The Sweet with the Bitter

The Saturday night after we had gone to the Draper Temple open house, Noah told us he wanted to give the Family Home Evening lesson. It thrilled me that he WANTED to give the lesson- we asked what the lesson would be about and he told us it would be about the Temple and on "Please and Thank you."

Then Sunday came. I felt horrible. Brad was a doll and let me sleep in, while he got up with our little early birds.

I'm not sure what happened with Noah- maybe it was lack of sleep, or being thrown off schedule, or less Mommy time, all I know was that he was HORRIFIC in church. I felt awful and yet there he was doing a military crawl under the chairs in front of us. Normally, he is pretty reverent in church, but this day was just terrible. I actually had to drag him out into the hallway to have a little "talk." He glared at me the entire time, with a look that clearly said "I refuse to listen to anything you have to say."

He was slightly better after that, but we continued to struggle with his defiant behavior throughout the meeting.

After the block of meetings were over, I came home and crashed on my bed. I still felt awful and was exhausted by the day. Brad took over with the children, as they bickered while I tried to nap. It was definitely a LONG, exhausting day! Thank goodness for Brad who came to the rescue.

The next day was Monday and I asked Noah if he was still planning on giving the lesson. He was and said he didn't need any help.

We gathered the family together on the couch and after an opening song- Amalie's favorite-"I am like a star" and an opening prayer, Noah began his lesson.

This is how it went.

"I am going to give a lesson on temples. What was your favorite part when we went through the temple?" he asked Daddy.

After Daddy answered, he told us his favorite part, then he asked me the same question and then Amalie.

We loved Amalie's answer. "The bus!" she said.

Noah was about to argue that it wasn't a part of the temple- but we shook our heads and instead he went on with the lesson. He taught us what he knew about temples, then he performed a puppet show for us. He followed up with a song and we listened to the primary cd "I love to see the Temple" and sang along.

Next he taught us about "Please and Thank you" and illustrated his point by giving us a "puppet show" with his Mario characters. It was absolutely adorable.

His lesson probably lasted about 25 MINUTES! What a cutie. It was such a sweet night with the children. I was especially grateful for this sweet moment after our trying day the day prior. I was so impressed by the different facets of his lesson- opening with a question, using music and a puppet show to illustrate his points.

Amalie was the most reverent I had ever seen her- usually she just walks around singing and playing with toys, but she paid attention to the entire lesson and even wanted to give a lesson herself, so we gave her the floor when Noah was done.

What a wonderful, sweet memory.