Heather Nelson was running late one morning this week and couldn’t understand why her 5 year-old son stopped in his tracks and bent his head rather than running into school – but his reason for the delay has now gone viral.

KFOR.com is reporting on the story of Heather Nelson, who dropped off her son, Royce, who was late for kindergarten. He rushed out of the car and headed toward the building, then suddenly stopped and bowed his head just outside the main doors of the school.

“I was about four cars back so I just saw him standing there with what looked like him just looking at his shoes,” Nelson remembered. “But that did not seem like Royce.”

He seemed not to hear her urging, “Royce! Go! Go!”

Suddenly, an officer standing nearby motioned to her and said, “Mom, he’s doing good, he stopped for the Pledge of Allegiance,” she said and put a hand over her heart to demonstrate.

Heather quickly snapped a picture of the scene, which has since gone viral.

“Since they do not have prayer in schools he says a little prayer silently and that’s exactly what he was doing,” Nelson wrote on her Facebook page. “I was so proud that he stopped when the Pledge of Allegiance came and stood his ground and did not move as the other kids were going in.”

Later when she picked him up from school, she asked Royce what made him do it.

In what she describes as a “matter-of-fact-duh-mom” voice, he said, “That’s what you’re supposed to do.”

Still a bit surprised, she checked with the officer to be sure she hadn’t suggested it to her son – but she didn’t!

“ . . . [I]t was all him and I am so proud of him,” Nelson said.

Coming at a time when disrespect for the flag is occurring much too frequently, the actions of this little boy is a welcome reminder to all that love for country is still alive and well in America!

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