This summer I had the honor of taking care of 4 children as their Nanny. I'd worked as their tutor for the past year, and the grandparents invited me to be more involved with them over the summer. As with any family, each child had his own special quirks that made him lovable, frustrating, engaging, and challenging. Put all four together and you have a possible 'perfect storm', but I jumped at the opportunity anyway.
Yes, there were days when they challenged me to the point of pulling out my hair, but I wouldn't have traded the experience at all! One of the four was particularly challenging, and I'll call him Caleb. His mom is currently working to figure out why his behavior is so erratic, and the doctors so far say ADHD and dyslexia with many other possible learning disorders. He, above all the others, was my focus for the summer. He is one of the sweetest, most loving children I know, and he has been saddled with such heavy burdens so early in life. There were days when he wouldn't listen at all, he acted out, chose the 'wrong' behaviors, and this is just to name a few. There were many tears shed as he got frustrated, but many smiles as well. I know it's bad to have favorites, but Caleb was one of mine.
In July, the grandparents and I chose to enroll the four children in St. George's Vacation Bible School. I was excited to take them, and I knew that they would have a lot of fun, but they fought me about going. They would much rather have stayed at home swimming or playing on their own land, but I knew that the interaction with the other children would be great for them. What I didn't anticipate was what they would take home from VBS.
Each day of VBS, the children were given a new phrase, "God's word is true," "God's word is comforting," etc. The children (and volunteers) would respond by shouting "Let's go!" at the top of their lungs. They were on an adventure to learn more about how God works everyday in their life. One of the lessons of the week was "God Sightings." Each child was asked to watch for how God was working in their own life. Some kids said, "Butterflies!" while others went a little further and said, "Friends and family." For my four, the real God sighting came a few weeks later.
We were at their house, I was cleaning up after lunch, and the boys were driving me absolutely crazy. They had all kinds of pent up energy and they were running around being boys. I chose to kick them out of the house to play in the front yard and work off some of their craziness. My little Caleb was the first to get to the door, he opened it, and yelled, "God's word is surprising!!!" All the others quickly chimed in, with fists in the air, "Let's go!!!" They ran outside, and I welled up. This child that I had worked with for so long, that struggled to remember the simplest of directions, that couldn't sit still for lessons, had been listening all along, and he took home the most important message of all.
All this time I had believed that God had placed me in their lives for a purpose. I was to help them grow and learn in the best way I knew how. What I hadn't realized was that God had also placed them in my life. That moment was my God sighting. I had no idea that the time I was devoting to them would pay me back in such a profound and life-affirming way.
~Written by Haley Bankey
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