Lesson On Grace From My 5 Year Old

So, we are at Burger King and Caelleb was finished eating and was playing in the playground. FYI, Caelleb does GREAT with his peers. He will play with ANYONE his age or a little younger or older. As long as they are in his age vicinity he believes they are his friends. He does not discriminate. He is kind to every child. . .my sweet, sweet boy. But ultimately, what it comes down to is he just wants to PLAY! Today was no exception. So, a little boy comes into the playland and Caelleb's eyes light up. He goes directly over to him and starts talking to him and trying to get him to play like he's known him for years. Come to find out this child used to go to "work" with Caelleb (but now is in kindergarten). So, Caelleb is THRILLED to see him, but it is obvious to me that the feeling is not mutual. So, I tell Caelleb to let the little boy eat his food and maybe he will play with him later. Well, Caelleb waits patiently and finally later comes. But still the child will not play with Caelleb. In fact, now he is telling Caelleb to, "leave him alone and stop following him." Caelleb doesn't give up. They were the only two kids in the playground and Caelleb continued to stay close to this other child--not to be ornery or mean, I think he just simply figured if he was persistant eventually the little boy would play with him. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The other little boy then starts whining to his grandparents that Caelleb wouldn't leave him alone and was following him. BUT this little boy wasn't even trying to play. He was just standing at the bottom of the playland getting meaner and meaner to Caelleb (who like a little puppy just wanting to play, was a glutten for punishment). I could tell by the look on Caelleb's face that he had pure intentions and was just honestly trying to get his "friend" to play with him. . . Finally, I told Caelleb to just go and play by himself that maybe the other little boy would play with him later. So, Caelleb started climbing up to the slide, but instead of playing this other little boy came and sat down w/his grandparents (who were sitting at the table right next to me) and was STILL complaining about Caelleb. He even told ME that Caelleb wouldn't stop following him around. At this point I was extremely annoyed by this little kid but tried to explain that Caelleb just wanted someone to play with. Anyway, the boy went on whining and whining to his grandparents the whole time we were there and I got more and more annoyed by him. . . I have the sweetest and most friendly little boy in the world (ok, yes i am a little biased) and this little boy was potentially hurting his feelings! So, in the car on the way home I said to Caelleb: "I am proud of you the way you continued to be nice to that little boy even when he wasn't being very nice to you. You just wanted to play, huh?" He nodded his head yes. I then said, "he was being pretty mean to you wasn't he?" Caelleb again nodded yes. In my mind I had already formed an opinion of this little kid. . . Trying to confirm my opinion (not sure why I needed to do this. . .), I asked, "So, was he always this mean to you at work too?" (figuring this was simply a mean little kid just being MEAN). Caelleb says, "no mommy, he just have a bad day, I think he have a cold." Translation: cut him some slack, mommy! It's called GRACE! What an insightful little five year old I have. Point taken.