A victory in second grade

Halley has just started third grade. She loves to go to school. Gym is her favorite class. She likes her teachers, and she likes math.

But for a time last year in second grade, school wasn't much fun for Halley.

Each day after school, Mom would be waiting at the bus stop, and Halley would share the important things about her day at school as they walked home and while she had a snack.

But about midyear, Mom noticed that Halley would get off the bus with her head down. She wasn't happy. When Mom asked about school, she told her about a girl in her class who was acting up. This was a problem for the teacher, and so their class was often disturbed. The girl wasn't nice to Halley and the other kids. And she was bossy. She would tell everyone they had to play what she wanted to play. It seemed to Halley that the girl's bad behavior was ruining everything for the class.

After Halley came home, head down a few more days, Mom said, "Let's pray about this." They both knew they could pray to God about anything. God had answered their prayers many times before.

Mom and Halley decided on an assignment. Each day, Halley would look for something good about the girl and share it with Mom. She knew she could do this. She knew that God is our Father and that He made each of us to be good, as God is good. So finding something good in the girl would be seeing what was really true about her. And Halley knew that doing this would be a loving thing to do. She wanted to do that.

So when Halley came home from school, Mom would say, "Tell me something good about the girl." One time she answered, "She loves to give hugs." That showed she was affectionate. And that was good.

Another time Halley reported that the girl shared a colored marker with someone who needed that color. That was being kind.

Halley prayed, too. She knew God was showing the girl how to be good, how to obey the teacher, and how to be nice to the other kids. And God was protecting her so that she couldn't be harmed by mean or bad thoughts telling her to do something that wasn't right.

Mom also had some ideas as she prayed. In verse 8 of chapter 5 in the book of Ephesians, the Bible says that we are in the light and that we should "walk as children of light." Mom thought about how you see things clearly in the light. She knew that God would help them see the girl the way God saw her. And of course that would mean seeing her as very good. Seeing others the way God made them is what Jesus did when he healed people. (You'll find more explanation of how Jesus saw people in this way in Mary Baker Eddy's book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," pp. 476-477.) Mom and Halley decided that when Halley was seeing the girl the way God made her, Halley would be "walking" in the light. She would be "walking" as a healer.

Nothing changed at school for a long time. But Halley and Mom kept praying, and doing the "look for good things about the girl" assignment. Then, after about six weeks, Halley came home, head up and cheerful.

Halley was happy at school again. She said that their class was more peaceful because the teacher didn't have to scold the girl so often. And they got to do more fun things in class. They had a longer time for recess instead of having to come in early because of the girl's bad behavior. Halley also reported that the girl wasn't mean or yelling at her or the others. She was being kind by sharing things and was willing to play what the others wanted to play.

Both Halley and Mom were really happy about the way things changed for Halley in her second-grade class. And Halley knew the girl was happier, too.

Halley is expecting to have a wonderful time in third grade this year.