On our last day of Kids Club we finished early so that we could present the kids with their achievement awards for the year. This is such a great occasion because we get to celebrate the unique qualities of each child. It is so wonderful to see the pride and joy on each kid’s face as their strengths are acknowledged. This year however one boy didn’t look so pleased with his nomination. We had decided to give Michael the “Participation Award” because he is always so keen to get involved in every activity.  So you can imagine our surprise when he refused to “participate” and come up to receive his award!  After some coaxing the group convinced him to come forward, but he did so with reluctance.  So I pulled him aside afterwards to ask what was going on. “Miss Sarah” he said “I don’t deserve this award. The thing is, the other day when we were in the library and you thought I was reading…well… I was actually sleeping.” I had to surpress a smile, and I explained to Michael that we had given him this award because we know that this is something he is really good at, even if it is sometimes a hard thing to do and he will sometimes make mistakes. Happily, Michael seemed to accept that he did deserve the award and got up and started playing with the other kids again. But I also felt there was a lesson for us in this. God often identifies things in us that He loves, and we can have a really hard time accepting them. I was also able to learn about another one of Michael’s strengths – maybe next year he should receive the “Honest and Integrity Award”!

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