DAY 16: Drawing Closer to God (Loving No Matter What)

Most mother's out there can attest to the frustrations of dealing with a preschooler. They have a tendency not to listen, not to sit still when asked, not to follow direction, get angry or upset at the drop of anything, call their friends names, play the blame game, tell on their friends and so on. They have SO much to learn. I remember the trying times with my own kids and am thankful to God that we made it through relatively intact and sane. Now, as a preschool teacher assistant, it is taking the power of God to seriously keep me from wanting to blow a gasket. My frustrations, mind you, are expressed to my fellow teacher who is also at the end of her rope so we manage to keep our cool and maintain an even keel. Today, I walked them through the story of the Good Samaritan with little Lego figures. They were engaged for the moment which was a total blessing but the rest of the day brought anger, cutting in line, blaming, not being kind to each other and so on. There are constant teaching moments in a preschool and especially when you have several students that have special needs at this time in their life. At the end of the day, I was to conclude the lesson by letting them take two chocolate hearts from a gold shaped heart bowl that I told them was God's love. We got back from music and the other teacher was in the frame of mind that no chocolate was going to go to the kids but I called on her to trust me and I sat down with them and talked to them about being frustrated and not very happy about how their behavior had been today. I told them that although I could choose not to let them come to the bowl and receive some love from God and also take a chocolate heart to give to someone else, I told them that I prayed to God and asked him to help me love them right now despite the not so good behavior they had presented this day. They were listening intently. As, I called them up one by one to get their hearts of chocolate, I noticed one girl waiting and crying. Did my talk get through to her? Hmmmm? I suppose maybe we will see in the days ahead of how setting the example of loving no matter what will hopefully take root in their hearts.

DAY 2: DRAWING CLOSER TO GOD (Patience Through Him)

God showed me how much I was like the grumbling Isrealites today. By the end of my morning, I was fed up with the lack of listening from the preschoolers in my class, two in particular got me to the point of throwing my hands up in the air. How many times do I have to call your name for you to respond???? Yes, I was frustrated and I grumbled about it. However, tonight with my bible study group, I was reminded of how very patient God was with the Isrealites as they were led out of Egypt and eventually through the desert for 40 years. God had to teach them over and over and over again about obedience. Amazing things happen when we are obedient. I witnessed this in the last two days in my preschool class with one boy who has been trouble since day one with extreme anger issues, running away from the class and even some language that nobody should say especially a 4 year old. But a reward was promised to him by his mom and he has been a delightful and very good child for the last two days. I hope it shows him how being obedience brings blessings. I am praising God for reminding me that my patience will wear thin but he is always with me so I know I have Him within me to get a dose of supernatural patience to be able to handle these days when the children are having lots of trouble listening.
This verse will be my verse to pray in the days to come...
Colossians 3:12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.