Out of the Mouths of Babes

Those moments, those teachable moments, you know the ones God uses to teach you more than the little ones in front of you. Come on, be real, I hear myself correcting a student and it is as if the Lord is whispering in my heart, "Did you hear what you just said? That My child is what I want you to do too." Sometimes I think God allows us to have children so we can have a glimpse of how He views us.

Here's another story from the classroom.

We had five minutes before the final bell. All backpacks were filled, mailboxes emptied, and chairs stacked. My favorite part of the day! It was time to ask sticky questions. Those are the type of questions that show character, emotion, and thought patterns. I love learning how my students think and what they think. Even high schoolers are honest to a fault when it comes to answering sticky questions. My only rule is you have 15 seconds to answer honestly and you may not talk otherwise. This is the one time of the day when the no talking rule seems to work. The question of the day was (drum roll please...) "Would you rather your father spend no time with you but give you all the presents you wanted or would you want him to spend more quality time with you.

Their answers broke my heart. Hands down it was quality time, which I expected, but there reasoning and logic amazed me. I want to learn how my dad got so smart; I can only do that by being with him. My parents are divorced; I'd love to be with my dad more. I like playing with my dad! My dad loves me. My dad works and goes to school, he does not have time to play but he makes sure I do my homework. The praises for fathers went on and on. Yes there were two goofballs that said presents, but even they raised their hands later and said they really wanted more time.

I wish those fathers could have heard the fifteen second shout-outs their progeny stated emphatically! The commitment and sacrifice is great, but in the eyes of those students each dad was the strongest, biggest, mostest anythingest; the best man of all!!!