{"id":40273,"date":"2016-10-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/nursery-volunteer-reaches-out-to-troubled-mom\/"},"modified":"2016-10-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T00:00:00","slug":"nursery-volunteer-reaches-out-to-troubled-mom","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/nursery-volunteer-reaches-out-to-troubled-mom\/","title":{"rendered":"Nursery Volunteer Reaches Out to Troubled Mom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor Scott Sauls tells a story about an unnamed nursery worker who bumped into a first time visitor named Janet who had dropped her two boys off in the nursery. Sauls writes:<\/p>\n\n

\n

After the service, while Janet was waiting in the nursery line to retrieve her boys, one of the nursery workers quietly approached her and said that there had been some issues. Both of her boys had picked fights with other children. Also, one of her boys had broken several of the toys that belonged to the church. In front of a room filled with other children and their parents, Janet scolded her boys and then screamed in a bellowing voice, "S—!" Deeply ashamed and feeling like a failure, Janet got her boys and skulked out of the building. No doubt, we were never going to see her again.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

But that unnamed nursery volunteer called the church office that Monday and asked if I could check the visitor notebook to see if Janet had left her contact information. She had. I gave the nursery worker Janet's address, and unbeknownst to me, she sent Janet a note. The note read something like this:<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

Dear Janet, I'm so glad that you and your boys visited our church. Oh, and about that little exchange when you picked them up from the nursery? Let's just say that I found it so refreshing—that you would feel freedom to speak with an honest vocabulary like that in church. I am really drawn to honesty, and you are clearly an honest person. I hope we can become friends. Love, Unnamed Nursery Worker.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

The nursery worker and Janet did in fact become friends. Janet came back the next Sunday. And the Sunday after that. And the Sunday after that. And eventually, Janet became the nursery director for the church. Later on I would discover that when Janet started coming to our church she was a recovering heroin addict.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3368,3524,3548,3569,3648,3728,4010,4048,4088,4179,4311,4321,4404,4496,4497,4530,5206,5253,5256,5265],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-40273","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-acceptance","tax_ctp_tags-brokenness","tax_ctp_tags-caring","tax_ctp_tags-children","tax_ctp_tags-compassion","tax_ctp_tags-cursing","tax_ctp_tags-forgiveness","tax_ctp_tags-gentleness","tax_ctp_tags-grace","tax_ctp_tags-human-forgiveness","tax_ctp_tags-judging-others","tax_ctp_tags-kindness","tax_ctp_tags-loving-the-unlovely","tax_ctp_tags-motherhood","tax_ctp_tags-mothers","tax_ctp_tags-need-for-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-unconditional-love","tax_ctp_tags-volunteers","tax_ctp_tags-vulnerability","tax_ctp_tags-weakness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nNursery Volunteer Reaches Out to Troubled Mom - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/nursery-volunteer-reaches-out-to-troubled-mom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nursery Volunteer Reaches Out to Troubled Mom - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pastor Scott Sauls tells a story about an unnamed nursery worker who bumped into a first time visitor named Janet who had dropped her two boys off in the nursery. 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