Journal Entry (if you're interested)

Once a year, the primary children (ages 3-11) of the LDS church, put on a program dedicated to talking and singing of all the things they have learned in the last year. Yesterday at primary, I passed the kid's primary speaking parts out. Our program isn't until November 22nd, so I figured that 4 weeks out would be a good time for them to start becoming familiar with it. As I was writing this year's program, I felt that I was very careful to include every single child that is active in primary. I included plenty of parts for children who are less active, even inactive, just in case this could be an incentive for them to come to church more regularly. Another thing I watched closely for was to not give a child more than one speaking part. I wrote down all the children in primary and crossed them off the list as I wrote their part for them. Easy peasy.

I edited, I proofread, checked, and double checked. I felt the program was about as good as it was going to be.

Now to yesterday, there was a family that came to church that I hadn't seen before. I asked them right before primary, when I noticed they had primary age children, if they were new or visiting. The dad looked a little embarrassed and said they weren't new or visiting. So I asked their name, we'll call them Jane and Sara, and sure enough I recognized them from my role as an inactive family. I told them how great it was to meet them and directed the kids to their classes and sharing time.

While the children were in their lessons, I was cutting each part into little strips for the kids to take home. That is when I noticed I had written 2 parts for one of the girls in primary. We'll call her Sally. I felt a little dumb because I knew I had read and reread trying to prevent just that. So I was trying to decide which part was better for Sally when I got a pretty strong impression that one of these was suited for Jane and that I needed to send it home with her today, not just promise her a part next week. So I scribble out Sally's name and put Jane's instead. I also gave one to her little sister to take home.

And that was that. Church was over.

Last night I get a call from my friend who was substituting for Jane's class yesterday. She told me that after I had given her that speaking part, Jane leaned over and said "I hope this will be a good excuse for my parents to keep bringing me back to church!"

---------------------------

As I was talking to Corky about this last night, I just was so grateful. I was grateful for my error that happened nearly 2 weeks ago. An error that I thought I had done everything to prevent. I was grateful that this family decided to come to church when they had. I was grateful that I followed my first impression to give her the speaking part. I was grateful that this girl opened up enough to her substitute teacher and spoke of her desire to be back at church. And I am grateful for my friend who called me last night to tell me about all of this. I would have never known. It renewed my desire to love and reach out to the children that I serve.

I am once again shown that there are just some things that are completely out of our hands and are meant to be, even things as little as making an error on a paper. I feel humbled and blessed and I am praying even more diligently for this family that, without knowing, were aides in reaffirming my testimony of a loving Heavenly Father.