Did You Think to Pray?

 A big part of elementary school (and life) is learning how to navigate social interactions with others.  

So last week when four of our littles in kindergarten got swept up in a moment and began laughing at another student another teacher  immediately called them out.  

She emphatically stated that is NOT how we treat people and that they needed to immediately go to their seats and write a note of apology to their classmate as well as a letter to their parents to inform them of what had happened.  I completely supported her moves. 

The students had various responses.

One immediately began making excuses and blaming the other three.

One nervously laughed and said "I don't care". (Psychologists have actually found that this phrase usually means some form of "I wish I hadn't done this."

One had no real visual response and seemed to be waiting and following the others for the appropriate response.

And one immediately began biting his lip as tears streamed down his face.

All are examples of common responses to mistakes. And similar to responses I have found myself making to my own mistakes.

The little boy with tears immediately came to me and I explained I had also seen and heard what happened and then I said this.

"Your heart is feeling sad, because you know you did something wrong.  But that feeling doesn't mean you are bad, it means you made a mistake and need to fix it.  To make it right."

Tears continued to roll down his cheeks.

"As bad as you feel right now, you will feel

so much better when you try to make it right and I will help you.  Can you see my eyes? Do I look angry?"

He slowly raised his eyes and upon seeing love reflected in my eyes threw his arms around my neck and sobbed, "I'm so sorry."

"I know you are.  And I'm here to help you. Which letter are you going to do first?"

He picked up his pencil and in kindergarten spelling wrote:

R.  I am sore I wuz men. I will be yur best friend.

He gave it to his friend and then asked, "Do you want to play a puzzle with me?"

At the end of the day this friend gave me a huge hug and said, "Thank you for helping my heart."

I've had similar negative interactions this week myself.  Parts where my heart was hurting because of others' actions and parts where I held too tightly to that real hurt and disappointment. 

I know it's okay to be sad and frustrated. And that healing takes time.

But as I sat in church yesterday the words of the hymns seemed to speak straight to me.

"Let us oft speak kind words to each other."

"When your heart was full of anger, did you think to pray?"

And I repented.  For not taking it to God more quickly. 

And I worked on giving it to Him.  

And I sent a couple of emails that needed to be sent, assuming positive intent and giving grace.

Because none of us deserve it. And we all need it.

And it didn't magically resolve all the issues, but it took my bitterness out.  I let Him help heal my hurt heart.  

And a lot of that came from unexpected places.  

So tonight I find myself saying "Thank you, Jesus for helping to heal my heart."