Doing a happy dance

It's the end of the month.  That glorious time in which we stretch the budget, try not to get a speeding ticket, buy a car (hah), pay your bills, and we eagerly await our next paycheck.  For teachers at my school, it is also the time we give running records.  I will spend many hours in the next couple of weeks making little check marks and notations about each of my students' current reading levels as they read aloud to me.

One of my first grade students "Ricardo" began the year as a Level 1 student.  He spoke in single words or small phrases and was painfully shy.  We have worked and worked on sight words (go, the, at, he, she, went) and he has practiced reading with his dad each night.  Each month I dreaded administering the running record because the progress was meager and his frustration great.

This month something changed.  The light bulb went on.  Ricardo is still shy, but he speaks freely with his classmates and even asks me questions when he doesn't understand something.  I was nervous and excited to see his progress.  At last check Ricardo was BARELY a Level C.  That was being kind.  Today he ACED the C and D book, putting him two levels higher!  I was so excited to hear him read accurately and with confidence.  He even answered the questions in almost complete sentences.  I wanted to cry.  I wanted to give him a bear hug, but I refrained.  Instead Ricardo got three high fives in row.  I hope he got the message.

God acts the same way with us.

He will take great delight in you;
   in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
   but will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17 (emphasis added)

How cool that God delights in us and sings because he is rejoicing over us.  I bet God has a great bass voice.