Sunday, May 20, 2012

silence



Today the Sharing time lesson called for the activity where one child is blindfolded and another child directs them with their voice.  Jr. Primary did great!  It was so nice to have them so engaged.  Sr. Primary had the giggles and the girl I chose wound up directing the girl into the wall and chairs deliberately.  I was pretty upset by it and took the blindfold off.  I told them that it was giving me a bad feeling for them to do that.  I didn't scold the girl in question, but I talked about how we were here to practice feeling the spirit.  When you go to soccer practice, if you spend the time playing on your ipod, you are wasting you time.

The girl in question was very clearly effected.  We struggled through the rest of the lesson very quietly and got got through somehow.  Later during singing time I asked the girl to come out in the hall.  I apologized to her.  I had gotten my feelings hurt by her actions, which were not so bad.  I asked her forgiveness.  I told her how she is such a sweet girl and about some of the nice things that she does for my children in particular.

Overall it was actually a great lesson.  I called her mom later to make sure they knew what had happened.  Later our Home Teacher let me know that he thought I handled it perfectly.  He was thrilled that the children were able to experience the exact opposite of a good spirit.   It wasn't contrived, but we really did have a powerful experience of what it feels like to have the spirit leave.

1 comment:

Okishdu said...

That's really making use of something that could have been really negative. I think that leaders and teachers need to recognize the need for chastisement followed quickly by the balm of love. Shying away from confronting poor behavior often results in alienation as the child feels a need for repentance with no outlet provided.