TENDER MERCIES

The beginning of this school year has certainly been harder than the one last year. Carly made tons of friends in Kindergarten but she has seemed more shy and reticent this year. She came home the first few days telling me no one would play with her at recess. It broke my heart but I tried to stay positive with her. I asked her questions. "Did you ask anyone to play with you? Did you try finding your friends from last year on the playground? Did you try . . . ?" The answers that came back just made me sad. She had asked and had tried and had been turned away.

I decided to go in and help in her class and see for myself. When I did, I talked to the teacher about it and she suggested we go out during recess and watch for ourselves. Sure enough, there were lots of twosomes and Carly would wander around and approach but never get invited in or in some cases actually get turned away.

The teacher asked Carly to play with a little girl in her class that only speaks Spanish that needed a friend, too and her teacher and I tried to help them communicate with each other. That helped for a little while. But there were other girls in the class who could speak Spanish so that success was short-lived. Her teacher told me that a lot of first grade girls get it in their heads that they can only have one best friend and she would have a talk with the class. Well, my little girl remained sad through the first couple weeks of school and my heart was so heavy. I was praying about what to do when I realized that prayer really might be the answer. (Light Bulb! Lol!)

When Carly came home that day I sat her down and told her we really needed to pray for her to find a friend. I told her we would start praying every morning when I woke her up that she would have a good day at school and feel happy and also find new friends. That very day when I went to pick her up she came running up to me with her new friend Brenna. I saw her coming toward me, hand in hand with a little friend and just started saying a prayer of gratitude. Everyday since that one she and Brenna have been fast friends. My little one has started seeing the sunshine again and having happy days. She is finding others to play with and I am seeing her old confident self return. I am so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord and for the blessing of prayer--of being able to just talk to our Father in Heaven when our hearts are heavy and we need His help.