Episode Details

In this episode of Reimagine Childhood from the Early Childhood Christian Network, host Monica Healer talks with author and jesusloves.org founder Tara Hackney about rewriting the classic song "Jesus Loves the Little Children" after adopting a traumatized two-year-old from India and realizing the original lyrics felt outdated and incomplete. Tara shares how her experiences in global ministry and adoption awakened a deeper passion to help children understand they are purposefully made, personally known, and perfectly loved by Jesus, and how diversity reflects God's grand design. They discuss practical ways educators can honor God's image in every child through respectful interactions, creativity, empathy-building experiences, and cultural exposure, while connecting everyday actions to God's love. Monica also highlights upcoming ECCN conferences in Georgetown and McKinney, Texas.

00:00 Welcome to Reimagine Childhood

00:50 Meet Tara Hackney

02:07 Why Rewrite the Song

03:12 Adoption Sparked the Change

04:58 Gods Grand Design in Diversity

09:01 Purposefully Made Personally Known

10:54 Practical Classroom Mindset Shifts

15:01 Creativity Justice and Reasoning

16:42 Let Kids Create and Learn

19:24 Do Overs and Childlike Mercy

22:30 Quick Story Break Setup

22:43 Conference Season Preview

23:49 Keynotes and Registration

25:06 Teaching Kids Gods Love

27:46 Culture and Classroom Differences

30:43 Immersion and Empathy Activities

35:15 Worship Creativity and Discernment

40:05 Reimagine Teachers as Missionaries

42:27 Purposefully Made Reflection

44:46 Final Challenge and Farewell

Connect with Tara at her website www.jesusloves.org where she also has a really cute shop with merch for you!

She has a monthly newsletter where she shares lots of fun ideas as well. Here's the link if you want to sign up. 

Find the song on Spotify or Youtube:

Audio only - https://open.spotify.com/album/1fxDj0EWd0bJ8fPNTQj2SL

Audio and video (lyric video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGR9HoxoZIA&list=RDhGR9HoxoZIA&start_radio=1

Connect with Tara on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jesusloves.ministry/

Find the book Jesus Loves The Little Children on Amazon HERE.

If you'd like to place a bulk order of these little books, reach out to Tara on her website for bulk pricing.