A man received notice that his son, during his senior year in high school, had failed a course. The father, determined that his son would attend the best college, realized that a failing grade would jeopardize his son's chances to enter a top school. The father's immediate reaction was to blame the teacher for his son's failing grade.

Storming into the teacher's classroom, the father proceeded to accuse the teacher of unfairness. He threatened to have the teacher's job if the grade were not changed. The teacher, believing the grade was deserved, would not change the grade and held his ground.

The father left the classroom in a heated rage and headed for the principal's office, where in a torrent he demanded the principal's intervention. The principal, knowing the situation and believing the teacher to be right, stood behind the faculty member and refused to intervene. The father's rage escalated and he began to make threats against the principal. He would go to the school board and have the principal's job. At the height of the tension, there was a brief pause, followed by these words from the principal: "Sir, I can see that you love your son very much."

At that instant the anger that had controlled the father melted away, and became a shower of tears. A sense of healing had taken place through a principal who was full of God's grace and who had become a channel of that grace.