I am in awe of my kids. They make mistakes, sure... and so do I. When it comes down to it though, to me, the most important thing is not how well they play sports, not how gifted they are in school, not how popular they are. It's their character. It's their heart. We teach them about God's love and God's character, we read the bible with them, we pray with them.... and we have seen that as their relationship with God grows, the more his character spills over into their life.
Jacob. At church, the fifth graders were making a huge banner with handprints and their favorite verses. As Jacob was telling me about it, I was so curious which verse he chose. I figured it was most likely John 3:16 or Proverbs 3:5 or Jeremiah 29:11. I think those were the verses I knew at his age anyway. He totally caught me off guard when he said, "I wrote two because I couldn't decide which was my favorite. The first was Psalm 27:14 "Wait for the Lord. Be strong and don't give up. Wait for the Lord. One day after church, one of his teachers told me that they were worshipping and his hands were raised... when nobody else's were.
Gavin. I went to this Financial class last spring (where they were teaching us how to teach our kids about money). Afterward, I was so excited and determined to set up a consistent allowance/chore chart for my kids. Up until then, we were paying our kids for chores they would do around the house that were above and beyond our expectations. Gavin is always the one who would volunteer to help vacuum, weed, whatever we needed help with. One day in particular, I remember paying him three dollars for vacuuming.
Inside Gavin's bible, there is an envelope for tithing. We have talked to the boys about tithing and explained how and why we give "money to God" out of every paycheck. They understand that God doesn't really need money, he is just looking for us to put him first and trust him with our finances. We talk to our boys about this, but we leave the decision of tithing and how much they tithe up to them. We want it to be a decision from their heart... not because we told them to. So a few Sundays ago, I was bringing Gavin to his class at church. On the table was a tithing jar and I saw him reach into his tithing envelope and carefully pull out all three dollars that I gave him for vacuuming that week. I couldn't stop my eyes from filling with tears. I couldn't help but think, "Would I have done that at his age? Give all three dollars?" I was flabbergasted. I remember bringing a quarter to church from time to time, but never anything that was a sacrifice. Just when I thought it would most likely be a one time thing, the same thing happened the next Sunday. Gavin filled an entire bucket full of weeds, only to take all of the money I gave him and give it back to God. Incredible. One of his teachers at church told me they were talking about wants and needs. Almost all of the kids were saying things like food and clothes (and video games ;), when Gavin said, "I think we just need God."
Casey. Casey has wisdom beyond his years. The other day in the car, a song was playing that said, "Do to others like you would have them do to you. It's the golden rule." Casey thought for a minute and said, "That's not really the golden rule, mom. The bible says to love God the most. That's the golden rule. So actually the words in this song should be the silver rule." When he had to make a tough decision, he said, "I heard God in my heart mom. And then I choosed the right choice." When we are reading the bible, he always has the most incredible questions and perspective on everything. He has always been timid to pray though. When we ask if anyone wants to pray, he just says no thank you... and we leave it at that. The other night, he wanted to pray though! You know how some kids hardly can say a few words and then they just start talking in sentences? Casey went from not praying at all to passionately praying the cutest, sweetest prayer! He was praying for protection for our family, and that his great-grandpa would know God before he dies, that God would help the people who are hungry and help the people who are sick to feel better... and all sorts of things! Amazing.
Ella. Ella has an incredible gift for dancing. Whenever we play worship music in our house, she will immediately go into this beautiful dance. We call it "dancing for Jesus". Her face is focused, yet full of joy. Her arms carefully swing around and her legs swiftly take her all around the kitchen. She sings too. The sing like no one's watching type of singing. We will be at the pool and she will belt out "YES Jesus loves me!" at the top of her lungs. She doesn't hold anything back. Then there are her prayers. She is always the first to enthusiastically yell, "ME!" when I ask who wants to pray. And God love her, she will pray for a loooong time. And half the time, we have no idea what she's saying. One time though, and I will never forget it, I was crying in the kitchen. Ella came up to me and said, "Mommy! Mommy no sad. It be okay. Ella pray for you mommy!" She softly held my hands and quietly prayed that God would please help mommy feel happy.
She has such a giving heart. We are just starting to give her an allowance each week and she wants to give it all to Jesus. We are teaching her to put aside 30 cents of her $3.00, but she continues to empty her piggy bank every week with SUCH a cheerful heart.
One of the cutest things she does is use the phrase "next year" instead of "tomorrow". Mommy? Are we going swimming NEXT year? I can't even correct it because it's so cute! She eventually started correcting it on her own and now she will say, "Are we going tomodow... after this day?"
Some of Ella's loves: Pretending... which is totally a new thing because I'm pretty sure our boys didn't pretend play EVER. She pushes her stroller and pretends to be a mommy. The majority of the time she wants to be a kitty or a doggy. Adam will play this animal game with her where they pretend to be a certain animal together and she will ride on his back. It's so cute. They also play a board game called Sneaky Squirrel every morning while the boys are walking to school (Daddy calls it Stinky Squirrel). She never gets tired of it. She also absolutely LOVES My Little Pony. She would watch it all day if we let her. (The funny thing is, Casey likes it too. I'm not sure if he would admit it, but he quietly sneaks in and is glued to almost every episode she watches.) You should see how excited she was when I got her a My Little Pony backpack for TK. Her eyes absolutely lit up and she was literally squealing with joy!
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