Not too many conferences ago we started trying to do the conference packets with games for children that have become so popular. What ended up working the best for us is just drawing a picture of something from the talk of each of the apostles. Master I still remembers the past conference talks from doing that. This year we also started having a special word like “faith” that if they heard they would get a fruit snack. Both of these strategies have been very motivating. But this year he wasn’t interested in drawing pictures, he wanted to take notes. He listened to every talk of every session intently and took notes. He wanted to make sure that he was in his suit and that he looked really nice, even when were at home for some sessions. He sung the intermediate hymns at the top of his lungs with gusto. He went to the Sunday morning session with me in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. At the end of the conference he asked me what my favorite talks were. And he had his own favorites! He loved President Packer and President Uchtdorf. During some talks he would comment to me or ask me questions. It was surreal. It was such companionship to me.
I looked at him after Sunday am session and said, “I am trying to figure you out. I believed that some day you would love conference, but I thought it would be when you were 18 not 8. Where is the boy that told me that he was going to kill me with a knife and throw me in a pit (the idea came from Joseph in Egypt)? Or the boy that walked into the store with his sword and when I urged him to keep up with me he told me that he needed to fight his friends (peers) first?” Master I just laughed at it, but I marveled all day long.
Then I looked at Miss R and asked myself how can I do with her what I did with him. What did I do? I wonder if it was that I got a grip on his heart one day at a time of creating train tracks, reading books, and playing games. He grew out of those infernal behaviors, but he didn’t grow out of the relationship that I had with him. So the behaviors fell away naturally and I was left holding his heart. So what will I do with Miss R? I will continue to try to persuade her to behave, but I will keep a firm grip on her heart, knowing that she will outgrow and what will be left is my relationship with her.
I also feel such an urgency to take advantage of R’s childhood, as I did with Master I, by playing with her, imagining with her, making her days fun, working with her, caring for her when she is sick, making her yummy foods, reading to her, talking to her, and singing to her. It is hard to see in the moment that I am having any effect. Building a relationship and teaching a child about God is like trying to build a fire in nature the old fashioned way. I have this image in my mind from the movie Cast Away of me as Tom Hanks, on my hands and knees, rolling a stick between my hands to create friction, and gently blowing the delicate flickers of light. Each morning it feels like I am back where I started from…on my hands and knees trying with my blistered hands to make a fire; wondering if it is working. I remember feeling this way with Master I and I feel this way with Rach. The only difference with Rach is that I know what happens when you gently try to nurture little embers to fires. With Master I it is a fire that I no longer have control of. I stand back and watch the flames in awe.
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