We won!!!
Our Bible Quiz Team won our Quiz Meet yesterday. We won our meet in January also, but we did even better this time than last time. Last time we won 7 out of 8 matches. This time we won 8 out of 8 and won them very well. The team that I coach is a Novice Team (6th-8th graders) and they actually scored more points than any other team in the League (including the Sr. High Teams!!!! Although those teams are responsible to study the ENTIRE book of ACTS and our team is only working on memorization of the first 11 chapters... but STILL!)
Maria, a 7th grader on my team, scored over 1,000 PERSONAL points! More than any other quizzer in the League! She will probably win a medal at the end of the season. Her older sister, Angelina, stands a good chance of winning a medal too.
Our League Finals are in 3 weeks and then we have our District Finals mid-April. We will probably be eligible to go to Regionals in May, but we will probably have to decline due to the fact that the event is being held in Montana!
Winning is interesting. I feel very humbled for the opportunity to coach such amazing children. Two of my own children are on the team and frankly are not doing very well at all. They did score some positive points on Saturday, but their performance was mediocre at best. But Angelina and Maria are phenomonal and I can unequivocally say that it has nothing to do with my coaching abilities. These two girls are self-motivated, obedient and brilliant. I give them the homework. They do it. I lead the practices. They arrive on time, set up tables, participate to the fullest and help clean up afterwards. I say jump. They say "How High???" I ask their mom what her secret is. She laughs and shrugs! She doesn't know either. These girls are just AMAZING!!!! Maria has rattled off 7 full chapters of Scripture to me making less than 3 mistakes per chapter. She is working on earning a National Memorization Award. She needs to quote a full chapter in one 30 minute or less sitting. If she makes three mistakes she must stop and start over again from the beginning at another time. By the way, she never needs that full 30 minutes either... maybe 15, at the very most!!! She even accurately tells me what verse number she is up to and can tell me the section title and what verses are contained in that section title... (i.e. The Choosing of the Seven Acts 6: 1-7).
During our two hour practices each week, Maria and Angelina's younger brother and sister sit in the back of the room and do their homeschool bookwork. (Did I mentioned this is a homeschooling family?) My three younger children also sit in the back of said room and interrupt, and fight and make noise and get up and run around the room, week after week after frustrating week.
I discipline, I set up incentives, I work with them, but they are nothing like Angelina, Maria, David and Amanda. Nothing at ALL like them. These children are respectful. They are hard-working. They always look their best. They are so sweet. Their mom says they sass and make mistakes all the time, but I have known them 7 or 8 years and have seldom seen a hint of any such thing.
I yell. I cajole. I honestly (although I hate to admit it) have even just about BEGGED my children to act the right way, do the right things, and be the people of character that my husband and I are trying to model and teach them to be. We are pretty consistent (although not perfect) and I am confused as to why they are such a handful. SIGH... I honestly feel like a loser and believe it or not, the team's win only magnifies it all the more to me.
No, I am not PMSing. I do feel discouraged though. I do not expect my children to be perfect, but I am at a loss as to how to take the external values that we are trying to impress upon their lives and make them internal. They seem lazy and disrepectful to me. It is so frustrating.
The funny thing is that people are always complimenting us on what great children we have... EVEN Angelina and Maria's parents have told us how happy they are that their children have our children for friends! I literally dropped my jaw and said, "You have to be kidding... my children are a bad influence on your children."
I mean, who wants a nearly child prodigy to play in a sand box with a slothful little stinker?????
Do anyone of you feel this way? What do you do about it other than pray, pray, pray, pray and pray some more.
The Word of God is the center of our curriculum and of our lifestyle. We are far from perfect, but overall we are very loving, devoted and focused parents. What are we doing WRONG??????
Posted by Anonymous 
