Jenn on his way to Sunday School. Just as we suspected, he got his hug on the way in, and Sunday School went well. Pretty soon word began to spread that a hug could change his day. Once, in his first grade kind of way, he even stated, “This church has too many huggers.”

That was when I discovered Jake wasn’t the only one who had made some positive changes. As I think about Jake, I have to stop and wonder whose life I am touching today.