Building

 

We spent so long.

My student rebuilt it 5 or 6 times.  

His radio project still wouldn’t work.  

He asked if he could please quit and play on his iPad.  

At least a dozen times.

I said no, he needed to learn to find and fix his errors.

He is a kid who struggles with attention and skips over details.  (While also telling me about his dream tryout for Cobra Kai and then singing the song from Arthur because “I’m just  thinkin’ bout my past!”)

Those are skills I am working on with him- the details, not the karate.

“What do you think could be the problem?”

Maybe the batteries! 

Try it out.

He changed the batteries.  

Still nothing.  

He begged me to tell him what the problem was but I’m building a thinker, not a radio.

So I finally had him scale back and do a simple series project.

The lights wouldn’t work and he was getting more frustrated by the second.

So this time I sat next to him and had him touch and compare each piece to the diagram as he went.

Suddenly he saw it.  “This one is the wrong way!”

He slapped his forehead and sighed.

I told him that now that he knew, I thought he could do it.  

The radio was up and running in less than 5 minutes.

We celebrated and then he cleaned up his project.  

He knows me well and immediately offered, “And now it’s time for a heart-to-heart?”

I laughed and asked what he had learned today.

He was ready.

“The directions matter and when things aren’t working go back and make sure what you’re doing matches the instructions.  Then you’ll be successful.”

I wonder how many times I keep trying to make my version of life work and trying to beg for answers. 

And how often I fail to look back to the scriptures and make sure that I am alligning things in the correct way.”

Heavenly Father says we are not to be commanded in all things.

Elder Larry Y Wilson encouraged, “Likewise we might ask, “Lord, what do I need to do to be part of the solution?” Instead of just listing our problems in prayer and asking the Lord to solve them, we ought to be seeking more proactive ways of receiving the Lord’s help and committing to act according to the Spirit’s guidance.”

He is building spiritual thinkers, not just radios.