On Snacks in Primary, Time Out, and Being Ugly

They are only 4 years old but oh, so impressionable!
I got a call to substitute in Primary yesterday before I even got home from Celeste's house at 10 AM.. Sharion Sutherland was having some pretty severe back pain, had tried to call a number of possible subs and could find none on this Father's Day morning, so I got the job. Fortunately the subject was on the Holy Ghost which I had recently already taught, so it wasn't as bad as it could be.
At Primary, the classes were small and I wondered why they didn't just combine two together to make up for the missing teacher but by our 2:30 dismissal I knew.
It's important to note here that our ward meets at 11:30. Not an ideal time for children although I don't know if there really is a time that's "ideal". 11:30 is just late enough in the morning for kids to either not be hungry enough for lunch so they eat very little before going to church, or they don't eat lunch at all. I suspect that most parents simply serve a late breakfast on Sunday. But whatever the meal schedule, our kids are hungry in Primary by 2 PM and I had a little boy who told me he wanted a snack, accepted my explanation about being able to go home soon to eat, as I was not prepared with food, and after several minutes he quietly wept.

I can see why the food policy has been bent just a little.

Continuing the lesson I asked the question about whether they could remember having a good feeling when making a right choice. A young lady in our little class explained that the cops came to her house and she told them the truth. I asked if this made her feel good. Of course wanting to please the teacher, she said yes and followed it by adding that then they took her daddy away and put him in jail. With that, I remembered going to a jail to pay a visit and hearing a mother explain to her own child that jail is just time out for grownups. I thought this was such a good explanation that I tucked it away in my memory for later use. I think for this little girl it was the right thing to say as I treated her father's situation with matter of fact frankness.
We talked about how the Holy Ghost can help us with our friends; that we can be influences for good by listening to the Holy Ghost, but that if our friends don't want to follow us, we need to back away. The Holy Ghost is such and amazing friend, always helping us to know when something is right or wrong. What a wonderful resource!
Our open discussion about jail seemed to make it okay to talk about important issues so another little girl raised her hand and said that her mother says she's ugly! I told her that God doesn't make people ugly and she's a child of God. Sometimes we do things that are ugly, but we aren't ugly. I also taught her that we can feel ugly when we make bad choices but we can fix that if we will repent. This keeps us beautiful.
I love being in a place where I can share the important things I know. Of any calling in the church, I prefer to teach.