from the classroom

It was math class. The third grade boy was frustrated. He could not figure out his story problem. His teacher had explained it to him, and then told him he needed to figure out the rest of it on his own without any more help. That made him even more frustrated. He sat there... glaring at his math, getting madder and madder. Time went on. His teacher noticed that he was just sitting there, very upset. She decided to wait and see what would happen. He continued to sit, and glare. Between classes whenever it was time to work on more math, he would thump his book on his desk and give out a loud sigh, and continue to sit and glare. After about 50 minutes worth of sitting and glaring had passed, the teacher, noticing that he was now in tears,  finally had a moment to talk to the child and took him out of the classroom for a "discussion". The conversation went something like this.

               Teacher: Child, what is wrong? Why are you just sitting there?
               Student (crying): I can't figure it out, and you said you wouldn't help me.
               Teacher: But why are you just sitting there? Why don't you go on and work at the rest of your math lesson. Sometimes when we leave a problem and come back to it later we can think better and then we get it, just like that.
               Student: I don't know.... I didn't think about it.
               Teacher: How many times did you read over your story problem?
               Student: Once
               Teacher: Only once!!!!!!  You sat there for almost an hour and you only read it over one time!?!?
               Student (crying harder): Well I figured out how to do it, and I kept getting 13, and I know that's the wrong answer, so I just kept doing it over and over the same way, and I always got 13 as the answer. And I KNOW that's not right.
(At this the teacher almost busted out laughing for the correct answer was indeed 13.)
               Teacher: How do you know the answer is not 13?
               Student: I just know! I know it's wrong, but I kept doing it over and over and that's all I got, but I know it's wrong.
               Teacher: Instead of sitting there getting mad, what should you have done?
               Student: I should have just written down 13 and finished my math. But it would be wrong!!
                Teacher (again): Why do you think 13 is wrong?
               Student (looking up at the teacher with a very guilty look): Well.....  I looked at someone else's book and I saw he had 21, so I tried and tried to get 21 but I just couldn't.
               Teacher (now laughing out loud): Oh child, look into my eyes and listen very closely. The correct answer IS 13. The other student had the wrong answer.
             The student stopped crying and held his breath for a few moments before an ever so slight grin started to appear across his face. Followed was a discussion on not sitting idly doing nothing when you are stuck, and not trying to copy someone else's work.

The student may have learned his lesson. Later in the day, he pipes up and says, "That was really funny what I did earlier wasn't it."  Yes my dear boy, that was funny, but please don't ever do it again. And the teacher ponders this and thinks, Am I ever like that? Do I ever get frustrated because I try so hard to be something I shouldn't? Do I judge myself by a false copy? Does God ever feel frustrated because I am glaring and crying and asking for help when He has already clearly shown the correct answer to me?
Oh, forgive me, Lord.