Lesson Learned | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Lesson Learned | Previous Challenge Entry
By Leesha Procopio
02/03/05
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Their flushed faces watched their instructor intently. There were fourteen today, I counted. I watched as the line of white uniforms bowed and knelt. My children weren’t new to karate, and I wasn’t new to watching them. Yet each session I strain to watch their every move.
Kassie, nearly seven, remains the smallest in the class after her first year. Her petite features have no comparison to her enormous energy. Her chin length brown hair bounces wildly after every turn. Unlike the other kids, she does not walk to the end of the line. She hops, skips, and jumps, her feet barely staying on the ground.
Maybe her feet are too small to hold her up, I joke with neighboring parents.
Karissa, at nine, takes karate very seriously. But yet during karate, she never stops smiling. Her almond brown eyes follow the instructor through every move. Her “hi-ya!” pierces the gym with intensity. Her ponytail swinging, she executes her moves in exact mimic of sensei. But after each turn, her smile lights up as she turns to make sure I was watching.
Every session ends the same. “Everyone on your knees, backs straight,” Sensei calls out. I watch as each in turn, sits a bit straighter. “Close your eyes.”
I chuckle inwardly, as this is the only time Kassie ever closes her eyes unless she’s sound asleep!
“Don’t fidget! Take a moment to reflect,” Sensei orders. Immediately the row of students becomes still. I quickly take a moment to close my own eyes. How empowering, in a dojo full of people, to feel the silence settle.
“Okay, open your eyes. What are the rules children? Number one.”
“Work hard and listen to your mother and father!” They shout eagerly.
At his prompting, they continue, “Study hard and listen to your teacher. Be kind and nice to your brother and sister. Help take care of your grandparents. Behave at ALL TIMES!”
I always tease the girls about the last rule. In the store, at home, and even in the car when I think I will jump out if they keep bickering.
But tonight, I feel the words they chant. And the spirituality of it captured my mind. More or less, these are what God wants of us. Work hard and listen to his calling. Be kind to others; remember that we are all family under God. Take care of your family. And, of course, simply behave.
How many times had I heard my children chant these before? I quickly count, about a hundred. One hundred times before I FELT these words. Humbled, I vow to feel them at the end of each class, to let it serve as a reminder.
As we head home, I wonder if my children have absorbed this significant lesson. I brave my own inadequacy as a teacher to my children and ask them the meaning of behaving at all times.
They shrug their shoulders and look at each other before Kassie says, “To be good.”
Karissa, thoughtful for a minute, says, “Doesn’t it mean we’re supposed to be like God?”
My eyes tear, and I silently say a prayer of thanks before I answer. “Yup!”

“But He said…blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Luke 11:28

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