A lesson to be learned

Less than a week left with my kids. In all aspects of life, I hate getting to the point of preparing to leave - Thinking about how I'm going to say goodbye, anticipating the end, making everything that happens extra sentimental. Off of a sudden even the least appealing of things seems to be extra meaningful even though I never liked it to begin with. Maybe some day I will miss the sketchy elevators or countless number of stray dogs, but I know without doubt the things that I will miss.

The truth of the work is that some days are hard. Like the day I had earlier this week. How do the boys happen to have bad days all on the same morning! Within the first 20 minutes I had been hit hard by all the boys and the rest of the morning was just as promising. As we left Caroline had bite marks on her hands, I had nail impressions on my neck, and we were both exhausted. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE these boys, but my patience is tried and I know I am becoming better because of it.

Throughout the morning I thought of the scripture that encourages us to become like a child. I had a moment of thinking "okay, I'll scream, not share, hit, and change moods every second", but it didn't take long until the rest of the verse came to find. Mosiah 3:19 tells us that the natural man "becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father". Am I willing to submit to the will of the Lord like these children demonstrate? This got me thinking about what it really means to become as a little child. We are not told to become little children, but rather to become like little children.

Children are a key to helping us to become like our Father in Heaven. Jean A. Stevens said "children provide examples of some of the childlike qualities we need to develop or rediscover in ourselves. They are bright spirits who are untarnished by the world - teachable and full of faith. It is no wonder the Savior has a special love and appreciation for little children". There are times when I don't understand why the children have the challenges they have, but I know to some extent they are here to teach me lessons I personally need to learn.

The helpless child in a hospital crib that is too small; the child affected by Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, whose life will forever be changed because of choices he did not make; the child who is not only abandoned once, but every time his mom comes to visit for a short while and then leaves; the tiny newborns who don't know what it feels like to have anything other than a nose feeding tube and oxygen mask hooked up to them; the older child in a body of a toddler, with limbs twisted and immovable; the child with nothing who smiles simply because of the touch of his face  - These are the teachers that I have had this summer, teaching me valuable lessons I will never forget.