Yesterday afternoon I was standing in an aisle of Target perusing the shelves, trying to get my tired brain to remember what it was I was looking for, when I heard my name. Or a variation of my name, anyway – one of the many that my speech kids use.
“Meeh Marizone!”
Peeking up out of a cart at the end of the aisle was the stunned face of M, one of my 4 year olds. This is my 5th year on the job, but this was the first “community sighting” of one of my little guys. I walked over, gave him a hug, greeted his parents and his little sister and chatted for a bit.
“You buying snack?” he asked, since we were in the snack section. Indeed I was. Next week, our letter is “J”, and our shape is oval, so I showed him the bag of jellybeans I was getting and whispered conspiratorially for him to keep it a secret. He nodded very seriously. “OK.”
We said goodbye, and as they disappeared around the corner, I heard his little voice piping up, “Mommy, how my teacher get here?” You remember how weird it was to see your teacher outside of school. I was always convinced they slept at their desks or something.
The sweet encounter lifted my weary heart. Things have been bumpier at work of late, with changes and uncertainty galore. But then, there’s M in a cart at Target, smiling and excited and incredulous. Oh, thank you, Lord, for these kids.
There are 15 of them right now. Because of the nature of my therapy setting, they are generally bright, engaged kids who really, really “can’t talk good”. They can be hilariously funny or genuinely affectionate or they can drive me up the wall. They require tons of repetition, tons of patience, tons of love.
The former requirement is easy. The latter two are impossible. In order to truly show patience and genuine love to them, I need the Lord. So on the way to work, I pray for my 15 by name. I ask for wisdom for me in treating their disorders, and for progress toward their goals. I pray that I would show them Christ’s love.
But first, I pray for their salvation. It’s easy to forget in the midst of correcting sound errors and modeling proper grammatical structure that there is something much bigger than communication delays going on here.
My kids are most importantly precious souls for whom Christ died. Jesus gave his life for them so that if they would believe in him, they “will not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) And so, thankful for the ministry of prayer that even my anti-God workplace can’t hinder, I entrust them to their Creator, knowing he can and will provide a way for them to hear that best of all news.
Then I walk inside to greet my little darlings.
Made for Eternity 