I'm a Gorilla

Something that the Lord has really been teaching me is this whole concept of delighting in the daily routine. Today was one of those days where I prayed, “Lord Jesus, just please help me to get through this day faithfully.” After my four classes and an unexpected oral exam in Russian class (talk about random, I had to speak in Russian about my ideal future husband, it was definitely hilarious). ANYWAYS. I drove on up to Reston where every Monday afternoon I teach a family of 3 boys, piano. These kids are really talented for their ages, but the little guy, Samuel (age 7) has been going through these stages where he has been struggling to not compare himself to his brothers. One week he’s in tears, the next week I get these tantrums about how he isn’t good enough to play…and the list goes on and on.
WELL, today we were working on a really hard piece that I had given him about two weeks ago. It’s called, “The Gorilla.” As he began to play he just poured himself into this piece and started somewhat moving his body with excitement and getting lost inside of the music. For a 7 year old to play this piece -it’s pretty impressive. When we had finished working on it he made me get his mom so she could come and listen. When he had finished working on the two pages he jumped up off the bench and gave me about 10 high fives and had the biggest smile on his face. I have never been so proud of a student. As I was teaching his brother he came in randomly and asked me what my favorite color was. Ten minutes later he comes bursting through the doors and hands me this pink card colored with stars and hearts. On the cover it read, “Love Sam.” He wrote me the sweetest note inside about being the “gratest techer.” Today was one of those days where I was simply trying to survive the load and yet in the midst of my attempting to be faithful God gave me one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received. To have seen Samuel accomplish what he did, and to work that hard and succeed with that hard of a piece, what a miracle-especially that smile when month after month it’s been this constant uphill climb with his discouragement.

side note; for about a couple months I’ve really started to pray for my students and view my “job” as ministry and I tell you what, God’s been blowing me away. What a gift ☺