Searching for What to Keep

So do you remember how I purged all our belongings before we moved to Florida?  It’s only 10 weeks into the school year and I am drowning in paperwork! I will have to plant a few trees after my son’s kindergarten year!

My pile is SO deep we lost an assignment sheet and now we are a week behind on the Native American diorama assignment! #secondgradehomeworkformom #thisonebelongstodad  

If my goal is one tote per child that holds treasures from K through 12, I have to decide EACH WEEK what to get rid of and what to keep!

Laura, you’re not gonna believe this, but I do have an “ah-ha” moment that came back to me.  I was reminded this week of the children’s picture book that changed my perspective and guided me during the house purge. 

It’s called Rain School by James Rumford.  It’s a story about a teacher and her students building a simple school structure from mud bricks and a grass roof in the African country of Chad.

Their first lesson is to build the school.  When the students finally get to sit down on the mud benches they built, they are eager to learn.  

Then the older children reassure their younger siblings they will get a pencil and a notebook of their own.  What a difference from our mounds and mounds of papers.

And then at the end of the school year, the heavy rains come and the mud structure and mud desks begin to gradually wash away, but  “the students’ minds are fat with knowledge. Their notebooks are rumpled from learning.”

But the author writes: “It doesn’t matter.  The letters have been learned and the knowledge taken away by the children.”

While doing our whole house purge, when I got stuck on whether to keep something or not, I would say “Rain School” or look at the “Rain School” sign I made.  I would ask myself, “Has this item already served its purpose in our lives?” I found it was easier to let something go when I realized I had something inside me (or my family) that was more valuable, longer-lasting and portable than the object.  

But Laura, here’s the kicker.  The Sunday School paperwork.

Bahahahah!   Actually my problem is the  “talking sheets” from Sunday school that I’m just filing  away rather than using. It’s not because I don’t want to talk with them about God and what they learned on Sunday afternoon; it’s because I’m overwhelmed with paperwork and they’re clamoring for lunch, not spiritual conversation. 

So since I’m overwhelmed by the paperwork, can I just rely on my relationship with my children and my heart to teach them?

And even though they don’t say it to us, they are “writing” our interactions with them into their notebook.  The values we are teaching them carry a weight because we have a special connection to their hearts as their parents.

My good friend, Jane, told me she always disagreed with her parents because it was a safe place to work out her beliefs.  But what her parents didn’t know is that she always took their side when she had discussions elsewhere.

Yes, I want my kids to have a filter for the things they are experiencing because my kids are “bringing” a lot of things home from school that concern me.  My regular prayer has been for God to guard their hearts for them and teach them how to filter what they allow into their hearts and minds.

This is so hard because we are like mama bear snipers wanting to pick off anything we think would be harmful to our kids.  But in reality we need to step back and realize we are trail guides pointing them toward Jesus and His invitation to be a wholehearted person in a world full of good and bad choices.  

Lord, help us to invite and inspire our kids to journey toward you every day.  Will you be their leader and ours in sorting through what to keep and what to let go of.