Today was crazy. Well, every Sunday seems a bit crazy. But when you are "solo" in Chile in terms of parenting and you have to get everyone ready, sharing time things gathered, and try to manage to get to church early so you can get all of the chairs set up and the room ready, it always ends up a bit hectic.
Joe has already started his new job in California.
Today was no different. We woke up to get ready for church and everyone was ready to head out the door. Then Kate complained she had a headache and her stomach hurt. Luke looked absolutely exhausted. He had been in the ER the day before with what turned out to be a painful stye in his eye. He hadn't slept all night long. Just held his eye and sobbed. Then add a nice phlegmy chest cough to that and you have a sad boy. He looked like he needed to sleep for about 48 hours. I knew I couldn't take him with but I knew I needed to be there at church today.
I made a fast decision and put Kate in charge of Luke and Jake and I left just during the 2 hour Primary block. I figured they could watch a movie twice and we'd be home. The Jr. Primary kids were like wild hyenas today. I'm not kidding. Through it all, Jake kept saying, "Mom, I really want to give a talk today. Mom, did you hear me?! I really want to give a talk. Mom, I want to give a talk today."
I told him we would see as I tried to manage the masses. Obviously I was trying to brush him off because there were so many other things to deal with. Plus, because we have to do everything in Spanish and in English, there isn't a lot of extra time in our block for extra things! We've actually had to cut out talks. So no one has given a talk in a WHILE.
I kind of hoped he'd forget about it for just this reason and because I had no idea what he wanted to share! I literally couldn't take one more thing in there today!!!! "But you are the primary president, you can make the time!"
We got through our opening exercises and I looked in the back and there he sat. Wide eyed. Staring hopefully right at me. So, I announced that Jake would now be giving a talk. He got this huge grin on his face, stood up, walked to the front of the room. He opened up his scripture case and inside was one of my own books- A Fable for Our Times. I had no clue he had it, let alone knew how to read it. He looked at the children, and as if he had practiced 1,000 times, went right into his impromptu discourse. Gave a synopsis of the story, read a couple of paragraphs and then looked at everyone again and said, "This teaches us that we should never give up. Heavenly Father will help us." And then he closed and sat down. I tried to hide my tears. My middle child. He has been through a lot this year and I've prayed and prayed to know how to build his confidence. It doesn't matter that half the kids couldn't hear a word or understand anything he was saying. He had just accomplished something great. He knew it, I knew it, the Lord knew it. And I was soooooo grateful. Some might have run from that primary room not ever wanting to return because of the chaos today.
But I will chalk it up as one of my all time favorites. 
No comments:
Post a Comment