This title is a comforting thought. 

During our session, the children wanted to play the game Sparkle. 

The rules:

Someone selects a word.  The selected word is spelled by each player saying a letter. If the letter is incorrect, the player is eliminated from the game.  Once the word is fully spelled, the next player in line says the word out loud, the next says, “Sparkle” and the following player is eliminated. 

We played the game.  One of our children was eliminated and was clearly upset about it. 

You Won’t Always Get It Right

Perfect teachable moment. 

1.)     I said, “You won’t always get the answers right.”  I’ll be honest and tell you that at this moment, I took those encouraging words for myself.  As an adult, as a parent, as a mentor, I won’t always get the answers right.  No one does.  No one. 

I then told her that I don’t always get the answers right.  This seemed to calm her down.  And in my imagination, I could see her brain calculating the words. I was transparent with her. 

2.)     You will always have a chance to do better. This time, she immediately brightened up. She sat up in her seat, wiped her tears and looked forward to participating in the next round of Sparkle. 

We often share with the children of Girls and Boys of Character that not only do they learn life lessons from us, but we also learn from them. 

We mentors left with two life lessons: We won’t always get it right and we will always have a chance to do better. 

Please comment on your take on this valuable life lesson. 

Picture credit- Marija-Zaric@Unsplash.com