School has started folks! We are in the groove. Whats strange is 2 years ago when I first started homeschooling I would cry whenever we drove by the public school, which is in our side yard, literally, because I felt like I was doing something illegal by keeping my children home. Now I think its strange when I am out for a jog at 6:30 in the morning and I see kids waiting for the big yellow bus to pick them up and my kids are still sleeping, and will be for another hour. It is a great feeling having them home, but it means we get to step up the character building.
How many of you out there want your kids to see a need and just do it? Would you drop dead if one of your children actually said, "Here mom let me help you with that, or I will take care of it for you!" Even volunteering to read to a younger sibling without being told would be helpful. I want to share something that we have started this school year that is helping us take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on others. Are we perfect at this? Absolutely not! My children are being reminded every day to fix their eyes on Christ and others. A verse that we have been discussing daily is found in Matthew 25:40 "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Our job as parents is to teach our children to serve and give of their time and money. It is our duty to take care of Gods people. It is our job as parents to plant seeds in our children.
This idea is not an original, I did not come up with this on my own, but when I heard this I thought this would be something great to do while instilling character into my little people. I bought a roll of tickets and I got a jar from my basement, they are sitting on my kitchen counter. Whenever I witness one of my children "doing a random act of kindness" I will give them a ticket with their initial on the back. They are not aloud to tell me they did something. They are aware that they may show kindness and I do not see it, therefore there is no ticket, but I am watching and looking for random acts of kindness. At the end of the semester we will add up the tickets and I will make the tickets worth maybe 25 cents a piece, and they can buy a prize.
I do not want the 3 of them to serve because of a prize, but I am hoping that serving will become a habit and after awhile it will be natural for them to say, "Let me help you!" In the beginning it may be a job for a reward, but I want to reap a harvest from the crop we are sewing, and the crop we are sewing is love, service, and putting others before ourselves.
When we serve others we are serving Christ. When we give of our time and money we are serving Christ. Little Lady said she wanted to give money to Jesus so she took a handful of pennies and set them out on the driveway. She was determined that Jesus would scoop his hand out of the sky and pick up her pennies, so we talked about Matthew 25:40 and how we are called to take care of the least of these. We explained that God uses her and her tithe to help people in need. She is 5 and I still think she thinks Jesus should just come down and pick up the money, but we will keep talking.
Even when the days are dreary if we will plant seeds in Christ he will grow the seeds into crops for his kingdom and there will be a harvest that we look back on and say to God be the glory if we do not give up!
So do not give up mom's! Whether your kids are home schooled or public schooled is not what matters. What matters is that that we are building God's kingdom one seed at a time.
How many of you out there want your kids to see a need and just do it? Would you drop dead if one of your children actually said, "Here mom let me help you with that, or I will take care of it for you!" Even volunteering to read to a younger sibling without being told would be helpful. I want to share something that we have started this school year that is helping us take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on others. Are we perfect at this? Absolutely not! My children are being reminded every day to fix their eyes on Christ and others. A verse that we have been discussing daily is found in Matthew 25:40 "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Our job as parents is to teach our children to serve and give of their time and money. It is our duty to take care of Gods people. It is our job as parents to plant seeds in our children.
This idea is not an original, I did not come up with this on my own, but when I heard this I thought this would be something great to do while instilling character into my little people. I bought a roll of tickets and I got a jar from my basement, they are sitting on my kitchen counter. Whenever I witness one of my children "doing a random act of kindness" I will give them a ticket with their initial on the back. They are not aloud to tell me they did something. They are aware that they may show kindness and I do not see it, therefore there is no ticket, but I am watching and looking for random acts of kindness. At the end of the semester we will add up the tickets and I will make the tickets worth maybe 25 cents a piece, and they can buy a prize.
I do not want the 3 of them to serve because of a prize, but I am hoping that serving will become a habit and after awhile it will be natural for them to say, "Let me help you!" In the beginning it may be a job for a reward, but I want to reap a harvest from the crop we are sewing, and the crop we are sewing is love, service, and putting others before ourselves.
When we serve others we are serving Christ. When we give of our time and money we are serving Christ. Little Lady said she wanted to give money to Jesus so she took a handful of pennies and set them out on the driveway. She was determined that Jesus would scoop his hand out of the sky and pick up her pennies, so we talked about Matthew 25:40 and how we are called to take care of the least of these. We explained that God uses her and her tithe to help people in need. She is 5 and I still think she thinks Jesus should just come down and pick up the money, but we will keep talking.
Even when the days are dreary if we will plant seeds in Christ he will grow the seeds into crops for his kingdom and there will be a harvest that we look back on and say to God be the glory if we do not give up!
So do not give up mom's! Whether your kids are home schooled or public schooled is not what matters. What matters is that that we are building God's kingdom one seed at a time.
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