I remember being in the first grade back in the early 1960s. My teacher was Ms. Quintero. She was a good teacher, but that being the age of the deep-red correcting pencils, I dreaded each time she passed by my desk and crossed out my work. It began on the very first day of school. We were asked to write our names in our books. I was happy and excited because I knew how to write it. To my dismay, a large, bold, deep-red pencil mark crossed it out! How could that be?! I had written my name, Sammy, but she crossed it out and wrote Samuel.
At home that evening, when my parents asked how it went, I was not too happy. I told them of the incident and my mom went, “Ahh.” A new lesson came about on how to write my new name.
For some reason, another teacher, Ms. Yakaloni, would leave at 1 p.m. and my class used to pack up and move from room 111 to her room (108) either every day or on certain days. On one of those days, we were making clay items. The minute I saw the glass jar with beautiful red paint, I reached for it. As I was about to color my project, the teacher came by and removed the paint saying, “No, wrong color.” I couldn’t believe it! I wondered why. As I looked down at my work, I had a turtle and realized it needed to be green. Hence, no red paint. I didn’t think it was fair! I thought it should’ve been painted any color I liked… I guess that took me on a quest for color! History-in-the-making!
Life is like that. There are things we like, things we want, or things we may feel we need. God knows best. Ultimately, our Teacher is present to guide our hand and mind towards those things that best suit us, even if it may look a little off according to our opinion. Trust God’s guidance.
God Bless!
Sam
A multicolored turtle Mom gave me some years ago!
I guess they can be painted as the heart desires!