Sunbeams

For those of you that don't know, Lincoln and I teach the Sunbeams on Sunday. Last Sunday, we had 6 little 3 and 4 yr olds and they were having a hard time staying good.  Lincoln decided that it would be a good idea to threaten them with the image of a large cyclops that roamed the "grown-up" classroom upstairs and would shoot lasers out of its eye and turn children into turtles.  This story actually was first inspired by the youngest Sunbeam asking for his mom.  My first question to the kids was "how many eyes do we have?" (Topic of the day was "I am thankful for my body") With Lincoln, it doesn't take much encouragement to spur the imagination.

I told you that story as a prequel to what came next.  After the lesson, if the kids have been good, we color.  Lincoln, being the wonderful example he is, decides to draw his cyclops turning one of the children into a turtle, observe:

1 of the boys decided this was an AWESOME drawing and copied it almost exactly (very impressive for a 4 yr old).  This same boy volunteered to say the closing prayer and it went something like this: "Please protect us from the cyclops, I don't want to be shooted,  I don't want to be a turtle, please keep us safe from the lasers..." Yes, I don't cry often in church, I couldn't help but let a few tears leak out as I tried my darnedest not to giggle at the faith of this boy in his prayer.  After the prayer, he turned to me "Sis. Matheson, I'm scared to go into the big room because of the cyclops" He already gave me the perfect out "well, you know the prayer you just said?  You asked God to protect you from the monster? He will, because you prayed, Heavenly Father will make sure you don't get turned into a turtle."  Oh boy, what a day.

Lincoln has since been banned from coloring time.