I teach in Primary and I have been praying hard that it goes ok. I have a young class and both my husband and I believe that the first 5 years of a child's life are THE most important, so that being the age of my class, I'm feeling a little bit of pressure. (Note: This pressure is self inflicted, not one person at church has ever made me feel like I need to do better, they have all been wonderful about my new calling.)
So I want to share with you the journey I've gone on with one of my kids, and why I am so grateful for my class and most importantly, the power of prayer and how my prayers (and a lot of other people I am sure) are answered.
I have a young boy in my class and his father came in to let me know that if he was disruptive or being naughty that I could always bring him out to his dad. This boy's father was really nice about it and went on to say how other teacher's have had problems with him before and how some people don't know how to handle him and that it's ok if I need to take him out of class for a little bit. This family I have a lot of admiration for as they deal with alot! And they are always so happy, caring and loving, not only can you see it, but you can feel it too.
I personally hadn't had issues (mind you it had been one week at this point) with this child and he reminded me alot of my little brother too.
Anyways a couple of weeks went by and I still had no big issues, infact I find this kid HILARIOUS! He is an absulote hoot. He says the funniest things, like one class I asked "What do Missioanries do?" his reply, "Missioanries don't show thier private parts. And missioanries don't look at rude pictures either." He being completely serious about it and it was so hard not to laught at how cute he was! He was 100% correct and even better was the lesson was on us preparing to be missionaries now, and it is a good lesson to learn to not look at rude pictures and exposing yourself, so he wasn't wrong. But it occured to me then that other people (I can think of 3 already) would have been horrified at his response and maybe not reacted how he would expect. (does that make sense?) So it became a bit clearer to me why his father had come in and talked to me about him. It came down to perception.
As the weeks went by this kid had his good days and his bad days, he always wanted to be first, but never threw a tantrum when he wasn't. He always wanted to speak, but mainly it was to understand or clarify in his own way. For example, he would start to tell you a story about his family which would seem completely unrelated but at the end there would be a question like "is that [insert name] being a missioanry?".All these little things started to appear in my mind as to why other teachers maybe found him a bit more difficult or challenging. I'm not going to sugar coat it, sometimes this kid can be disruptive (as can all kids in the class), sometimes he says things diliberately because he knows it's the wrong thing to say, but I firmly believe that if prayers weren't being said, I wouldn't be abel to see past that and that he is actually a really smart kid and is getting what we are talking about, if he's saying the wrong answer on purpose than he does know the right answer (confusing much?). He just has so much energy and excitment his little body is too small for it.
It kinda makes me feel bad for my little brother (the one this kid reminds me of) because I perceived him to just be annoying or naughty, or distracted or whatever, when he usually just wanted to help, or just to know things, to learn, he always wanted to know things (a little sponge he is/was), and looking back, if I had prayed for understanding with him, would things be different now?
One week his family pulled into the car park about the same time we did and I had cupcakes for the class, as I was getting out of the car all you could hear was "HELLO TEACHER" and this kid hanging out the back of the car waving at me. It was adorable. I asked him to help me carry the cupcakes inside and he was so excited that he knew first that we were getting cupcakes. His dad and I talked the following week and his dad told me how much his son was liking my class. (I WAS SO EXCITED!)
Over the weeks I've been touching base with his parents to let them know that he really is doing well in class and that he is well-behaved and trying to focus. If they could take the time out to talk to me about him I can take the time to talk to them. I think they appreciate it...
So today, in class, everyone was a bit hyper and not paying attention so we cut the lesson short. But as the other kids were mucking around, this kid started to ask me questions about the story we had read. And he was relating it back to the story we read last week! HE GOT IT! This kid totally understands! I was so proud of him. So as my husband and I were leaving I saw his mum in one the rooms we walked past. I stopped and called her over and told her how awesome her son is. I told her about his questions and his behaviour and how when he was away two weeks ago I truly missed him. And she told me that he loves me as his teacher and that she thought I was doing a great job at it.
Those two little comments just filled me with relief, with excitement, with happiness, with gratefulness and peace.
Without prayer, I wouldn't be able to see all the good in this kid, I wouldn't have patience, I wouldn't have understanding, I wouldn't be capable of teaching these kids. I'm being completely serious when I say this, My prayers are being answered. Simple prayers for help are working. All these things, Patience, Understanding, Love, Knowledge, Compassion, they are all things that don't come easily to me and with my class they do. These kids are teaching me all these things. They are teaching me to be a better teacher, a better mother (one day), a better friend, a better member of the Church. I am grateful for them and thier little minds, thier little attitudes and personalities. Little people with big personality. I don't really know how to express my gratitude for the answers to my prayers and also the prayers of others. They are felt and they are important, no matter how small. So thankyou, it is overwhelming the support I have received.
In closing on this post... I LOVE THIS KID SO MUCH!
He makes my week :)
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