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Interchange · GIA Publications

Unless You Become Like Little Children

June 3, 2025·59 min·5 clips
A 16-year-old questions why God's love feels conditional in today's political climate.
Kate opens with her Interchange welcome, then hands the microphone to children, starting with Ava, an eight-year-old second grader with blue, art projects, and the very real pride of being taken seriously. The pace stays small and patient. Kate does not polish the kids into adult answers. She leaves in the pauses, fixes, and sideways logic. Joan of Arc comes up, and one child describes her as fierce and independent, a girl who kept going when people did not believe her. Kate meets that with delight and connects it to strong female role models in the church, without stealing the child's wording. Then Martino and Ismael, both in third grade, talk about church, melody, rhythm, and songs that make them happy. God gets a big voice. Asked what God sounds like, one child answers with a booming "Wake up," and Kate gently asks whether that makes God sound a little scary. The music answers stay close to the body. Margo and Penelope talk about singing with friends, expressing feelings, being yourself, and feeling better afterward. Another child says music is focus, which lands harder than a longer explanation would. The lullaby question brings everything home. Kate asks why she sings one at night instead of during morning toothbrushing, and the answer is plain: it helps with sleep. By the end, Kate thanks the kids, tells them they did well, explains that the producer will turn the files into something beautiful, and lets the recording close near bedtime. The episode listens for what children already know about music, church, strength, comfort, and God before adults stretch those ideas into bigger sentences.

As heard by us

Children make music, faith, and bedtime sound like parts of the same conversation.

Kate Williams spends this Interchange with a roomful of children asking what music, God, and church sound like when nobody is trying too hard.

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Why you'd press play

You want kids to tell you what God, music, and bedtime feel like.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
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