Supported my Son

My son is in 4th grade. His class trades with the other 4th grade teacher for science and social studies. This other teacher gave an assignment. There is a poster in the school that reads, "In God We Trust". He told the class to make a new poster. They would display the new posters so that those in the school that don't believe in God could see that they at least have something in common with their peers; In FAMILY I trust, or In NATURE I trust. The problem is, my son doesn't want to put anything but God. He's a very sober kid and tries to do what's right almost to a fault of breaking down at the slightest mistake. It turned into a family discussion about what we trust. In the end, my son says that anything else that we suggest to put isn't as trustworthy as God. My husband wanted him to just put God then. I was trying to come up with words like, "truth" or "Jesus", but my son says that that's only playing into the teacher's trap to remove God. After calling the teacher to feel out whether he would accept my son choosing to leave the word "God" as what he trusts, he wouldn't bend. He insisted that the kids should know that there are others things to trust in other than God. I told him that it sounds like a good lesson in bringing awareness to the fact that not all others believe like you, but that if my son should respect their choice not to trust God, they should respect his choice to put God as the One he trusts. I told him that it's like he's saying, "If you could have grass be any color than green, what would you pick?" If my son considers the options and researches other alternatives and STILL says, "I think green is the best choice after all," isn't that still a choice? A choice to leave it as it is? The teacher would not accept that argument. The thing is, this teacher always sends home notes about how much he admires my son and his respect for others. My son gets awards for being respectful and helpful to teachers and peers. I told my son that I'd support him in whatever he chose to put, but that his teacher might not accept the assignment if he didn't change the word. He is willing to take a failing grade ON THIS ASSIGNMENT to show the other kids that also wanted to leave it as "In GOD we trust" that they could choose that, to show the teacher and the Lord that he isn't ashamed of his trust and thinks that there's nothing to apologize for.

My son came home and said, "I have to fight this battle. The teacher kept saying that we have an 'In God We Trust' poster and that I needed to change the word. I changed the words. My poster said, "In GOD I trust." He felt that the "I" meant "You can trust whomever you'd like, but I trust the Lord."

I am proud of his choice to put what he believes in. After all- What is right isn't always popular, and what is popular isn't always right.