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My thanks to CMG for posting on FaceBook a link to this timely piece. CMG adapts the letter below as "the talk" she and her husband have with their kids each year as school is about to begin. Written by Glennon Melton who blogs at Momastery, the original was addressed to her son, Chase, whose name I've replaced with blanks to help you more easily read this with your own kids in mind. My FB friend communicates this in a conversation with her kids (awesome!). Some might choose to adapt and post the letter on the refrigerator door or give it to children for bedtime reading on the night before the first day of school.
Clearly, the thoughts here have application wider than the third grade! Please share with others who might find this helpful.
Dear ______,
Hey, baby.
Tomorrow is a big day. Third Grade -- wow.
______ -- When I was in third grade, there was a little boy in my class named Adam.
Adam looked a little different and he wore funny clothes and sometimes he even smelled a little bit. Adam didn't smile. He hung his head low and he never looked at anyone at all. Adam never did his homework. I don't think his parents reminded him like yours do. The other kids teased Adam a lot. Whenever they did, his head hung lower and lower and lower. I never teased him, but I never told the other kids to stop, either.
And I never talked to Adam, not once. I never invited him to sit next to me at lunch, or to play with me at recess. Instead, he sat and played by himself. He must have been very lonely.
I still think about Adam every day. I wonder if Adam remembers me? Probably not. I bet if I'd asked him to play, just once, he'd still remember me.
I think that God puts people in our lives as gifts to us. The children in your class this year, they are some of God's gifts to you.
So please treat each one like a gift from God. Every single one.
Baby, if you see a child being left out, or hurt, or teased, a part of your heart will hurt a little. Your daddy and I want you to trust that heartache. Your whole life, we want you to notice and trust your heartache. That heartache is called compassion, and it is God's signal to you to do something. It is God saying, "______! Wake up! One of my babies is hurting! Do something to help!" Whenever you feel compassion -- be thrilled! It means God is speaking to you, and that is magic. It means He trusts you and needs you.
Sometimes the magic of compassion will make you step into the middle of a bad situation right away.
Compassion might lead you to tell a teaser to stop it and then ask the teased kid to play. You might invite a left-out kid to sit next to you at lunch. You might choose a kid for your team first who usually gets chosen last. These things will be hard to do, but you can do hard things.
Sometimes you will feel compassion but you won't step in right away. That's okay, too. You might choose instead to tell your teacher and then tell us. We are on your team -- we are on your whole class's team. Asking for help for someone who is hurting is not tattling, it is doing the right thing. If someone in your class needs help, please tell me, baby. We will make a plan to help together.
When God speaks to you by making your heart hurt for another, by giving you compassion, just do something. Please do not ignore God whispering to you. I so wish I had not ignored God when He spoke to me about Adam. I remember Him trying, I remember feeling compassion, but I chose fear over compassion. I wish I hadn't. Adam could have used a friend and I could have, too.
______ -- We do not care if you are the smartest or fastest or coolest or funniest. There will be lots of contests at school, and we don't care if you win a single one of them. We don't care if you get straight As. We don't care if the girls think you're cute or whether you're picked first or last for kickball at recess. We don't care if you are your teacher's favorite or not. We don't care if you have the best clothes or most Pokemon cards or coolest gadgets. We just don't care.
We don't send you to school to become the best at anything at all. We already love you as much as we possibly could. You do not have to earn our love or pride and you can't lose it. That's done.
We send you to school to practice being brave and kind.
Kind people are brave people. Brave is not a feeling that you should wait for. It is a decision. It is a decision that compassion is more important than fear, than fitting in, than following the crowd.
Trust me, baby, it is. It is more important.
Don't try to be the best this year, honey.
Just be grateful and kind and brave. That's all you ever need to be.
Take care of those classmates of yours, and your teacher, too. You Belong to Each Other. You are one lucky boy... with all of these new gifts to unwrap this year.
I love you so much that my heart might explode.
Enjoy and cherish your gifts.
And thank you for being my favorite gift of all time.
Love,
Mama
(Letter originally published on Momastery on August 28, 2011)
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I wish I had gotten a letter like this...
ReplyDeletebut I didn't.
But I have worked with many young children- some were children at risk (as they call it)-
No director or boss or training ever told me the most important things I needed to accomplish first with children-
(I just knew this, from my own experience)
-they must feel SAFE-
if they feel safe, then, and only then, can they sleep and eat (basic needs)
and then, ONLY then, can they begin to learn-
I was very fortunate to experience this with children I worked with, and I am VERY grateful for this-
In 1st grade, I knew a girl, like Adam-
(I still remember her first and last name)
I never actually talked with her-
My family moved to that town for just that one year-
This girl looked very sad and her hair was uncombed and tangled and her face and clothes were dirty-
she was the only one at her bus stop outside of her house (the windows were boarded up...)
I wondered about her, about inside her house...
I knew she was hurting-
and I was too-
to this day I wish I had said something to her-