New Strategy

Here is what I have decided to do with Caleb. I am going to do my Bible Study either in the morning or during his afternoon room time. Each week I will choose something I have learned and that I want to pass on to my son. I'll develop his Bible study and his academic study together. He isn't going to preschool this year, so I am trying to do some of the preschooley things at home. So for this week I have taken a passage from "My Utmost for His Highest" (MUFHH) It is January 6th's reading which is about Abram pitching his tent between Bethel and Ai. The thing about "My Utmost for His Highest" is that the scripture verses he uses are, in and of themselves, not very instructive. But Chambers has good stuff to say, making God seem mysterious and approachable at the same time. Whenever, I can't get Chambers though, I go to the kids version. They sum up everything in language meant for a four year old.

"Worship is giving God the best that He has given you." That is the first line of MUFHH's devotion. So we are focusing on giving. I picked out a memory verse, Acts 20:35, simplified it a bit, and we are memorizing it this week. We are also reading books and Bible stories about giving. I've pulled some words for Caleb to learn from the Bible verse and even looked up the Spanish translation (which is, okay, probably a bit ambitious. I must be honest and say that I frequently fall short of my ambitions.)

This will be good for me. One of my focuses is to slow my life down enough to bring my kids alongside of me. Sometimes I spend way too much time trying to find ways to occupy my kids so that I can do whatever it is that I feel needs doing. I should probably be looking for opportunities to provide a scaffold for them so that they can be with me in the things that God has called me to do. Bringing my kids along is important to them, but it is just as important to me. We learn 5-10% of what we hear, which must be one reason why God gave us kids. We have to tell them something 10 to 20 times before they get it, so it makes sense that we retain about 90% of what we teach.

I think God exhibits great hope and trust by giving us children. He must hope that we can still learn when we are adults. He must know we aren't finished yet because he has given us our greatest learning opportunities in the act of child rearing. And he must trust that we can learn on the fly. I take great comfort in His trust because my children are growing up fast and sometimes, well no, quite often, I don't feel that I'm far enough ahead.