Light

On the second day of school Trevor had a meltdown in class. His teacher called me to talk about it and I started to worry that it was going to be a terrible year with him getting into trouble and not liking school. When he came home that day I sent him to his room for a time out for the way he talked to his teacher and told him I'd come and talk to him later. I was upset with the way he acted at school but I knew I had to approach this situation in a way that would make things better and not worse. After saying a quick prayer, I spent some time thinking about what I needed to talk to Trevor about. And then it came to me. I needed to remind Trevor of who he was. When I went into his room to talk to him he was a lot more calm and I knew he was ready to listen. After talking about what is and is not appropriate at school I told Trevor what I thought he needed to hear. I told him that when he was a baby and his dad gave him his baby blessing he said something so special that I have never forgotten it. He said that Trevor would be a light to the people around him and that people would be happy just by being around him. I told Trevor what it meant to be a light and told him that he needed to smile and be happy so that the rest of his class would be happy too. The next day Trevor came out of school smiling. He said, "Mom, I smiled today and I let my light shine!" He told me not all of the kids smiled back at him, but I told him that he just needed to keep doing what he knew was right and being a good boy. And he has. Sometimes I think we all just need a little reminder of who we are and what it is that makes us "shine".