Patience, Learning, Turning Points

Seminary has been a whole new ballgame for me this year. I'm sure I've mentioned here that last year I struggled to get ANYTHING out of the mouths of my sweet seven. This year I still have seven who regularly attend (will get a few more after band season), but I have the opposite problem. I've been preparing only half lessons because it's all I have time to squeeze in among all of the commentary - sometimes on topic, mostly not.

We've had our challenges, but for the most part I feel such a love for this group of kids that I can look past some of the things that could otherwise get to me. I see them working through the challenges of the age and learning and occasionally shocking me with glaring truths.

It is so rewarding to hear the students give thought provoking questions and responses when we are all focused and open to learning. Last week we had a lesson on physical cleanliness vs. spiritual cleanliness. The lesson came from a time when the disciples were being criticized for eating without washing their hands. We talked about how revolting it can be to us to watch a small child putting something disgusting in their mouths. I enjoyed so much that Amber replied to that example with, "I wonder if that's how Heavenly Father feels when he sees us sin." She got it.

Last week I had a chance to visit with one of my girls on a real level and share some of the reasons for the challenges we've faced. I'm so glad that the Lord has granted me patience through the trying days so that we can reach a turning point like I have felt this past week.

Today's seminary was.... dare I say it? Great. Yes, most of the class was tardy. We started three times. I sang a duet with my student who was on time and I said the opening prayer. Just after that, two more came in and we worked on scripture mastery (memorizing certain passages)... we all passed off two of them in one day. Soon the last four straggled in and the one assigned to give a devotional did so. After she gave a quick scripture she asked a real question. One that got us all thinking. I let the conversation flow for a lot longer than I would normally feel comfortable with knowing that we had "a lesson to cover." This really got everyone warmed up and open. When we did move on to the lesson I'd prepared I was amazed at the participation. I dare say that each one of them shard something on topic and meaningful. They were respectful (this is, unfortunately, not always the case).

I'm grateful to be a part of these young lives during such a critical time. I'm grateful to feel a portion of the love that our Father in Heaven has for them. I know He knows them. I know He knows what they need and He directs things in their lives. He cares how lessons are presented.

I haven't been sharing a lot of what goes on, and I still feel like I shouldn't give too many specific examples, but I do want to record for my own records the powerful feelings - ups and downs - of what it means for me to be a seminary teacher right now.

Granny's Birthday

After our full day of roller coaster fun we headed out to Granny and Papa's house for her birthday celebration. We were welcomed by her new present - a playground for the kids! Sarah and Jeffrey were already there and were capturing little lizards left and right. They had names and a little house made up for them in a cardboard box. Jeff got to work on the hot dog dinner while Papa put the finishing touches on the play equipment. After dinner the kids roasted marshmallows at the burn pile and took turns rolling around in the hamster wheel. There was plenty of dirt digging, as usual, and lots of laughter. Fun night!

Happy birthday Granny!

Frontier City

Lincoln has been wanting to play Roller Coaster Tycoon on the computer with us a lot lately. He is slowly picking up on all of the things you have to do to make it work, but one of the kids' favorite things about it is the feature that let's you "ride" the coasters you build. They have a camera view from the cars so that you feel like you are riding on the coasters. They have practiced putting their hands in the air and saying "aaaah!" at just the right moments.

This week in seminary one of the girls handed out passes to get into the local theme park, Frontier City, for only $5 per person. We took advantage of this, expecting to have $5 worth of fun in the kiddie area all day. You can see the boys weren't so sure about things at first in these first two pictures - Lincoln covered his eyes the whole time he rode the boat ride, but he said that he loved it. They got more and more excited as the day wore on and we found out that they could ride a lot more rides than I expected.

Everyone's favorite was the "orange" one, you can see Lincoln sitting in the orange and blue seat. Even Jackson was able to ride it! He got off and said, "that was crazy.... that mine favorite." They also loved the log flume and the Tin Lizzy's (old cars the kids can "drive.") We got to the park right when it opened and had several hours where it was pretty empty. We were able to do tons of fun things and had a great time. I was so proud of the boys - they were brave and had really good attitudes the whole time. When can we go again? We all want to know!