One of Sarah's talents is the gift to teach. She teaches very naturally. The other day, She took Beth and started to teach her to read--they were sounding out words together. Then, Sarah decided it was time for art class. I always find it entertaining when my children play school, especially when they set up a proper classroom with desks and a teacher at the blackboard. (It's funny because, since we homeschool, that's not the "classroom" they are familiar with.)
It was Sarah's turn to teach the lesson for our Family Home Evening on Monday night. She chose a couple of stories from the Friend magazine (a children's magazine distributed by our church). I read them with her and she chose which one she wanted to teach. When it came time, Sarah read the entire article (even though I told her to tell the story in her own words). I'm just kidding about sounding exasperated. I think it's wonderful that Sarah is reading an entire article aloud and all by herself. The story was about a little girl who was asked to give a talk during primary. She was so nervous, but decided to do it anyway. She prayed and found that Heavenly Father gave her the courage and the strength to give her talk. She said that if God could help her with that, she knew He could help her with anything.
Sarah finished the story, and then asked the question she had prepared: "Have any of you ever had something like that happen to you?" (She had written her question down so she would know how to teach the lesson.) We gave a few examples, and then Sarah said, "I will tell you when Heavenly Father has helped me to do something that is hard. Well, it's more of a list. He helped me to get through my first piano recital. He is helping me learn to control my temper."
I thought it was so sweet and so very sincere.
A note about Sarah's recital: Sarah has performed before small, family audiences often. But in December, she had her first official piano recital. She was so nervous. Soooo nervous. Bless her little heart. On the way to the recital hall, she said, "I'm just going to get up there and say, 'I've worked really hard, so don't judge me.'" She had worked very hard. Playing the piano doesn't flow easily to Sarah. We prayed that she would have courage to play what she had practiced. And she played her song beautifully.
And now a note about Sarah's temper: Sarah has struggled with anger her whole life. We don't know why. It's just a challenge she faces. We've tried many things to help her learn to control her outbursts. I think it's okay for her to feel anger; she just needs to learn to express it appropriately. Last year, Sarah and I were determined that she make significant progress on her anger management before she was baptized. She worked very hard and prayed quite a lot about it. She's not perfect now, but sometimes I have to remind myself that she was ever as difficult as she was. She, with the help of her Savior, is mastering her tendency to be mean.
Sarah is a sincere, sweet child. I am so grateful she is learning to rely on her Savior while she is so young. If she remembers these lessons, her whole life will be better.