Patience and Prayer

This week was the first week of school, and the children illustrated a mix of feelings before Monday approached.  Some were excited, some were nervous, but others would dread it because it meant they had to keep learning how to read, improve their math skills, or start writing those long essays on information that seems useless for the future. I however, remembered that this time of year was always one of anxiousness, because I could not wait to get back to school. I was eager to learn, and with that thought process in hand, I have decided to make that a goal for this year, meaning, I want the kids I work with the be excited about academia.
What does this all mean? It means having patience and praying for the children as individuals and not just a collective group. I have never been an extremely patient person, but this ministry has redefined that for me. This past Friday, I was assigned to work with one Kindergarten girl and a first grade boy during the tutoring hour immediately after the children arrive. The kindergarten girl was more reserved and I had talked with her outside of tutoring many times before. The first grade boy was slightly different, as he was the one child in my first grade group that caused "issues" to say the least. When he threw tantrums, it would including kicking the tables in the classroom or throwing toys, but when he calms down and focuses on his work, he could be called the most brilliant child in my classroom. This intelligence is something that I will not lose sight of, despite my frustrations with him and when I noticed this behavior earlier in the week, all I could think to do was pray. I prayed for him, I prayed for guidance working with him, and I prayed for the ability to understand and love him through being patient and optimistic. This session with him and the kindergarten girl was the first breakthrough of patience.
We sat around a table that was relatively high, and it had four benches around it. The kindergarten girl was on one bench, and the first grade boy and I were on the one perpendicular to her. Throughout the lesson, I did something slightly different and completely uncharacteristic for me as an instructor; I let the first grade boy go under the table and sit on different benches, and I let him walk around the room. This whole time, he answered all of my questions, was sounding out all of his sight words, and was continually moving through the whole process. I had patience and recognized his unique learning style in the process.
At the end of the day, before this first grade boy went home, he came up to me and tugged on my shirt. I looked directly into the big, dark eyes that were gazing at me and said "What's up, honey?" And he said "Thank you for being nice to me."
Prayer and Patience.

God is patient with us all the time. We have a plan mapped out for us, but we make wrong decisions and stray from that path. When we recognize that the ability to get back on that path through willingness to be patient and being completely responsive to prayer is necessary, then we ultimately recognize that this is one of the many times we best understand God's grace and His love for us. As I continue going about this ministry and serving because God has placed me here, love is going to be redefined. He has and will always love me, and that kind of intentional emotion needs to be more prevalent on this earth. As a missionary, it is important for me to not only love what I do, but to show love to each person I cross paths with, because the love that God intends for us to show is the only kind of love we need.