Lessons from a D

Lessons of mercy and grace can remain with us for an entire lifetime.

When I was in first grade, we began each day with a morning coloring assignment. It would be something like ducks and a pond. There were specific directions. We would have to color the baby ducks yellow, the mama duck white, the grass green and the pond blue. We were expected to follow them perfectly and to stay within the lines.

I was a rule follower and I usually did well on the morning assignments. I did struggle with staying within the lines, but that was mostly because I found coloring to be tedious and boring.

I always brought home good grades. I could tell it made my Mama happy and I did my best to do well.

One morning, the assignment was to color the dog brown. He was some type of terrier, sitting on his back two legs. He filled the entire page. The directions were to color him brown, which I did, easy peasy, but I decided the dog needed a collar. I had seen Lady & the Tramp. I knew what happened to dogs without collars.

My dogs at home had collars. This dog I was coloring wasn’t a stray; he was loved and so I colored him in a colorful collar.

I was shocked when the teacher returned it with a big, fat red D. She was unimpressed with my creativity. I hadn’t followed directions.

I was so ashamed and when I got into my Mama’s car with it at the end of the week; I shoved it under her seat, where it remained for a while. But, as mistakes that we hide from tend to do, it eventually came to light. My little sister discovered it and pulled it out and asked what it was in her loudest kindergarten voice.

I was caught. I knew Mama would be disappointed at my bad grade, but she said we would talk about it when we got home. It was a long ten mile ride.

When we got there, she looked closely at the picture and then she surprised me with a hug. First, she told me I shouldn’t ever hide anything from her, no matter how bad I thought it was and then she told me she really liked the picture and that the dog’s collar was beautiful. She appreciated my creativity and couldn’t believe that my teacher didn’t. Of course, I would give him a collar. Our dogs had collars.

I probably learned more that day from that D than every single paper I colored for the entire year.

I learned that while rules are important, legalism is bad. I learned to trust my creativity. I learned not to hide my mistakes from the people who love me and I got a beautiful picture of mercy and grace. Sometimes I need reminding that what I see as failure isn’t really failure at all. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂