Lesson learned: We are loved more than we know

As the end of the school year approaches, I am getting excited for summer vacation, but I'm also kind of sad that my students will be moving on to second grade. I've had some really great students this year and have really come to love all of them.

 I love the ones who try really hard to be good and pay attention. I love the ones who will dance with me when we do the fish dance. I love the kids who slow down out at recess so that the kid with autism can tag them. I love the kids who still have to use their fingers to do subtraction. I love the kids who are willing to be partners with the difficult-to-be-partners-with kids. I love the students who leave notes on my desk telling me I have sparkling eyes and good clothes. I love the ones who don't understand how knock knock jokes work. I love the girl who comes back in from the bathroom and tells me that I really should talk quieter because she could hear me all the way in the bathroom. I love the kids who cry when they feel like everyone else in the class can read except them. I love the kids who are so stinkin' social that they can't stop talking to everyone at their table, no matter which table I put them at. I love the kids who I send to another teacher's classroom for a bit so we can both have a little break from each other. I love
the boy who gets in trouble on a daily basis for chewing on paper. I love the boy who talks like Eeyore and thinks everything is boring unless Transformers are involved. I love the kid who forgets to put spaces in between words and then I make him do it again and then he says he hates me. I love the kids who still mix up b and d even though we have talked about it a bazillion times. I love the kid who sits quietly and waits for all of the other kids to work on the math problem that he solved in 10 seconds.

My reason for telling you all of this is not to boast and show how amazingly loving I am. (I definitely have my moments when I don't feel like the most loving of teachers.) I do it to prove a point: If I, being an imperfect, second year teacher, with a limited amount of patience, can love these kids so much,
doesn't it make sense that God, who is the father of our spirits, as well as all-knowing, all-understanding, and perfectly forgiving, would be able to love us more than we could possibly imagine?

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, "Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount--that is the measure of God's love for you." (read the rest of his talk here.)

Do we understand that? Do we really believe that God loves us that much? I think that sometimes we feel as if there is some giant scoreboard in heaven that keeps track of the good and bad things we do, and the better our score is, the more God will think we're pretty great and the more He will love us. While I sometimes fall into this way of thinking, deep down, I know that God loves us all equally no matter who we are, what we do, where we live, how we act, or what we think. That's not to say
that He doesn't care if we sin, but Heavenly Father knows that we are human and we are always going to fall short of perfection, and yet He loves us anyway.

He loves those who try really hard to be the best that they can be. He loves those that remember to thank Him and those who never remember to thank Him. God loves those who repeatedly make the same mistakes over and over and over again. He still loves us even when we stop believing in Him for a time. God loves those who pretend to have it all together on the outside but really don't feel that way on the inside. God loves those who graduate top of their class, as well as those who never get into grad school. He loves the moms who sometimes lose patience with their kids. God loves those who don't think very highly of themselves. God loves those who beg for His help and then when they receive it, chalk it up to good luck and say they didn't need Him. He loves those who often doubt their faith even though they wish they could just believe. He loves us when we pray to Him and admit that we messed up that day. He loves the good people just as much as He loves the not so good people. He loves us all.

Bottom line: Even though there may be times when we have to "stay in from recess" or "go to think time" or "re-do an assignment," our Teacher still loves us more than we will ever know. We don't lose "Love Points" when we mess up. God's love is always there and always complete. Really really.