Hello, my friends and welcome to the Live Inspired podcast Monday Morning Moments with John O'Leary.

In celebrating my son Henry's birthday this past weekend, I was reminded of an experience from several years ago that perfectly captures his zest for life and his joyful character.

And sharing it with you on this morning, I hope it ignites within you a desire to be a bright light of loving hope for others.

Let me tell you more about it.

Here we go.

Mr. O'Leary, can I talk to you for a moment?

When I hear Mr. in front of my name, I usually glance around the room and look for my dad. On this

specific day, though, I didn't glance around the room looking for dad. Instead, I felt trepidation

for the conversation that was going to follow. I was picking up the kids from their school,

and the words were spoken by Henry's teacher. Henry is number three in our family,

the youngest of my boys. He is incredibly fun, incredibly funny, outgoing, athletic, and bright.

He loves music. He loves laughing. He loves animals. He loves roughhousing, he loves video games. He is always

moving, always dancing, always smiling. Henry is an amazing kid. All this passionate exuberance

for life means that in addition to bringing great joys to his friends and family, he can

occasionally be a handful in the classroom.

In today's season of politically correct jargon, he might be considered spirited.

In the 1980s, they had very different terms to describe kids like this and very different ways to handle them.

I know, because I was one of them.

Looking compassionately at this wonderful teacher, imagining the unique challenges of educating

my son, as well as two dozen other children. I listened as she shared.

Henry was a little disruptive in class today. I warned him several times to stop talking.

I tried several times to redirect him, and eventually I called him to my desk to give him one final

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