Something all of you in cyberspace may not know about me is that I volunteer for my church as a primary leader. What that means is that every Sunday, I and some other great people, help the children of our church-age 3-11 learn about the Gospel. It also means that each year one of my duties is to organize a program where the children get to share what they have learned throughout the year. For this year our theme is, “choose the right.” The program this year will be the third one I have been in charge of putting together.
It is a lot of work, but I really love to watch the kids learn and grow. Last week we had our first practice and everyone did a great job, except my own children of course. My son would not sit in his seat, and my daughter basically told everyone I was forcing her to get up and talk to everyone. However I can ignore them because next to them is a wonderful little blonde girl who sings her heart out and knows all the words to all the songs. There is a shy older girl who was brave and said her part with ease, and there is the boy who does not come every week, but when he is there you know he enjoys seeing his teacher by the smile on his face.
Today, I am sure my blood pressure will rise when I find that no matter how much I plan, something goes wrong, or someone doesn’t show up, or my son hides under the pew and refuses to sit with everyone else.(yes that is what he did last week). However I will remember the waves and smiles I get when the 4 years olds see me. The wonderful talks that the older kids prepared themselves about what they learn. I will remember that no matter how much work it is or how much I see the little things that go wrong, in a year, or two, or 10 I won’t remember those little things, I will just remember that for a moment I was part of their lives.