Becoming Childlike

Over the past week, David has given me daily reports on which classmates did not get a "superstar" stamp for good behavior.  He often mentions two boys who apparently tease the other kids a lot.  When he first mentioned their behavior, I wanted to make sure he did not follow suit, and so encouraged him to be a good example to them by not teasing the other kids, and to still be nice to them even if they were not nice to him.

Tonight while he was saying his bedtime prayer, without any prompting for me, he prayed for those boys by name, and specifically asked Heavenly Father to help [Boy A] not tease and [Boy B] to not hit other kids so they could get superstar stamps.  I was completely blown away.  His prayers are usually pretty predictable, so it was not only remarkable to have a new subject, but one of such maturity.  Matthew 5:44-45 came to mind:

"44 But I say unto you, ^aLove your ^benemies, ^cbless them that ^dcurse you, do ^egood to them that ^fhate you, and ^gpray for them which despitefully use you, and ^hpersecute you;

  45 That ye ^amay be the ^bchildren of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth ^crain on the just and on the unjust."

How often do we pray for our enemies?  And when we do, how often is our prayer on their behalf instead of our own (i.e. please make him stop bullying me)?  I feel humbled by his compassion.

Afterwards he helped me get Daniel in bed (who was having a bit of a rough time) by bringing up a couple special toys, giving him kisses and hugs and comforting words.  (Daniel went right down after that).

I then got to enjoy an animated conversation with him about school.  We haven't gotten much feedback about it, in spite of all his talking.  We'd ask him how school was and he'd reply "Good."  "What did you talk about today?" was met with a shrug.  Tonight I asked him, "Do you like school?" (smiled and nodded with a twinkle in his eye) and perhaps by inspiration followed up with, "What is your favorite part?"  Those were magic words that opened a floodgate of feedback.  He was so excited to tell me about their routine and especially the playgrounds.  He described in great detail the number and shapes of slides, the climbing wall, and other apparati at his disposal.  He described how he wanted to try something and [Girl A] didn't think it was a good idea, but he thought he could do it and tried anyway, and how he fell when he landed.  He talked about how he and a few other kids buried toys in the sand on Friday and how they worked together today to dig them up, but couldn't find all of them ("The Team that Never Gave Up!") and how they found other things and what everyone's opinion was as to what those things were.  He was so enthusiastic, and I loved hearing him share that with me.

Overall, it was a very sweet, tender bedtime experience, and I'm so thankful for it.  I sure love my boys!