Community New Start's Blog

This Is Cool!
October 3, 2009

About a week ago at Smart Start I had an amazing opportunity to share the Gospel and talk to one of my kids about what grace looks like. Everyday all of the students have their name on a closepin that starts the day clipped on green, meaning they are doing an excellent job. After misbehavior and a warning they have to move their clip to yellow, then red, and so on. If they finish the day on green, they are then awarded a sticker or smiley face on their behavior chart for the day. At the end of two weeks of Smart Start, if they have been awarded enough smiley faces/stickers, they recieve a prize to reward them for good behavior.

One of my students during the first round of prizes did not recieve one because he had too many days without a smiley face. Disappointed he had not recieved a prize, he and I made a pact that he was going to do better the next two weeks and recieve one next time around. So as the next week began he worked hard to improve. But Wednesday of that week, I was forced to move his clip after he lied to me about taking someone's things. He was devastated and angry, and sort of shut down.

I immediately began to explain to him that he had plenty of other chances throughout the week to earn more smiley faces and get the prize next week. I then told him that we all mess up, and even though he had, I stilled loved him. I then tried to explain that this is the same as our relationship with God. I let him know that I was going to provide him with the same grace that God has provided us. Even though we mess up all time, He still loved us enough to send His only Son to die for us.

It was just such a cool opportunity to get to talk about with a 2nd grader about the amazing love our God has for us, and I never would have thought that opportunity would have come from closepins, smiley faces, and prizes. But it just shows how the Lord is at work in Smart Start and it is so neat to see!