It's Been A Really Good Day

Greetings Everybody, 
It's been a really good day!


Several major breakthroughs with students today...and one in particular. 


After 12 solid weeks of open defiance, barely controlled anger, and palpable disdain...one of my male students smiled today. 


And he worked hard today.


Grinned ear to ear when I said  "I'm Proud of You."


I called his mom to tell her about this sudden change.
She was all prepared for a different kind of phone call and it took her a minute or two to believe that I was calling with a Positive Report on her son.


There have been so many difficult phone calls to this mom, and she is so weary of hearing about all the ways in which he has sabotaged himself again. 


But the power of God is Great. 


I have been lifting his name up in prayer all semester.

And today I saw the start of healing in his eyes when he smiled at me. 


He worked hard and he felt good about himself for doing so.


We have all known that he is very intelligent and very capable.


Yet somewhere along the way he forgot that he was a good kid. 


He bought into the myth of "the angry black man"  hook, line and sinker.  


He started running with the tough guys and the hoodlums. 


And he began to walk and talk like the characters he sees on music videos.


He got the message that Fear equals Respect, so he set out to make everybody respect him by making them fear him.


He used his simmering rage to define himself and keep others at bay.


In the process he tortured everyone around him...but most of all he tortured himself.


TODAY WAS DIFFERENT THOUGH!


He actually talked to me today.
He talked more to me today than he has talked all semester
And I listened:
     -He can not remember anything before he was 6 years old. 
     -The only birthday party he ever had was when he turned 6...he remembers a 
      giant cookie-cake with frosting on it. 
     -He remembers his grandmother. 
     -He has never had a pet. 
     -He has been stabbed with a knife in the back and in the arm. 
     -He survived a bad car wreck. 
     -He remembers learning to skate. 
     -His first girlfriend was in 6th grade.


These were the highs and the lows of his life...way too many lows, and frankly the highs weren't all that high. 


No wonder he has been angry for so long. 


Truly he is a most convincing angry person; he has kind of perfected it. 


But today I saw a kid who looked at my face and then finally realized that he didn't see hate looking back at him. 


He has given me 12 solid weeks of THE TREATMENT...but it didn't make me stop smiling at him or praying for him.


I told him that in May there is a special function that I will be attending... and I get to take 1 kid with me to brag on. And I told him that ever since January, I have been praying that it could turn out to be him that I selected.


I called his name and said "Please give me a reason to be able to pick YOU." 


He ducked his head and looked at his shoes.


Then he raised his chin. 


And he quietly said, "I WILL". 


Yes, It's been a very good day!


Thank You Father For Answered Prayers


In Him, 
Grace