Hey all, Legion here.

So, as some of you may know, I'm currently serving as my Ward's CTR 5 teacher. It's an awesome opportunity and I love my class, but the best thing of all about it is how much I, as the adult teacher, am learning from my five- and six-year-old students.

I know I said a while back that I wanted to see this group grow and become more active, so I've decided to take it upon myself to do what I can about that with what will hopefully become a regular series here.

But before I jump right into it, a couple disclaimers.

First, in the interest of privacy and such, the names used in these stories will be replacements, not the actual names of the individuals in question.

Second, while discussion on these posts is allowed and encouraged, please try to avoid criticism on how I or any others reacted in the situations presented. I freely acknowledge that I am far from perfect, especially when it comes to caring for young children. (Suggestions from those with experience are welcome, of course )

With that out of the way, I present, without further ado:

Lessons Learned in CTR 5
Episode 1: Forgiveness

This story took place in the middle of Junior Sharing Time (that's second hour for those who don't know). My class that day consisted of three girls, let's call them "Mia," "Lily," and "Laya," and one boy, "Noah."

The Primary President had just instructed the restless kids to stand up and "get their wiggles out." The result was a room full of kids dancing wildly in place. In the midst of this cute chaos, Laya accidentally stepped on the foot of Mia, who was standing next to her. A rather minor incident all in all, but to Mia all that mattered was that she was hurt, and Laya had been the one to hurt her. Mia got mad, and though Laya was apologetic, Mia refused to listen, instead yelling at her. I pulled Mia aside before things got too out of hand and tried to calm her down while Sharing Time continued. I learned long ago that five-year-olds have little attention for logic and/or reason, especially that which disagrees with how they feel, so I resorted to trying to assure her that it had all been an accident and Laya had not meant to hurt her.

After several minutes of fruitless explaining on my part, another Primary teacher, an older mother, stepped in and offered to talk to Mia. I wasn't about to turn down an opportunity to let someone who knew what she was doing take over, so I returned to the rest of my class to find Lily trying to console a crying Laya. In the time I had spent trying to calm Mia, it had not occurred to me how badly Laya would be hurt by her friend's anger.

So many of the stories we tell about forgiveness in this Church talk about the great relief granted by asking for and receiving forgiveness for our wrongs; and while that's a very important thing to talk about, I would go so far as to say it's equally important to talk about the pain caused by having that forgiveness refused. Laya may have caused Mia some small physical pain when she stepped on her foot, but one look at Laya's face told me that she had received far worse pain when Mia refused her apology, not once, but multiple times. It makes me think of all the times that I, even now as an adult, have refused to forgive and forget something that, in the long run, is trivial and downright stupid. It makes me wonder about the people I know, and how that might affect them to know that I had never forgiven them for something, no matter how trivial. Laya's face then is something I hope I never forget, and that every time I remember it I recall the pain and suffering that holding onto a grudge, no matter how small, can cause.

BONUS related note:
Spending a lot of time around missionaries in my area in preparation for my own mission, I've picked up on some interesting quirks and phrases that seem to be standard, at least here. One of them that caught my interest was "the Atonement is real." The full-time missionaries use this term casually with each other when talking about a mistake, accident, or just downright poor choice as a sort of "it's okay" or "no harm done." While usually used in jest, I personally love this constant and simple reminder of Christ's Atonement and its very real power in our lives. No matter how badly we've messed up, He can and will forgive us and help us move forward if we only have the faith to do as He asks.

Honestly not sure how to close this,
Legion