Golden Moment

Have you ever had a golden moment? The other day while teaching 2nd graders I got one. You see I had a group of rowdy 2nd graders who were wild and out of control. Let me tell you about my golden moment.
The teacher gave little notice for me, her substitute, because she had become ill suddenly and had to leave. She understood her lesson plans perfectly, but I had little to go by. For vocabulary she had three words written for the time slot 9:00 to 9:15. That's it. The kids continued to talk, run around the room, and ignore me. What was I going to do for 15 min.?
Suddenly I remembered the "Go For The Green" cards. Each child had four different colored cards made of construction paper.
Because I taught at a different school and learned about thses cards the day before I knew how to use them. I'm so thankful for this.
All I had to do was to say, "Austin, change your card to yellow. The rest of you, eyes on me." It became stone silent in the room. Austin soberly changed his card. The kids sat like statues as I wrote on the overhead projector the word "wilting." I then explained what it meant. Now here is my golden moment. I began showing what a wilted planted looked like using my own body. Their eyes were all glued to me and they appeared quite interested. The principal walked into the room to observe me at that moment. I didn't know who she was. The children began repeating after me "wilting. W-I-L-T-I-N-G."
We then went on to the next vocabulary word. The principal left and later told me, who she was and that I had a good grip on that class. I smiled and thanked her. I thanked God. These golden moments, as I call them are when things come together at precisely the right moment in my favor when I don't deserve it. It's GRACE. I believe God made me look good at that exact moment, for whatever reason. If she had walked in 2 minutes earlier she would have seen me at my worst. I praise God for His kindness to me. The rest of the day went just fine.