Paper That Just Won’t Cooperate

My Sweet G has not been his typical pleasant even tempered, compliant child as of late. He has decided that he has an opinion on things and is growing very comfortable expressing those opinions. Not only has he been doing this at home, but he has been doing it at school also. He has been choosing to passively defy one certain teacher in particular. She is a great teacher and is very passionate about her job. She does not want to frustrate G if he is not capable of doing the work but feels strongly that we need to push him a little harder to see just how much he is capable of accomplishing. G is a very smart little boy. He can hear the first few notes of a song and tell you the artist and title immediately. He has an unbelievable ear for music. He can sing the lyrics to a song after hearing it only once and a lot of times can sing part of the song on the first time. He just recognizes patterns very quickly and can predict the ending of some of the lines of a song before they have been sung. He is truly amazing. Because of some of the talents he displays like this ability to memorize easily his teacher really wants to push him now to see just what will happen.

G's recent discovery of his free will and his new found need and desire for independence has resulted in him pushing the envelope to see just what he can get by with. He has upped the stakes and after completing one math problem begins his new trick of ignoring the teacher. He just sits there as if he has suddenly become deaf as well as being orthopedically impaired, selective hearing to the inth degree. He sits for 5, 10, even 20 minutes at a time. Last week his teacher said the words that makes every elementary school student's heart sink, "Move your stick." This caused an eruption of tears that lasted several minutes. After three trips to check on him to see if he was in control of himself and was ready to work he finally decided he was. Oh, but alas he had waited too long to make the decision and was out of time. He was told that he would have to come back during his activity time to finish. When he returned he finished in two minutes. Come on now G, get with the program and stop being so stubborn.

This morning J had to give me a ride to school because my van decided it wanted to break down 20 feet from the entrance to my school last week. We dropped Sweet G off at his school first since his school is closer to our house. Mrs. B came to the truck to get our precious little boy and I noticed that when he saw it was she who was coming to get him he had dropped his head and refused to look at her. That boy!!

This evening when I finally arrived home from my evening class I asked G how his day went. I asked if he did math with Mrs. B and his reply was something I didn't expect even from him. He said, "I tried Mom, but that paper just wouldn't listen to me. I don't know why it wouldn't cooperate."

I know that underneath all that stubborn uncooperative behavior there is a little boy with a tender, loving, sweet spirit. Oh, how I can sympathize with him. Sometimes it is just so easy to do the wrong thing and so difficult to do the things we know are right. So, just as my Heavenly Father never gives up on me, I will continue to believe in my Sweet G and nudge him in the direction he should go. He is at a tender place right now. He is beginning to ask some deep spiritual questions and I feel that he is right on the verge of turning all his bad behavior around so that he is once again exactly in the center of that narrow path. Bless him Jesus. Call his name and prepare his heart to accept You as his Savior. Provide J and me with the wisdom to answer his questions and help lead him on his way to You.