A Child gives Thanks

   I very much enjoy public speaking, but I sometimes wonder if I will ever reach the heights of simple elegance of eight-year old Roger.

   The principal of his school had just announced the Student of the Year award, stating that this was the first time it had ever been given to someone so young in a school of fifteen hundred pupils.

   During the past year, Roger had gone from truant to perfect attendance; from a student with no known musical ability to membership of the school orchestra, and from being a loner to community service leader in his class. Academically, his progress was such that he was well on his way to making up for the years of study he had lost.

   Few of us parents in the audience did not know that Roger had been unwell, to put it kindly, since the day he started school. No formal diagnosis was ever given but none of us wanted our own children to be in a class or other activity when Roger was present. But this past year he had somehow managed to put all this behind him, and by the time he had finished responding to the principal’s inquiry as to whether he would like to say anything, few of us could have felt unmoved by what he had to say.

   “I want to thank Mrs. Birchell for teaching me to play the violin. One day she said it sometimes happens that a child who is not like other children in one way can make up for it really well in another. I’ve never understood why I’m not like other children, but that didn’t stop Mrs. Birchell trying to find out if there wasn’t something I was really good at. She first tried to teach me to sing but she very soon said I couldn’t. Next she tried me on the piano but that didn’t work either. She said it seemed as if I didn’t like loud noises, which I don’t, and that’s why she played the violin for me. I liked it very much as soon as I heard it and now I’m in the school orchestra.

   “I really look forward to my violin lessons, as well as practicing with Mrs. Birchell after school every day. It is more fun than missing classes when I really had no place to go anyway.

   “I want to thank Mr. Henry for letting me take part in so many community activities. I told him how much I enjoyed learning to play the violin. He said it was very kind of Mrs. Birchell to teach me: we should all be willing to help other people as she had done. I told him I couldn’t do that because nobody liked me, I was always getting into trouble and I was always by myself.

   “Mr. Henry said he was taking some children in the class to a place where old people live because it made them happy to see us. All we had to do was talk to them, play simple games with them, help them in little ways and make them happy. Mr. Henry asked if I would like to go. I said yes because playing games sounded like fun.

   “We had a very good time, everyone was very nice and they all said they liked me. Even the children in the bus going back to school were nice to me. I asked Mr. Henry if I could go again and he said yes. We have been to many different places and I’ve enjoyed them all.

   “I want to thank Mrs. Stevens (the principal) for letting me stay at school. I know I’ve been bad but she said it was perhaps because I was unwell, although no one’s told me what’s wrong with me. I just know I have to take so much medication all the time.

   “But most of all I want to thank my grandma. There she is sitting with my mom and dad and my sister. Mom tells me grandma came to live with us after grandpa died. Grandma stayed in my room with me and was always there for me whenever I came home or when we went out.

   “The first night she arrived she read me a story from the Bible and said a prayer for me. I had never seen that done before. She told me about God and how He lives in my heart. She told me He will always look out for me and will never leave me. She said we must always do our very best for Him because He loves us so much. One day we will all get to meet Him. We want Him to be pleased to see us.

   “Grandma also told me that God had a Son called Jesus. He died because of all the bad things people did. But if we behaved properly, God would forgive us when we did wrong things and said we were sorry. God would go on loving us no matter what. He said we must love everyone else just as we love ourselves.

   “I really liked it when Grandma talked to me about these things. I’ve tried very had to be good ever since the day she came to our house and that’s why I want to thank her more than anyone for all that she has done for me”.

Further reading: Proverbs 23:18; Romans 15:13, 12:2; Jeremiah 29:12-14; Psalms 9:10; Romans 8:39; Ephesians 2:10; Exodus 15:2; Jeremiah 29:11; Ephesians 5: 15-16