Every morning at 6:55AM, the bus comes. To pick up my 9 and 6-yr olds. Yeah - at 6:55. Anyway, every morning, we join up and pray before the boys hit the bus, and this year I have found myself praying for the boys to be safe, be good, not cause trouble, etc. But I've also been praying that God would make them (and us) more like Jesus every day. Just been on my mind alot and has come out in my prayers for them.
Cameron just finished 4th grade. That's enough right there to make you stop and take a deep breath. I am one year away from having a middle schooler in my family. That means I have one final year to pretend like I'm a "Parenting Teens" expert!
Angie and I went to his end-of-year awards ceremony for his class. His teacher gave out a lot of awards - Presidential Fitness (remember those? Never got one.), academic awards, etc. Cameron got a couple of those - he's a pretty bright kid. I was proud of him!
Then Mrs. Bentley came to the point where she was going to present the "most important" awards to one girl and one boy who showed exemplary character during the year. These awards were nominated and voted upon by the class. The class had talked at length about what good character is, and then had a chance to nominate one of their own for that award. She read some excerpts from some of the nomination forms, and they mentioned that the boy was "generous and kind", "never got angry", "always did his work", "treated people right", etc. Then she called Cameron's name.
Talk about being proud and humbled all at the same time. It's been a tough year for him - not feeling like he's fit in all the time, trying to find friends, etc. So this was a big deal - a confirmation that he is well-liked and well-respected.
But it was more than that. As I sat there, I realized that God had been answering my prayer all along. He WAS making him more like Jesus - generous, kind, slow to anger, diligent, caring, etc. Pretty cool that his classmates picked up on that and gave him the award.
The kid's obviously not perfect, but he's a great kid with a great mind and a huge heart for God. He mentioned to me later that out of all the awards he'd received, the character one was the one he was most proud of. "Why?" I asked. To which he replied, "Because it's laminated."
Can't win 'em all.
