I love you more then my toys!

For a 4.5 year old little boy.  This is huge.  He is such a cutie-pie!

“Can I put on my Batman costume?”

Depending on if he has to go to school of not, the answer is usually:

“Yes.”

Batman, aka Dear Son, now watches TV with us, eats dinner with us, walks the dogs with us and most wonderfully before we walk into any room – checks for Bad Guys.  Should they exist he is sure to clear out the room and make it safe.  I am glad to have Batman on my side.

A few weeks ago mama G and myself had noticed that Dear Son had out grown a lot of his current toys and felt it was time for a lesson on giving and receiving.  We sat down with Dear Son and asked him how he felt about GIVING AWAY some of his toys for which he did not play with anymore and were for younger children to children who needed toys and really did not have any toys to play with?  We explained to him how God says to us that those who give will receive 10x and God loves and giving heart.

Dear Son looked at us in a puzzled look, almost as if he had realized a new reality.  See, when he was younger, before we got him, he did not have many toys to play with either.  I believe he was also trying to figure out this 10x receiving concept.  At first he was a bit hesitant, because of his attachment to the toys, and then with joyful heart he said YES!

We began going through ALL of his toys one by one.  We had him make the decision to keep it or give it away.  All of the ones he wanted to give away were right on course with what mama G and I were thinking.  He gave away pretty much all of his younger toys to make room for new toys, but there were no new toys yet.  He did this all on faith!

Last week several packages arrived in the mail NEW TOYS for the faithful giver.  New toys more for his age and learning needs.  He was so excited and he truly saw the lesson of giving and receiving!

This week we got a card from mama G’s aunt and grandma, in it was a check for $130 the letter said, “to use it on something for Dear Son, they had been meaning to write for a while, but had been busy.”  This reminded us of the lesson of giving and receiving.  God is good all the time, and truly faithful!

Does it get much better?

The real goal of discipline isn’t to punish.  It’s to help kids really want to do the right thing.

It really made me think about how, when and why I discipline Dear Son.  This quote is so true… discipline should be for teaching, a lesson – not to punish or make them feel guilt or shame.  Going forward I will think of this quote with each disciplinary action needed and really think does the discipline match the ‘crime.’

Image by redteam via Flickr

This morning while sitting around the breakfast table eating our cereal, we turned on the weather channel to see what was in store for today.  Our goal was to see the days forecast in order to know if Dear Son would need pants or shorts when dressing for school this morning, however I gained a lot more then expected from the conversation with Dear Son.

Here is how the conversation went with Dear Son and myself…

Son: What are you watching?
Me: The weather to see what it is going to be like outside today.
Son: What did they say?
Me: Well, it is going to be sunny today, but a bit chilly so you need pants for school.
Son: But it is cloudy outside, not sunny!?! There are lots of clouds everywhere…
Me: You are correct.

Do we really get so consumed in needing others to tell us what we need and how life is, that we forget to just look around, forgetting to observe the obvious and observe our surroundings?

I was so consumed in believing the TV and a weather man could tell me all I needed to know, that I did not even use my own given instincts to see what was around me to tell me it was cloudy.  If only we could get back to the basics of believing in ourselves and the talents we were given from birth, our instincts and our ability to observe life would be much simpler.

Image via Wikipedia

the other day our family was eating dinner and our Dear Son whom is almost three and a half asked if he could have dessert.  Of course he hadn’t eaten hardly any of his veggies or meal so the answer was “you first need to clean your plate.” Dear Son looked at me and asked, “can i have a napkin?”

it took us a while, but we finally figured out when we said to him “clean his plate” he took it in the litterial sense of cleaning.  it was quite cute and we all got a good hardy laugh out of it.

to see life again through the eyes of a child growing up and adventuring, learning, experimenting and loving is an amazing journey my family is just beginning and i’m thrilled and passionate to wake each day to learn what will be next.

do you have a story through the eyes of a child?