I have this crazy church job.
It is called,
P R I M A R Y P R E S I D E N T.
Every Sunday I am responsible for 70 plus kids.
How would you like to try to teach the gospel while attempting to keep 70 kids (ages 3-11) in their seats for two hours after they have previously been sitting for an hour?
Just wanted to give you a little feel for my Sabbath day experience.
Here’s the thing people,
I CARE.
I really, really care.
And yet I fall
SO SHORT!
(dang it!)
But I am learning
SO MUCH.
This past week, my “take away” lesson is this: You can never express too much love.
I felt prompted to write each of the members of our Sr. Primary a note thanking them for the contribution they make to our primary. I pointed out specific things they have done that I appreciate and admire. There are around 20 kids and there is a fair amount of writing involved in such an endeavor. It only took me all week long – because I am limited, you see.
Outcome?
The love came right back to me!
Several of the kids & their parents said thank you. One parent said that after their son read the note he said, “I am going to keep this.” Another mother came up to me and told me how much it meant to her daughter who’d had a really difficult week at school, and that specific things that I had mentioned in the note really buoyed her up. But even more than the feedback I received I noticed that…
…It is hard to explain but there was a shift. I usually face a fair amount of resistance from the kids. But much of that had melted away. They listened better, gave wonderful answers during the lesson, we felt more connected.
LOVE!
It works!
I need so much more of it.
I also need to learn how to spell.
(which is never going to happen in this life)
If you are a regular reader, no doubt, you have noticed a fair few typos, among the other TREATS this blog has to offer.
Take away lesson number two: DON’T DO A WORD SCRAMBLE IF YOUR NAME IS ELIZA DAWSON
Okay, so check this out: I wanted to put the word PROPHET on the board all scrambled up and have the kids try to unscramble it, so I put this up on the board:
SEOFRP
WHAT THE HECK!!
Yup, this kept ’em guessing. Nothing like leaving out the letter “t” adding the letter “s” and putting an “f” in place of the “ph”.
F!? I mean I can’t spell a lot of words but I do know how to spell the word prophet, for crying out loud!!!!!!!
Ugh!
I felt SO AWESOME!
And I won some serious points with the Stake Primary President who happened to show up and “OBSERVE” my fabulous efforts.
I am taking it one Sabbath day at a time, my friends.
Victories. Defeats. Humiliations and ALL.
P.S.
Bonus question :
What does this woman
share in common with this guy* ?
NOT VERY MUCH.
* Scott Remer, two time winner of the The Plain Dealer Cuyahoga County Spelling Bee.
March 30th, 2010 at 7:30 am
I remember your brilliant idea of loving the members to death in Alicante- do you remember how many little things we did for several families that were struggling? I re-read my mission journal last year and was able to read of some of the miracles that came from the idea to just love love love them. You are amazing. I admire you alot. Good luck with the 70 kiddos! They are lucky to have you.
March 30th, 2010 at 8:18 am
hahahahahahaha that is SO awesome! love that mistake 🙂
March 30th, 2010 at 9:15 am
Liza. That made me laugh so hard! Because, my dear sister, I do similar things. I’m TAing for a film class and was writing a bunch of stuff on the board. One “word” that I wrote was this: meanifful. Yup. “meanifful”. When my class started to mock me I said, “Yeah, meanifful. I like it. We’re keeping it.”
March 30th, 2010 at 11:37 am
So I may or may not have seen your blog up on your computer when I was at your house a couple weeks ago and now I blog stalk you… I hope that’s okay 🙂 hahaha but mostly I just wanted to say that you are amazing in primary! Every week I seriously think wow Eliza has so much patience and does such a great job with these kids! I can’t even imagine trying to get them all to listen, but you do it so well.
March 30th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
SEOFRP! Oh, man. That SLAYED me, Lize. I laughed SO hard. Speaking of love, I love this blog so much. I know I’ve said it before, but I don’t think I’ve said it lately. And I love you, my big sister. It’s funny, because I’ve been feeling lately like I should write a note to one of the kids in our primary who I just found is going to be moving to Las Vegas this week because his parents are getting separated. You’re blog helped me realize that this is not a silly idea, but rather a prompting that I MUST act upon. So, thanks, Lize, for your example.
And way to embrace your spelling deficiencies, Bette! (Hey, I’m surprised the little red line thing didn’t come up when I wrote “deficiencies.” Go me!) Yeah, we’re keeping it!
March 30th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Hey, I just had an idea for a new primary song:
“Follow the Seoforp,
Follow the Seoforp,
Follow the Seoforp,
Don’t go astray…”
Anyway, you get the idea.
March 30th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
I’ll tell you the word that’s given me fits my whole life:
PICNIC. Can you believe it? I tried picknic, picnick, piknic, and I don’t know what the heck else. piCniC — how hard is that?
And weird is wierd .
I am thankful for all the love you shower on all of us. Today was an example of how you care so much and give all you can. Thank you. I hope I’m there to watch you get the return on your investment in the celestial realms. There’s gonna be some FIREWORKS that day!
I love you!
March 30th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
I’ll tell you the word that’s given me fits my whole life:
PICNIC. Can you believe it? I tried picknic, picnick, piknic, and I don’t know what the heck else. piCniC — how hard is that?
And weird is wierd .
I am thankful for all the love you shower on all of us. Today was an example of how you care so much and give all you can. Thank you. I hope I’m there to watch you get the return on your investment in the celestial realms. There’s gonna be some FIREWORKS that day!
I love you!
Maybe your humiliating experience in Primary was just to teach you to never, ever do a word scramble ever, ever again. There is no place for word scrambles in teaching the gospel.
March 30th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
oops, I submitted the same thing twice. How humiliating.