For most of us sharing and giving does not come easily.  In fact, the Bible has a good explanation for this truth!  But my Boy7 has always really struggled with sharing, holding onto his toys a little too tight.  He's the kid who the day after his birthday was planning what his next birthday party theme was going to be and what kind of toys he was going to get.  He will spend hours pouring through a toy catalog that comes in the mail and want to go through it with me listing all the things he wants to get.  As we have been going through Proverbs in recent weeks during our morning devotions, we've been touching on a lot of Proverbs that discuss the importance and benefits of giving. 

As I've talked about below, we are moving again (we are down to 15 days! Yikes!  I need to get busy!).  And, as always during a move, I try to "consolidate", particularly in the area of clothes and toys.  In the past, I would bag up some toys in a bag they couldn't see through when Goodwill would come out to pick them up(because I had one experience where they saw the man taking their "prized possessions" through the front window and, oh, the tears that were shed! and another where they saw the bag ahead of time and by the time they were done going through it the bag was empty). 

Well, yesterday I was going through toy bins and trying to make it so that they were not overflowing, but that the tops could actually be put on!  Anything that was making it overflow was going to be given the next time the charity truck comes or given away on Freecycle.  Well, I was particularly working yesterday on our Rescue Hero bin because an e-mail on Freecycle had come through asking specifically for Rescue Hero toys or videos for a 7yo boy. 

BW had taken the kids out yesterday and I wasn't quite finished when they came back.  "What are you doing, Mom?" asking innocently but accusing at the same time.  I'd been caught!  I explained that we had lots of Rescue Hero toys and that there was a little boy who really liked Rescue Heroes but didn't have very many.  They looked through my bag and did pull one or two out but for the most part realized that we did have many duplicates.  I was expecting a showdown with Boy7 and had my list of reasons why He was being selfish and trying to wrack my brain to remember the Bible references in the book of Proverbs, but he said nothing!

I mentioned to BW during dinner that I had consolidated both the Rescue Hero and Thomas bins down to one bin each, feeling quite proud of myself.  He asked if we were getting rid of the Command Center too.  My instinct was "of course not", but as I started thinking about it, it is this HUGE toy that often has been put in the garage because it takes up sooo much room(sorry Aunt Kelly).  And the house we are going to has less living room area than we currently have. 

It took a little convincing and you could see the war going on in his little heart.  But finally, he said, I guess I could draw a command center out of paper and tape it up in my new room!  Girl8 thought that was a great idea and offered to help in this new project.  So, he said that he'd like the boy to have it.  We put it out before he had a chance to change his mind.

Later that night, he was just beaming!  He just kept talking about how excited he thought the boy was going to be with his toys and Command Center.  We received an e-mail from the mom of the boy this morning and I read it to him.  She said her little guy was more excited than he had been on Christmas morning and included a thank you typed in by her son.  Boy7 keeps talking about how good it feels to make someone else happy. 

I am putting this story, not because I am trying to say that my kids are perfect --- so far from it --- but because for this particular boy he got a glimpse, for what may have been the first time, that doing things God's way doesn't always feel good at first, but in the end gives us great joy and peace.  Also, there are so many times when my thoughts send me down the road of all the ways my kids aren't where I would like them to be that I am trying to be more intentional about recognizing the progress they are making and to remind myself that there is a process to their maturing.  The process can be painfully slow from a mother's view, but when that "light bulb" goes on it is truly God's gift.  I praise God for working on my little guy's heart through His Word and that we parents are not in this all alone, but have the Creator of the universe to help us in this journey of parenting.  Now, if He could only help me teach Boy7 how to tie his shoes!

Blessings!

-J