When we started school a few weeks ago, and I was getting ready for Back to School night for my first grade class, I put a small sheet from a notepad down on every student's desk. I gently asked parents to leave a little love note for their first grader to read (or hear, in most cases) on the very first day of school. It's hard to be a first grader - to be dropped off by Mommy or Daddy with a near-stranger and be away from your parents all day. But it's even harder to be a mommy or a daddy and drop your baby off with a near-stranger for the entire day - this much I know is true. The love notes help.
I gather them up and then before the kids come in that very first morning, I make sure to put the note on the desk they've chosen for themselves. The notes are always very sweet - wishing that kids have a great time, meet new people, and try their best. But this year, one of those notes stopped me in my tracks. This mom, who I knew I would love the moment I met her, wrote all of those same things everyone else writes, but then, in large letters near the bottom she wrote, "Be an AMAZING Friend!"
What a wonderful way to send someone out into the big, wide world. What a moving message. I can't remember exactly because it was three weeks ago, but I'm pretty sure I got goosebumps just reading those words.
So I did what every rational mom would do. I learned from this wonderful example, and then shared that message with my own kids. When I dropped Jack and Hannah off that first morning, I gave hugs and kisses, told them to have fun, and then finished it off with, "Be an amazing friend!"
Just like that. No big discussion. No lecture. Just simple and almost as if I'd been saying it forever and ever.
Don't get me wrong - this is certainly a lesson I've shared with the littles along the way, but never in such a powerful way, it felt.
Since the first day of school, I've repeated this message. Not every day, and not in the same exact words, but there's an undertone that is present now that wasn't before. Be kind to people. Be gentle. Make others feel better.
Today, on the way home, we were talking about our days, as we usually do. And then Jack shared this story:
Mama, today I was playing with all of the girls and {so-and-so} came up and asked to play and the girls said no. He walked away kind of sad, so I went up and said, "They don't want to play, but I'll play with you."
You guys, right then and there - my heart exploded. The tone of his voice and the fact that he was so proud of himself...he knew he'd done this amazing thing and that I would just be so happy to hear about this moment. He couldn't wait to share it, and I just smiled. I told him that he must've made {so-and-so} feel so much better and that I was so proud of him.
And then, I thought...
How lucky am I that I was able to get this sneak-peek into this other mother's way of leading her children to do the right thing?
Four simple words.
That's all it took.
