Mateo, he's 10, and at the beginning of the year, he began to share that he had like a

stomache.

He didn't want to go to school.

He wanted to stay home and that happened once and then twice and then third day.

And so we began to ask, buddy, what's going on?

And then he broke open and finally said, I just can't go to school anymore.

What's going on, buddy?

And so he shared how for the last two and a half years, at school, some kids had been

making fun of his name.

Mateo is Matthew in Spanish, and a lot of the kids had trouble saying the word correctly.

And so he became the joke.

They began to make fun of his name in different ways.

And he was experiencing just this deep and profound shame around his name, his identity.

He comes and sits on my lap and he's crying, sobbing.

And I just feel unequipped to handle him at the time, other than simply letting him

cry and having my strong arms around him.

And so I ask him, what don't we pray, buddy?

Why don't we bring this before Jesus?

And I want to guide you on this prayer and he repeats, I invite you into this place in

my heart that it feels wounded and hurt and he's repeating as he's crying.

And then we say, Jesus, this is what I have heard from my peers, from my friends at

school about my name.

...