You May Stay

During Quiet Reading Time, Merry was being neither quiet nor was she reading. So, I asked her to come to my side to just hang out with me for a minute, a trick that always results in quiet reading at my students’ desks. My book is just too boring. When Merry came, she leaned on me so hard, my chair rolled an inch. She rested her head on my head and her round tummy on my side. When I gave her permission to sit down, she said, “No thank you,” and leaned in harder. I wrapped my arm around her back and said, “You may stay.” By now I was having to brace my chair from rolling any further.

You may stay. It's an invitation God gives us each day. Yes, stay by my side. Lean in a little more.