The Lessons We Learn.....

Well for my first post to my blog I feel like the Lord laid this one in my lap today. Much of the time as I teach our son Riley, mine and my husband's prayer is that Riley is learning and developing his character in a Godly manner. As I'm sure many of you are praying the same thing for your children. There are times that I wonder if we are making progress or just headed no where fast. Today I had a glimpse of that progress and I was so thankful! His example of joy and giving today was such a blessing to me I just had to write about it.

I was mowing the front yard with our fairly new push mower this morning. In the meantime, Riley had been playing in the front yard or riding his bike. He had gone in the house and came back out with a package of Tiny Size Chiclets gum. He came running up to me and offered some to me, which at that time I had no interest in chewing gum. So I politely said, "No, thank you honey."

I was huffing and puffing and complaining because the engine kept cutting off and on as I was pushing it (probably because the grass was so tall since we've had so much rain lately!). As I worked my way over to the other side of the driveway, the mower finally died and shut off. As it did I let out a growl out of frustration. I stalked over to the mower to check the gas, which was a little low so I went into the garage to get the gas tank. As I did, Riley said, "Hey mom, I know what you need." I said, "What do I need son?" (trying not to voice my frustration over the mower towards him) He said, "You need a Tiny Size! It will make you feel good and it tastes good and you'll be happy!"

At first I thought, "A Tiny Size? What in the world is that?" As he came running towards me holding up a package of the Tiny Size Chiclets, I said to myself, "Now how could I refuse that?!" My only child, showing such a wonderful example of sharing, sharing joy and happiness and trying to ease my frustration in such a simple way! Of course I accepted the Tiny Size! I was so blessed by my son's generosity but also by his joy and desire to see his mom smile. Later as I was thinking about this little episode this verse came to mind "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones." (Proverbs 17:22) I didn't necessarily have a broken spirit but I sure did lack in the joy area!

Sometimes the weight of the example we need to set for our children is so heavy! Sometimes I succeed in setting a Christ like example and sometimes I feel like I fail miserably. Or those times that I lose sight of 'who' my focus should be on and start to stress about what Riley is learning or what he isn't learning. But thank the Lord that He is there each time to remind me of where I need to be or what I need to be doing and set me on the right path. Even if it takes my 7 yr old son to show me!

It's times like these that I feel confident that we are on the right road of teaching our son. Even when we have those difficult days, days like this come along to show me we are doing the right thing. I hope that your homeschooling journey is rewarding and full of teachable moments like this. Even when you are the one learning at that given moment. Till next time.