Pretending

So there is this little boy in Meg's preschool class named Joshua. He is super cute but a little (as his teacher put it) high maintenance. I guess he is a little emotional but, hey, that may turn out to be an okay thing when he is older. Maybe he'll be sensitive, right? Well, Joshua (also according to his teacher) has always loved Meg. I guess he smothers her a little bit with his clingyness because her teacher told me that by the end of the day Meg often times would tell him to stay away from her.

Well, about a month ago I went to her class for Mom's and Muffins. He came right up to Meg gave her a big hug and told her that he loved her. She rolled her eyes and acted really offish...kind of snotty. After school that day, we had a talk. I told her that I wanted her to be a nice girl and to be kind to everyone just like Jesus was. She went on and on about how he follows her everywhere and how he always wants to play with her. The conversation went on for a while. Finally, (an aha moment for me) I told her that she doesn't have to like everything about someone but that she should always at least pretend to like them. This was somehow the right word because she thought it was a great idea that she didn't have to like him but she could "trick" him into thinking that she liked him. The month has gone on and she occaisionally mentions that she is still pretending to like him. This morning at breakfast she told me that she had pretended so much to like Joshua that she started liking him and doesn't have to pretend anymore. I got all teary eyed and told her how proud I was of her. She has such a big heart and trys so hard to do everything I tell her to. My heart almost bursts when I think of how much I love this little girl. She went on to say that she still has pretending to do because Alyssa (a girl in her primary class) always coughs on her and she has to trick that girl into thinking she likes her. What a sweetheart!