The Love of a 5-Year-Old, The Love of God

I have been woefully bad at this blogging thing the past month or so, and I apologize. But I was just sitting here tonight thinking how blessed I am and how grateful I am for the little moments in life.

Being a teacher is very eye-opening. I get to spend almost 7 hours a day with 5-year-old's...20 of them to be exact! To some of you that may sound absolutely awful! And believe me, there are moments when I have to literally take a deep breath before I can calmly deal with whatever problem happens to be the issue at the moment ("Um, Ms. Gardner this just happened," holding up a tape where the insides have come out. "So, that just happened? It was just sitting on the table and the insides just started magically coming out?" "Yep." "Really?" "Well...um...[very small voice]...no." Deep breath...not that I really cared too much about the tape, but mostly about the lying).

In the last two months I feel like I have started understanding the love of God just a little bit more. I know that it has everything to do with working with children, but I am often amazed at the little daily lessons that I learn. How often have I gotten a little more frustrated than I probably should have in the situation and instead of shying away from me, my students run to me and give me a huge hug? How often have I had to discipline a child and instead of hating me or resenting me they still look at me with love? I am daily humbled by the love and trust that a five-year-old can have. I look around at my students everyday, and I realize that there isn't much that I wouldn't do for them; even my students who try my patience more than I realized it could be tried! Perhaps this is, to a very small degree, what it feels like to be a parent. Perhaps this is why the Plan that God gave to us actually works.

I've often wondered at the Love of God for all of His children. He is God, after all. He doesn't really need us for anything. I mean, why is "His work and His glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man"? We are His creations, and I think we can all agree that when we create something there is a special feeling that results. However, we often do really, really dumb things. We hurt others, we are selfish, we don't think of Him, we aren't grateful or even recognize what He has done for us. In an almost uncanny way, we are just like the five-year-old's in my class. They are selfish. They don't think of others. They can be very mean to each other. And my first reaction when I hear of these human characteristics is to be frustrated with them, and just give up.

But then there are the redeeming moments which cause me to reevaluate what I am doing and why. A student sees another child crying and puts her arm around him. A child (who probably isn't getting the attention and love he needs at home) runs up to me, wraps his little arms around my neck and whispers in my ear, "I love you Ms. Gardner." In these moments I realize that my five-year-old's are doing the best that they know how. They are trying so hard to be good and, in all honesty, they are trying the best they can to please me. Do they have setbacks? Absolutely. Do they make a hundred mistakes every single day? Of course. But with all of that they are sincerely trying to be just a little better in every moment. When I think of the Love that God has for me despite, and almost because of, all my faults, I am filled with more love for this small class that I have the opportunity to be a part of. And I am very humbled by it all.