Our church primary recently started a "reverence spotlight" to try and get the kids to stay quiet. Right before the lesson they turn out all the lights and read a cute poem about reverence while waving a flashlight around. At the end of the poem they point the flashlight at the child felt to be most reverent (or trying their hardest) during the meeting. The chosen child then gets rewarded with a mini flashlight of their very own.
Thatcher is in his first year of primary and is adjusting to the idea of being reverent beyond Sacrament meeting. The first few weeks that the spotlight took place, Thatcher (and all the other three year-olds) weren't all that interested in the poem. That changed a few weeks ago, when Thatcher realized he could earn a flashlight of his own if he worked as hard as he could to sit quietly during the meeting. This is NOT an easy task- training and controlling such an active body through the prism of a three-year old's mind and focus is beyond my comprehension. The degree of improvement in his reverence he showed during his first week of realization was incredible- and when the reverence flashlight shined on a boy across the room instead of him his head dropped for just a moment, but he left that day with even greater determination to win that flashlight.
The next Sunday, Thatcher sat as still and reverent as ever. His arms were folded and he sat without a single wiggle in his chair. The lights turned out, the flashlight began waving throughout the rows of children and the poem was being read. Thatcher looked up at me from his chair and without speaking a word seemed to ask, "Do you think I'll get it Mom?" I looked at him and just smiled, hoping so badly that he would indeed be rewarded for his hard efforts. Suddenly the poem was over, the flashlight stopped and the name was announced, "Thatcher Ballard".
The room was silent from the great reverence that was being expressed. Thatcher heard his name and with great enthusiasm (and a very loud voice) he jumped to his feet, threw his arms in the air and while jumping up and down yelled, "YES"!, "YES"!, "I WON", "I DID IT", "YES"!
The room exploded with laughter and you couldn't help but smile at the excitement he had for being able to control his wiggles and win the reverence flashlight.
Update: That was last Sunday. . . Today Steven and I sat in primary wondering if it would have been wiser to hold off rewarding Thatcher with a reverence flashlight a little while longer (perhaps a few years).
