School has begun

My oldest started school this week and there have been a lot of tears. Today was much better though as I think he is actually liking it. It's amazing the lengths we go to, though, to re-direct our children. My son has a tendency to exaggerate the negative in certain situations and this was one of those weeks. I wouldn't call it drama....but close. During one of his crying/whining fits, my husband and I both reminded him of how thankful he should be - he knows everyone in his grade, he has great teachers, he gets to learn about God freely, his younger brother will be there next week, all his friends are there, etc., etc. When that didn't work, I pulled out all the stops. I reminded him of the two African boys we sponsor. These sweet boys go to a Christian school in Kenya and we correspond to them all the time. Their parents are deceased and when they start school in the fall, they are there until Christmas break. Period. No going home at night, no mother to cuddle up next to when they are scared, no tv shows to veg out in front of after school. But these boys are thankful. Every time I get a letter from them I am amazed at how much they love the Lord, how thankful they are to have so little, and how extremely intelligent they are. I always read these letters to my son, so I reminded him yesterday of Joseph and Raphael in Africa. I reminded him to think of them today instead of himself. I asked him to pray for them when he felt sad, and I told him to be thankful that at 3 p.m. he gets to come home with me. Today there were no tears.