For awhile now, C have been having some problems with friends at school. He said that two girls always tease him, play with him and touch him. He doesn't like the way they interact with him. So I coached him to respond in kindness. But his problems continued and it got so bad that he didn't want to go to school. One of the girl even told me that he is her enemy. Obviously, there are lot of annamosity between them. So I finally talked to his teachers. Everyday C has to interact with them because he has to stand between them in line in alphabetical order. He complaints that they tried to keep him out of line and get him in trouble. Long story short, they said that he hits them and say gross things. He said that they did it first. Anyways, after a long talk, C understands that a gentleman does not hit or touch girls. We explained to him that God wants us to love people even though they might be hard to love. After the teacher stepped in, things are good again.
C's birthday is coming up but we can't have a big party for him because we are having a party for Mui. So I allowed him to invite 10 friends to bowling to celebrate with him. He has been working on his guest list. Last Wednesday at Awana, the story was about Elisha in II King 6. The Isrealites army was to fight the Aramean army, but the enemy was strong. Elisha asked God to make the Aramean blind and it happened. Elisha then lead the enemy to the Isrealites. After capturing the enemy, people asked to kill the Arameans. But Elisha said, "No, let's feed them." C learned that God wants us to love our enemies and feed them. Two days later, C began to tell me who he wanted to invite to his party. He said he wanted invite the two girls. My first thought was WHY? He only has 10 spaces, why waste two on people he doesn't like? Of course I withheld my thoughts and asked him why he wants to invite them. He said, "At Awana I learned that we should love our enemies." WOW!!!!!!!!!! My mouth dropped open. I didn't know he was listening. And even if he was, I didn't think he would actually take it to heart and put it to practice. I am so proud of him for desiring to obey God even though it means doing something he doesn't like to do. I feel ashamed that most of the time, I let things that I learned to go in one ear and out the other. Or I say that I will obey, but will push it to another time. Personally, I don't want him to invite them because I saw how they give him mean looks sometimes. But I must set a good example to my boy, who truly desire to live out God's word. So I allowed him to invite 12 people instead.
