Tears Times Two

Last week, Casey's teacher motioned to me to step into the room at pick-up.  She told me that Casey had had a rough day -totally unable to focus, distractable, and did not complete any of the in-class work that everyone else had been able to complete.  She was sending the work home and she expected him to finish it with us and bring it back.  She said that this behavior is pretty typical for 5 year olds, but not for him. Casey was standing there the whole time and was pretty embarrassed.  He apologized to his teacher and we headed home.  We had a snack and then got to work on the assignment.  He did pretty well but I had to stay right on him until he finished it.  We sat down on the couch and I asked him what was going on at school that day -why was it so hard to focus?  At first he didn't know.  But then he started to cry.  "Mama, I am so tired."  He just fell into my lap.  "I am exhausted".  I held him in my lap and thought back on the last few days.... he had been up later than usual a few nights in a row, and we are on the go a lot.  Then you add in swimming lessons 2 evenings a week and of course he is tired.
The ministry life and the family life have lots of points of challenge.  So much of our church life takes place in the evenings - meetings, programs, dinners.  And for the first time, we have a person in our house that really needs to get to bed at a certain time.  We are not doing a good job on this, and now our 5 year old is crying in my lap because he is overtired.  We have to do better.
Later this same day, at dinner, Casey started telling me about school breakfast.  "Some kids eat breakfast at school mom!  Why do they eat breakfast at school?"  I tried to explain quite simply how families might not have enough money to buy all the food they need and that if their child can eat breakfast at school that helps them along.  He seemed happy with that answer.  Then a giant light bulb appeared above his head - and his smile was just as big.  "I know!  I know!  I am going to tell my friend that eats breakfast that at our church there is a table with food on it and that his family can come there and get what they need for their house!  Is that a good idea mama?"   And now I am the one with tears in my eyes.  I continue to be amazed at his compassion for others and am so grateful we are in a church that does feed the neighborhood.  And while we have rarely discussed it, I am glad he has noticed.  At least he is learning something while we keep him out too late.