Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Slobbery Baby Kisses and Increase in Love 8/100

Today I'm grateful for...

Slobbery baby kisses:0)
L is so cute.
She has been in a grouchy mood
for me the last few days,
but this morning we were
having fun and playing and
she was giving me the slobbery
open-mouthed baby kisses.
I am so glad I have a happy baby.
Even her grouchy days
are not bad at all.
While I don't enjoying getting up
in the middle of the night with her,
I do love the baby snuggles I get when I do.
P.S. Usually she sleeps through the night 
(another thing I'm super grateful for).
It is only occasionally that she wakes up,
and it normally doesn't take her long
to go back to sleep again.

The Word...

"Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;" (Doctrine and Covenants 121:43)

On my heart...

Today was a hard day for me.
Yesterday I discovered that one 
of my students has been stealing from
our reward boxes all year long.
It is a student that has a hard time
making mistakes.
He often blames other people
and refuses to say he did anything wrong.
I've had several conversations 
with him about things, and
they always end with me getting
nowhere with him.
It makes my heart sad because
I know that if he has that kind 
of thinking when he gets to be an adult
he is going to have a hard, sad life.
I dreaded having to have a conversation
with him about the stealing,
but obviously I couldn't ignore it
because that wouldn't have helped anyone.
Yesterday I tried to give him a chance to
make the first move by telling the
class that I had discovered that
someone was stealing things out
of the reward boxes.
I knew who it was, and I was really sad
about it and I hoped the person or persons
would do the right thing and put the
things back and come apologize.
He did not take that opportunity
which is when my anxiety about
talking him started.
Today I prayed fervently before having
a chat with him that I could know
what to say to best help him.
After thinking on it some more,
I really felt like I needed to give him
a chance to come to me first,
so instead of pulling him out of his
music class, I decided to wait and talk
to the whole class about honesty.
I gathered them at the carpet and we
had a chat about what honesty was
and how it was better to admit when
we make a mistake than it was to
keep it inside and not tell the truth.
I could see this student's face the
whole time. He knew I was talking to him.
At the end of our chat I just
encouraged whoever had taken the rewards
to come talk to me at recess and be honest with me
because that would be making the right choice.
The time between our chat and recess
we worked on math.
This student was being really nice to me
and excited about what we were doing.
We were playing a game that only
two people could play together
and we had an odd number of students,
so I decided to play with him.
I didn't say anything about the issue,
but instead I had fun playing this game
with him and letting him see that I knew
he had made a mistake, but I still loved him
and valued him.
Recess came and he waited until all the other
students had left and he came and gave me
back the things.
I was very emotional, which now a days
isn't to uncommon.
I told him how proud I was of him
and how he told the truth.
I also had to tell him that even
when we make a mistake and
tell the truth there are still
consequences for what we did wrong.
We talked and came up with some
consequences together.
He left still feeling bad because he
was afraid to get into trouble at home,
but I felt like I was able to reach a new
level of connection with him.

After school, I started feeling anxious
and like maybe I hadn't handled it right
because he should have felt more like it was
a bad choice on his part, but then
the scripture above came to mind.
"Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon
by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards
and increase of love toward him whom thou hast
reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy."
I knew then that what had happened was because
the Spirit was trying to help me teach this
student what he needed to learn,
in a way that would work best for him.

It got me thinking about how my
Heavenly Father helps me when I make a mistake.
He knows just how I can learn and grow
and will do everything He can to show me that
He loves me even while He's trying to teach
me to be better in a way that I may not like.

Yes, Heavenly Father loves us no matter what mistakes we make!
He wants us to learn and grow from our mistakes
and become better today than we were yesterday.
I'm grateful for what I learned through this situation.

God is good!  He loves and teaches me daily!

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