April 21

So yesterday I wrote about the girl who was giving me problems. Well, this morning she was an angel. She got up and took a shower, changed, and did her chore all before worship time. I was so impressed. Last night I had told her that there are consequences to her behavior and that she would be punished the next day. This morning I told her that she couldn’t swim for two days and she excepted it graciously. I was afraid that she was going to get angry again and start giving me attitude, but she didn’t. She came up to me right before devotional and she told me that she was going to do what I said last night. She was going to try harder to behave well and that she wants to be good. I don’t even remember all that I said last night, but that just tells me that God answered my prayer last night and had given me the words to say. Not only did He give me the words, but He let those words reach her. We hugged and she said that she said that she loved me and she continued on without a problem.

Although it was nice to have someone behave well, it doesn’t mean that this morning went by smoothly…Evelin was laying down on the floor and it was Kenia’s chore to sweep the floor. Evelin wouldn’t listen to her when she said to move and so Kenia sweeped the dirt into her face. I told Kenia that there are other ways to get Evelin to move. I told her that she needs to have respect for other people and that she needs to say sorry. This is when she freaked out on me. She started calling me dirty and something along the lines of old hag. Who knows what else she said. She ripped down the star chart I made for her and didn’t listen to anything I said. I talked to her sternly and gave her different punishments, but finally I gave up and decided to call Maria Jose to deal with her. While I was out calling Maria Jose, one of the older girls heard the way she was talking to me and went in the room to deal with her. She scared Kenia by grabbing her by the neck. I know it’s not the best way, but that’s what happened. Kenia was crying when I came back with Maria Jose. She kept saying that she wanted to go home and that she’d never go to school and that it was all because of me. I tried to talk to her nicely as she laid in her bed angry, but she didn’t listen. I told her that I just want the best for her and that I hate having to punish her, but if she acts that way I have to. She said that she doesn’t like me and she hates all the volunteers that come and that she doesn’t want our goodnight kisses or anything from us. I think God is helping me see people in a different light because I know I should have been angry at her, but instead I felt sorry for her. I wanted to help her, but I didn’t know how.

After all the kids left, I made my day a little brighter by having some nutella and bread. Oh the wonders of nutella.

So as I always do, I want to ask you to please send up a prayer right now for my girls and for me so that I have the patience and wisdom to help them.