More like Olivia

Last Thursday night, I was at the church working on some reports in the clerks office when both Ben and Olivia came running in like it was Christmas morning. While walking around the church, Rick had given them their own Book of Mormons (the kind the missionaries give out.) They were so excited!! As a family we always read out of the same set of scriptures and have told the kids when they turn eight years old they would get their own nice set. They each put their name in front cover and proceeded to look through them and talk about the stories. It was really sweet. That night instead of reading out of the family scriptures everybody had to read from their own.

The next morning Olivia had the 'share bag' for her preschool class. Whoever gets the share bag gets to bring whatever they want to show their class. Do you see where this is going?

We were gathering up everything to leave for school when I asked her what she wanted to bring and she without any hesitation said "I want to bring the Book of Mormon!"

My first reaction was sadly "are you sure you don't want to bring one of your Christmas presents?" It wasn't out of embarrassment that I didn't want her to bring it to school. I didn't want it to be awkward for her or me and definitely didn't want the teachers to have to explain things to the other kids. Did I mention that the preschool Olivia attends is a church?

I then asked her what she was going to say when she stood up to talk about the Book of Mormon. She said "I'm going to say that is a very special book and I read it everyday and the pages are very fragile." Olivia had made up her mind and when that happens their is no going back, so off she went to preschool with her share bag, leaving me at home praying that everything would go ok. I must have said ten prayers in 2 hours.

I nervously went to pick her up. I stood in line for my turn and when I reached the door to the class her teacher said "Mrs. Meyer could you come in the class I need to talk to you privately." I almost died right there in the preschool line. My heart was racing and I was thinking of all the things she could say. Was Olivia going to get kicked out of preschool, or would they tell me that it was totally inappropriate for her to bring her scriptures? All of the parents had picked up the last of the children and all that was left was just the two teachers, me and Will, and Olivia sitting at her desk with her Book of Mormon. The teacher then said "While we were at the gym today Olivia fell and hurt her knee and chest and we have an accident report for you to sign." I have never been so excited that she was hurt!!! The teacher must have thought I was crazy because I said "Oh, I'm sure she is fine, thanks for telling me." The teacher then said "thank you Olivia for bringing your scriptures in today."

We walked out and talked about her day at preschool like everyday she goes to school and I just felt so lucky to have her as my daughter. What an example to me of what a member of the church should be.