change of heart

The school year is coming to end - we only have 11 days left! I am worn out, exahuasted and really looking forward to May 27, but at the same time, I wish it would never come. I love these kids more than I thought possible. I love them despite the paper work, spitting, stinky diapers, biting, and running away. I love them because of what they have taught me, but most of all I love them because they have caused me to have a change of heart. Because of them I am determined to be a better person and to love as purely as they do.

A few Sundays ago, someone mentioned 3 Nephi 17. Even now, as I read it, I am overwhelmed by the spirit. Jesus Christ asks the multitude to bring forth any among them who are "afflicted in any manner". Each of my sweet students would have been brought to him. I can only imagine that this is exactly would it will be like for them when they are reunited with Heavenly Father and made perfect. The image this paints in my mind is one that I will carry with me forever. I know he hasn't left them to make the hard journey of being physically and mentally handicapped on their own because I see Him in them everyday.

After Christ heals them, he then asks for the little children to be brought to him and the prayer that He then offered up to our Heavenly Father was so sweet and sacred that:

"16 ...The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father;

17 And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father. "

I think my students have felt that great and marvelous prayer. They know true charity and Christlike love and when you serve them, you feel it too.

****update: We went on a field trip today and I saw one of my very favorite students from when I worked at Dan Peterson. I was happy crying...it was definitely a tender mercy