This story will give you the feel-goods

You ought to understand that I worry about all my kids during Kindergarten. By the time I'm on my 4th kid, I've learned that about myself. There's something magical about being 6 years old that makes this mom worry about all my kids' abilities to make it in this tough world. So in my head, I know that my worries about Sam are just as irrational as my worries about Lige, Ellis and Lillian were. They all turned out just fine. Nevertheless, my brain keeps pushing things to worry about into my head, and I wonder if Sam's going to succeed in life.

But today, I give myself permission to stop worrying about him! Here's why:

A few weeks ago, we were studying scriptures as a family. I honestly don't remember what exactly we were studying, something about following the example of Jesus Christ. I do remember we talked about ways we could be like Jesus, for example befriending those that weren't easy to be friends with. I remember Sam saying that he thought he should be friends with Joshua (name changed) in his class, because he always caused trouble, so nobody wanted to be friends with him.

Today I was volunteering at the school and noticed a new person working with Joshua. During a chance moment when we were alone, I decided to ask her: "My son wants to befriend Joshua. Do you have any suggestions?" She looked at me a second and said, "Is your son Samuel?" (This was a funny question - I've been asked that a lot this week. There are two white kids in his class, they look really similar, and those two kids' moms are volunteering at the book fair this week. The whole school is confused. But in this case, she wasn't asking because she was confused.) Then she told me that today, Joshua had been struggling with something, and when he came back, Sam waved at him and shouted, "Joshua, come sit with me!"

I just thought, this kid can't sit straight for Primary, he doesn't pay attention to what we read in the Book of Mormon every night, and he loses his temper all the time. But he's 6 years old, and he's following Jesus. And not just in the easy, comfortable ways. I think he's going to turn out just fine. And I hope I can be more like him.