Sunday, November 17, 2013

Jesus Has a Great Sense of Humor

Last year when Elli was in kindergarten, I signed up to be a reader in her class.  I got to bring books and read on the designated day.  It was about 30 minutes of pure joy.  I LOVED it!  This year when the sign up sheet was out again, I quickly signed up.
Pause right here and insert the following information....there are a few things that make me cringe:
   *the noises people make with their mouths while eating, drinking
  * the feel of a newspaper
   *listening to the same five early reader books, that my kindergartner/1st grader brings home each  
   week for 7 days in a row
Now back to the story....Imagine my disappointment when I received the email that said...
"Thank you for signing up to listen to the class read.  Your designated time will be every Wednesday from 8:45-9:15."  WHOA!  Wait a minute.  LISTEN?  I signed up to do the reading.  I didn't sign up for that kind of reading.  I signed up to come once a month to read the books I chose, not to listen to kids read those stinkin' early reader books.  But I didn't have the heart to tell Elli's teacher I didn't want to do that, so I went.  The first few times, I didn't mind it nearly as much as I thought.  I listened to a few sweet little girls read their early readers to me, and it was pretty painless.  Then last week when I went, again the same sweet little girls read to me; and they read much faster (I must be doing something right) ;).  There was some time leftover, so the teacher sent out a little guy.  He sat down, opened his first reader and began reading.  As he read, he would pause and interject his own explanations of what he was reading....as if I wouldn't understand the story otherwise.  His big brown eyes would look straight into mine with such conviction and passion about what he was telling me.  I found myself smiling the entire time and wishing for more books from him when he was finished.  I think Jesus thought about my resistance and decided that the opportunity I would have in meeting this little guy and those sweet little girls face to face was worth me being a little irritated in the beginning.  He knew how this was going to bless my life and He moved forward with it....even though I was not one bit thrilled about it.  It's such a wonderful thing for these children to have some one on one time, with an adult, who really listens to them while they read.  But really it has blessed my life 100x more than I ever thought it would.  I'm glad I didn't back out, and I hope I get to hear more books from the sweet little guy with the big brown eyes!!