Progressing




 It's the third day of school and today one of my littles was skipping through the hall and dropped her nametag.  I picked it up and started to hand it back to her when she got a funny look on her face.


A guilty look.  Like I had caught her enacting one of her creative plans. 


And trust me, this kiddo comes up with some great ones.  Like the mouthful of rubber bands she had when she told me she had just gotten braces.  


Or the time she showed us all how to properly draw "the black stuff to cover up the bald spot on the head if you are drawing your dad".


Or the time she left her classroom to go make a "special announcement" to all the classrooms at school about her birthday. 😂


I would soon discover that I had just caught her in another one. 


The nametag was her KINDERGARTEN one from last year.


(Right off the bat I was impressed.  My kids are forever losing their name tags that they had a few hours ago and paying the $1 fine to replace them. And she found hers after three months!!!!)


Anyway, I knelt down and asked her why she had her kindergarten tag.  


With a chagrined look on her face, she looked up and said, "I was hoping I could just go back to kindergarten instead of doing this first grade stuff. "


I bit back my laughter and explained that we really need to know who her teacher is and that her new teacher would miss her.  I walked her back to class and reiterated my belief that she would be able to handle first grade.  


We arrived and she saw her class actively studying and feeding the aquarium of snails and she suddenly forgot that she wanted to be back in kindergarten.


I am confident that she will have another challenge that feels hard again, probably even as soon as tomorrow.  I am also confident that there are lessons she is ready for that she simply couldn't experience in the safety of kindergarten.  


Sometimes in life we all have moments where our own "kindergarten" seems simpler than facing the next thing.


But President Spencer W Kimball encouraged, "Let us not shrink from the next steps in our spiritual growth, brothers and sisters, by holding back, or side-stepping our fresh opportunities for service to our families and our fellowmen.


Let us trust the Lord and take the next steps in our individual lives. He has promised us that he will be our tender tutor, measuring what we are ready for:


“And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along”"


Maybe our current grade is feeling a little (or a lot) tough, but He will lead us along and be our tender tutor.  How beautiful is that? ❤️

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