Yesterday, I taught my first Primary Sharing Time. I was pretty nervous, because I've never taught Sharing Time before, and because I'm over the Jr. Primary, I didn't know if it would go over well (I taught about how the prophets' teachings help us build a stronger family, and illustrated it by having them "build a house" on the board). It seemed to be going well, however, till I hit a snag midway through.
They have a rather ingenious system in this ward where, in order to call on the kids, you can draw a popsicle stick with the child's name on it to come up and be involved. I was nervous, and as I drew one, it had a rather unusual name that I couldn't be sure if I was pronouncing it correctly, so I was concentrating on sounding out the name, rather than actually looking to see where the child was.
"K--Keetin? Keaton?" I glanced up to see the Sunbeams teacher shaking her head at me.
Just then, the little boy on her lap offered, "That's my brother's name."
"Oh, that's nice--" I began.
"He's in heaven," The boy finished.
What? I just called on a dead kid? Why in the world is his name still in the group, then? "Oh...I'm so sorry..." I stammered.
"Why?" A little girl three rows back asked. "Heaven's a great place!"
I hurridly changed the topic back to the game, and stumbled through the rest of the lesson.
After class was over, I went up to the Primary President. "Did you have a little boy pass away?"
"No," she answered. "I was confused when he said that, so I went and asked his mom if they had had something like that happen in their family--she said that she and her husband had been talking about how they wanted to have another boy, and if they did, they would name him Keaton. So that's his little brother's name--and he's up in heaven. Don't worry. You're fine."
Ah. That makes more sense. Well, at least I didn't call on a little dead boy.
They have a rather ingenious system in this ward where, in order to call on the kids, you can draw a popsicle stick with the child's name on it to come up and be involved. I was nervous, and as I drew one, it had a rather unusual name that I couldn't be sure if I was pronouncing it correctly, so I was concentrating on sounding out the name, rather than actually looking to see where the child was.
"K--Keetin? Keaton?" I glanced up to see the Sunbeams teacher shaking her head at me.
Just then, the little boy on her lap offered, "That's my brother's name."
"Oh, that's nice--" I began.
"He's in heaven," The boy finished.
What? I just called on a dead kid? Why in the world is his name still in the group, then? "Oh...I'm so sorry..." I stammered.
"Why?" A little girl three rows back asked. "Heaven's a great place!"
I hurridly changed the topic back to the game, and stumbled through the rest of the lesson.
After class was over, I went up to the Primary President. "Did you have a little boy pass away?"
"No," she answered. "I was confused when he said that, so I went and asked his mom if they had had something like that happen in their family--she said that she and her husband had been talking about how they wanted to have another boy, and if they did, they would name him Keaton. So that's his little brother's name--and he's up in heaven. Don't worry. You're fine."
Ah. That makes more sense. Well, at least I didn't call on a little dead boy.
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