Porter... CTR-6

Porter is 5 years old, he turns 6 in June.  This puts him in the CTR-6(Choose The Right age 6) primary class at church.  Porter has always struggled a bit with sitting still.  His first year in primary.... Sunbeams (age 3) about did me in.  Never have I had a more wiggly irreverent child.  I finally threw in the towel & let him take his blankie with him... it worked.  He at least sat still a little & didn't CRY when told it was time for primary!  Victoria is a Sunbeam... she takes her pink (very stinky) blankie each week.  We barely made it threw Sunbeams with Porter.  Then he moved up to CTR-5... Bro. Griesmeyer was his teacher.  All of a sudden Porter LOVED primary.  You found out why standing outside Bro. G's classroom.  You'd find him sitting on the floor telling stories from the scriptures.  He's an artist & always encouraged drawing, coloring, etc.  Last week Porter wanted to sit in a short pew.  The rest of the family chose a long pew.  Thankfully, Bro. G was sitting on a short pew & let Porter sit by him.  He gave Porter a pencil & paper...  Porter was in heaven.  This week he was asking again if he could sit with Bro. G.  Disappointingly, he was out of town for the holiday weekend.    Back to my original point.  Porter is not the easiest child to have in your primary class...   He's a good kid, just not one of those kids that always raises their hand, doesn't talk out of turn or sits quietly for a teacher to return.  He likes to laugh, talk, & have lots of fun... we are still working on the appropriate behavior for the appropriate time.  WELL, the other week I found this.... 

Subject: Ultimate Challenge

When I attended special training in Karate to qualify for black belt it involved a five mile run with bare feet at 6:00 am. We then rested for 2 hours and worked out for 2 hours and rested for 2 hours and worked out for two hours etc. The next day we repeated the ordeal with the five mile run with bare feet. We repeated this ordeal for three days with a midnight workout thrown in for good measure. That midnight workout involved doing 1000 kicks. We went back to sleep for a short few hours and then up again at 6:00 am for another 5 mile run with bare feet. We then got into a horse stance (like riding a horse without the horse) and faced the ocean (California near San Diego). We stayed in that stance for 45 min. if the candidate could complete all of this (and some did not make it), he or she could test for black belt sometime in the future.

It was until recently the most grueling challenging experience of my life. At one of these special trainings, (not the one I attended) Chuck Norris attended one day of the three days of special training and said it was the most challenging martial arts experience he had ever had. I am sure he could have lasted all three days, but for some reason could only attend one day.

Note that in the last paragraph I said "until recently?" Well I just had an experience that tops the karate special training in terms of rigor, mental anguish, exhaustion and near defeat.

I substituted for Mom's 6-year old primary class last Sunday. I am still shaken and nearly shattered!

Love Dad

P.S. I can make it for one more class on Sunday, but more than that will kill me.

You see, he is talking about Porter's class.  His wife is Porter's teacher.  I read his daughters blog & she posted it on there (Thank-you, thank-you Autumn).  The man writing this is amazing.  His family is amazing.  I loved it.  It made me laugh & wonder... what DID Porter do.  We talked about being reverent & listening, etc.  Porter is a square peg that will never fit in a round hole.  My first instinct is to "lecture" him & MAKE him be more like... A, B, & C!  However, it just isn't going to happen.  One of these days I'll value those traits that are driving me crazy.... please let those days come quickly... before I am shaken & shattered!