The prayer of a Mother's heart

Jonas and I are enrolled in an ECFE class this fall (ECFE= Early Childhood and Family Education). It is through our local school district, Mounds View. The program is wonderful, and this will be our third school-year doing these classes---they start at infancy and continue until your child is ready for early childhood screening before kindergarten. The teachers are spectacular, and so far, the first two teachers that we have had have been Bethel grads, which is a fun connection. Jonas loves class. He talks about it all the time---what they do, who his friends are.....he asks almost everyday if we can go to "EFE cass":) We start each Monday morning with craft time---all the moms and kids together, and then we meet as a whole class for circle time, then snack time, and then the parents break off for discussion and their own "parenting" class in another room while the kids stay with their teacher. His favorite activity this year is the Large Muscle Room---they have trampolines, slides, tunnels----big stuff for the kids to play on, and he always comes back all red-faced and smiley---sharing with me with unabashed excitement who he played with and what they did in the "muscle room":) Anyway, just last week as we were doing our gluing and fingerprinting, the teacher was coming around the room greeting all the moms and kids. She had a list in hand that we had had the chance to fill-out the week earlier with ideas for our kids favorite books and songs. I had left the song column blank, as I couldn't, at the time---and for the life of me---think of a song we sang at home that wasn't a hymn or Bible song. She talked with a mom sitting across from us who said that her daughter's favorite song was a current Hanna Montana hit, saying, "Oh, we'll have to try to get the words for that. How cute!" Then she turned to me and said that Jonas had shared with the class and her last Monday (during parent break-out time) that his favorite song was....can you guess?..... "Jesus Loves Me.":) (Side note: way to go, Jonas!). Then she said, "I know, it's hard. How can you explain to a 2-year-old that 'we can't sing that song here'? We should try to think of different words for the same tune."
My heart just broke. I know, I know, you can't sing songs about Jesus' love in public school, but, gee....when it's your child's favorite song, and he had the bravery to share that with the whole class, it makes you wish you could. Already, in the life of my two-year old, church and state collide, but, as of yet, he doesn't know or care....what sweet faith is the faith of a little child! He just answered the question honestly, and probably looked bewildered when the teacher sang another song in it's place. Stupid Hanna Montana--- wish I could say that she (in all her teeny-bopper meaninglessness) offends me, so I don't want that dumb song sung in my child's class, but I can't say that. And while Jesus is way cooler than Hanna Montana will ever be, that's not for me to prove right now. He (Jesus) can handle that one. For right now, I will simply rejoice that my child love songs like "Jesus Loves Me" and "The B-I-B-L-E" (and loves to tell others too!) How sweet it is to watch him hungrily absorb these rock-solid, unending truths....and I pray with everything in me that as the battle for his heart begins, that these truths, and knowing the Author of them, will sustain him through his life, so that when he's 92, he can still say that his favorite song is "Jesus Loves Me".