More Important to be Nice

Yesterday Hannah came home from school with oodles of excitement over making a new friend in her class, a cute girl who happens to be on the same bus and lives just around the corner. This girlie gave her a friendship bracelet. Hannah was thrilled.

Today Hannah came home from school and said this girlie didn’t want to be her friend anymore because Hannah sat by another girl on the bus (another neighbor girl who was nervous about riding the bus for the first time and her mom wouldn’t be there to meet her). Girlie #1 thought Girlie #2 was weird and so she figured since Hannah was friends with her that Hannah must be weird too. Oh, the drama!!

What is a mother to say?

I realized I’m not exactly sure what to say in all situations. I hoped my words would be appropriate and helpful and wise. Since I wasn’t sure what to say, I asked Hannah what she thought the right thing to do was. She knew it was important to be kind to everyone, but I think she felt bad that she had lost her new friend.

We talked about how Girlie #1 probably wasn’t worth being friends with if she wasn’t kind to others. Then the mormonad came to mind,

“It’s nice to be important {or well-liked by all},
but it’s more important to be NICE.”

We talked about how Christ was kind to all people – even (or especially) when they weren’t accepted by the crowd. She seemed to feel better about things after that.

Mostly this situation helped me realize that I have to do better at being tuned into the Holy Ghost so that I can always be filled with the right words to teach and advise my children. I generally think of the best thing to say hours or days after conversations. My brain isn’t exactly clever or quick, I suppose. I certainly am not the best at handling tough social situations. Friend stuff can get so tricky (especially with girlies). I hope my mind will be filled with the right words to comfort my kids when feelings are hurt by other kids … when things are hard socially. Sigh… it just gets more complicated as they get older, doesn’t it?!

Hannah is a dear girl… she really is. I hope she is always kind… (moms never really know what goes on at school, the bus, and church). I liked that after I showed her the mormonad on the computer she asked if there were more of those. She found a New Era and looked up the mormonad in that issue. I like this Hannah.