My kids make me proud

I’ve worked with this 5 year old pretty much everyday for several months prior to his hiatus from therapy. He had limited language with a repertoire of only 3 to 4 rote word sentences. Today was his first day back. When he walked through the door with his mom, he looked straight at me with good eye contact and smiled. I went up to him and said hi. Now I usually have to prompt him to respond and he’ll usually say “Hi, (then fill in the blank with someone else’s name).” But this time, when I said hi, he looked at me and said “Hi Jennifer” right away, without any sort of prompts whatsoever. His mom immediately said he was so attached to me that he knew my name and didn’t forget. That was one moment when I remembered why I’m in this line of work. This kid made me proud.

Speaking of kids who make me proud, I have to mention my high school group. Many of them are helping out with daycamp this summer as leaders and even as group leaders. When I see them on the days that I’m there, I can’t help but smile and be proud. I see them leading the kids in playing the same games that we had once played in our fellowship group. I see them trying to plan things for the kids. I sometimes think that my high schoolers are still so young and they have so much to learn, but at the same time, I realize that they have a lot of knowledge and now this is their chance to actually live out the stuff they’ve learned about. My worry is that they don’t lead how God wants them to lead, but only how they feel like leading. I fear that they will be too tired, too caught up in having too much fun or too stressed out in the planning process that they forget they are there to share God’s love. In any case, I am proud to see them as leaders. No matter how mature they think they are, I still consider them my kids. No wonder why Calvin called me the maranatha momma. Personally, I prefer big sis.