Change of Heart

At the beginning of the new year the primary presidency moved us down a class so we now teach the Valiant 9 class. I will admit I was not too happy about that and would have rather moved up with our class. They were such a fun class and we loved teaching them. Honestly, every Sunday when I would see them I got tears in my eyes because I MISSED THEM! We now have 8-eight year old boys. Yes, all boys! The other Valiant 9 class has 4 girls and 4 boys. I thought, why didn't we get that class? Atleast, they could have given us 2 of the girls. I have been praying that I could learn to love them. Its hard. They don't listen, they do wierd boy things, they are loud and always wake up Aspen, they hate singing time, they don't help put the chairs up, they always ask 'do I have to?', they never say thank you for the treats we used to bring, and I could go on. So, as you can see all I had been focusing was the negative things I thought they were doing. Well I decided yesterday that this could be a very long year unless I had a change of heart. Bart didn't seem to need this and actually enjoyed teaching them and every Sunday he would remind me, they are boys. Yesterday, my heart started to soften. They were answering the questions correctly that Bart asked. They were engaged in the lesson the entire time. All of them brought their scripture and notebooks and were reviewing what they had learned this year about Joseph Smith and I was AMAZED at how much they remembered. My favorite time in Primary is singing time, which you probably know is the least favorite for 8 year old boys, but they actually sang! When the Primary President made the announcement for the 11 year old girls that tonight they were having "Eleven is Heaven" one little boy in my class raised his hand and asked "Do they have a Nine is Fine because I missed the Eight is Great last year?" To say the least I could not stop laughing at his joke and am still laughing about it today. Other weeks I would probably think that he was just being annoying but today I absolutely loved it. And to top it all off, at the end of the meetings one boy stayed all by himself without me asking him, and put all the chairs away for our class. I am so grateful for repentance and I am so grateful for my little primary class and the lessons they taught me yesterday. I hope the next time it doesn't take 2 months to realize that it is most likely something I need to change rather than someone else. Maybe this year will be even better than last!