Ms. Ady, our teacher

Sometimes as parents we get caught up in the idea that we are "the parents"... the almighty and powerful-head-of-the-house-adults who know everything and it is our job to teach our children everything they need to know to become respectable adults. We think that our children are to follow in our footsteps and they if they deviate at all from our path then we ask "WHY? What is wrong with our children?" Well, that way of thinking is SO wrong. Jeff and I had yet another lesson this week where a child has been OUR teacher. We were reminded of the scripture that we are to "become as little children."

Ady is the winner of the "best teacher" award this week. She has a cute friend named, Georgia who lives close by. Yesterday she was over at Georgia's house raking leaves with her brother and her dad. After a little while a little girl from their class came over to play too. (Apparently the girl had arranged this play-date with Georgia the day before.) The girls put down their rakes to go inside to play when Georgia's dad told Ady that it was time for her to go home because "we only have 1 friend over at a time." (1st of all, that is the dumbest rule I have ever heard of. In MY family we only know how to play if there are 5 or more friends over playing. I guess these are the kinds of rules families have who have only 1 or 2 kids.)

Next thing I know Ady is walking through the door saying, "I am feeling so sad right now. I am feeling SO left out. That is not fair!" My heart broke for Adyson. I was SO sad for her. I was also a bit frustrated with this Dad who didn't realize how insensitive his silly rule was and how he probably was oblivious to the fact that he had totally crushed my daughter. The natural woman in me wanted to march right over there... or maybe do the same thing to his daughter if she ever came over to our house to play. But of course I never would do that. So, I thought of the next best thing... FOOD! I said, "Ady let's make cookies." Isn't life so much better when you can eat cookie dough right from the bowl and then eat the warm cookies as they leave the oven? Let's drown our sorrows in eating. Let's shove our feelings in deeper with food. You betcha! Ady's reaction caught me totally off guard... she said with excitement, "yeah and I'll take them over to Georgia and Claires and they can eat them while they're playing." Again, my natural woman's first reaction was, "are you kidding, they just hurt your feelings bad!" But, Ady was so excited with her idea. She made snickerdoodles all by herself, the whole time talking about how her friends would be so surprised and how much they would love the cookies and how much fun she was having. She was in the happiest of spirits making those cookies while I was in amazement. As the cookies came out of the oven she put them on a plate, wrapped them up and ran over to Georgia's house. When she came back a while later Ady was beaming... she said they had sat down together to eat the cookies and the girls kept saying, "Ady these cookies are SO good! Thanks for making them for us!!" Georgia and Claire wrote her a big thank you card which Ady carried around with her the whole day.

Today in church Ady wrote that story in a little notebook and passed it to me to read. At the end of the story it says, "...that was the day of my life. I feel good that I did that and I will do it again." If I had to guess which of our 4 children would do something like this it would definitely be Adyson. She is our peacemaker. She is the child who has the natural gift to be thoughtful and sensitive to others. She is also the one to get left-out the most because of her quiet, good nature. Jeff or I (or most all of us) would be mad, hold a grudge, not want to play with that friend for a long time, wallow in self-pity, be grumpy, crabby, angry. We learned a huge lesson from Adyson... we can find our greatest happiness in forgetting ourselves and serving others. We quickly forget our troubles when we think about others. When I asked Ady how she felt after doing that for her friends she said that she felt SO GREAT!! Children hearts are so pure. They're not always the monsters they sometimes act like. They are naturally more Christlike than we are... more forgiving and more giving. That is exactly why we need to open our eyes and become like them just like we have been told.

Ady happily holding her thank you card

Does she look like a girl who just got told that she has to go home and can't play with her friends?