My Heart if Full

I don't think I have mentioned this before but I currently teach Sunday school for the 10 year old boys.  This has been quite the challenge and most of the time I leave class pretty upset. You see, I do not have a partner to help teach and my boys are far from well behaved. For starters; there are six of them, they find EVERYTHING funny, they test my patience, constantly are throwing things at each other, and do anything possible to be disruptive during class but at the same time are doing a great job of grooming me for motherhood. That being said.. I'm praying for a girl.

Now, I don't mean to sound negative. There is only two boys that cause all the problems. The rest are sweethearts. But the trouble makers can rile up the crowd and make everyone act up. This week, I asked Zach to come along with me to keep them in line if needed. It is so much harder to be a good teacher when all you want to do is throw up and go back to sleep. (Thank you pregnancy)

But this week was wonderful. One of the trouble makers was not there and class was a little bit easier to handle. I always begin by asking the boys to share a "good news minute" from their week. This gives them a chance to get the talking out of their system, in hopes that they will listen when its my turn to talk. The boys enjoy sharing their stories with me and telling me the fun things they did that week. After that I try to begin my lesson. I was teaching about Enos, in the Book of Mormon, and when he prayed to Heavenly Father to ask for a remission of his sins. We talked about the strength of prayer, having faith, and the importance of repentance. This kind of got us off track but I could feel the spirit so strong and started to focus more on the atonement and repentance then what our lesson was supposed to be. I felt impressed to give the boys this visual of the atonement from a story I heard long ago.

I asked the class who was the strongest boy and they couldn't decide until one boy stood up and said he was. I asked him to come to the front of the room to stand by me and thanked him for being the volunteer.  I then took out a large bag of Starbursts. I walked to the first boy and asked "Dallan, would you like a Starburst?" He quickly shouted "yes!" I then looked over to Canyon, our volunteer, and said "Canyon, will you please do 5 push ups so that Dallan can have this candy?" Canyon quickly agreed  and began the five push ups. I then turned to the next boy and asked the same question. He also wanted a candy and Canyon was asked again to do the push ups for him. This continued with each boy in the class. They watched as their classmate struggled with each push up. We went around the room one more time asking again if each child would like ANOTHER piece of candy. The children were hesitant because they could see that Canyon was in pain with each additional push up. They also tried to give him their piece of candy but I said they could not. As we went around the room for a second time, Canyon began to grunt with each push up. You could tell he did not want to do any more but he still continued to try. I looked up to see Nolan with tears in his eyes. I asked him "Nolan, would you like another piece of candy?" he responded "no, I don't want him to do any more pushups." I said  "ok, Canyon, can you please do five push ups for the piece of candy Nolan does not want?" Nolan began to be more upset that I had still made Canyon do the push ups. He quickly exclaimed  "NO, I will do it for him." I told him  that he could not because Canyon was the one to volunteered  and this is what he has to do. By the time we reached the last child, Canyon collapsed to the floor and sighed "Please don't make me do anymore, I just can't." You could see the tears in their eyes as their classmate laid in pain on the floor because of them.

I tried my hardest to hold back my tears as I explained to the boys how this is in relation to the atonement. Our brother Jesus Christ bled from every pore  so that we could be forgiven of our sins. He went through physical pain much worse than a few push ups, so that we can enjoy a blessing sweeter than candy. To think that any amount of pain he went through was because of me, breaks my heart. I like Nolan, wish I could take some of that pain away from him. There are many people in this world that do not know about the blessings of the gospel in their lives. There are those that know, but are not willing to let the atonement help them, and refuse this "sweet blessing".  I am grateful for the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for me. I am so grateful for the atonement and the knowledge that I can be made whole again and return to my Heavenly Father.