Thursday, February 3, 2011

Love Covers

OK There are several things zooming around in my mind right now. Don't know if I can put them together to make any kind of sense....hang on and we shall see.
First, we had a hard day at school. A grandmother who has full custody of her grandchild called to say the parent was in a bad way and saying she was coming to the school to get the child...assured her in every way that I could that we would keep the child safe. Lots of praying and watching today and it ended without the child knowing anything was going on. This was before the kids were even in the room.
Next, one of them came in crying...sad....belligerent (Connie, is that spelled correctly? hahah No, it wasn't but I fixed it ;)). And he had a sore finger...really sore. A band-aid fixed that, but off and on through the rest of the day he cried, was sad and belligerent. He was crying when he left.
Third, another one, who doesn't have much oral language was mad all day and since she can't tell us why she was mad, she screamed! For long stretches of time. At lunch she slammed her tray on the table and milk went everywhere...Mrs. Teresa had to clean that up and then the rest of the class got crazy while they were waiting.
Fourth, Stevie and I went to funeral of our sweet friend, Susie's momma...and even for that I felt like I had to call the grandmother to tell her I would be out of the building for an hour but had made extra arrangements for her child to be protected. When we returned, the screamer was still screaming and the other kids were getting headaches and unable to concentrate, so the work we left was not done...
Last, we had a family meeting.
Mrs. Brenda wanted to know how I stayed so calm...were there drugs involved and could I share....
And the kids finally went home.
On the way down the hall I saw two of my friends having a chat, so I stopped to visit a minute. We never get to visit during the day and I work with some really swell people. They were lamenting their husbands. I told them my husband was so sweet that I have to have pretend confrontations. Here is the latest one I had...
I asked him to bring me 3 ibuprofen as I was lounging in the warm bed. He happily did so and then went straight to the kitchen to get me a glass of water to take them with. I already had a bottle of water in there with me. He just took the water back to the kitchen...nothing said. Event over. Best husband in the world! So, for whatever perverse reason, I begin imagining how it might have gone when he came back with the water and he saw I already had some. He could have said something ugly about having to wait on me or whatever and I was going to say, "Seriously, you want to trash talk with the woman who just asked for 3 ibuprofen, when they haven't even had time to work?" Isn't that a great line? And I will never get to use it because I have the best husband in the world! I guess I can live with that. :-)
So, the real point of this whole rambling post was to talk about how God is love. We are made in God's image. We are called to love. When in doubt, love. That kind of love. And love covers instead of exposes. That means????
Well, the next time a child is sad and crying or mad and screaming I will try to cover them in love. When I have said and said and said the same thing to a classroom full of little ones who have a headache from the screaming, I will try to cover them in love...instead of calling attention to their faults. It won't always be easy, but I can see it will be better...
Thank the Lord, that he covers me in love, again and again and again.
I think I will not even re-read this one. I will try to "polish" it and this was not a polished day.

4 comments:

  1. I love this one! Some days it's hard to teach when their little lives seem like they are in chaos. A lesson in love is always a good idea. Love isn't always easy. Heck, it isn't often the first response, but it is what is often the most needed in those frustrating moments.

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  2. I think I will try saying "OK, give the person beside you a hug!" ...instead of "What is wrong with you people, again?" Might work. :-)

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  3. We were just talking about that in Relief Society this morning (that's our church's women's organization). And someone summed it all up this way: the first commandment is to love - and if we allow ourselves to do it, all the rest takes care of itself. Because when you love, you don't compete or need to win, and you give everything. It doesn't even seem like a sacrifice - of time or money or effort or position or possession, because love makes you WANT to do it. Kind of a cool perspective.

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  4. Isn't it amazing how when God wants to show you something it just keeps coming up in all kinds of places? Church, CD, podcast, current reading material...
    When in doubt, love!

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