A Variety of Gifts

First of all, I feel like I need to make plug for Rachel Jankovic's new book Fit to Burst.  I sat down and read two chapters yesterday and it was a great encouragement.  What I appreciate the most is that she is tough on what needs to be taken down, and encouraging where moms need a little pat on tush and push back into the game.  It doesn't matter where you are in life, with kids, without kids, thinking about kids, watching other people's kids playing in the park, it is just about living in the world with other people and being Christ to them.  It's also got some great one liners, in fine Wilson style.  I highly recommend it.

In my own life of abundance, mayhem and joy, I am increasingly grateful for the variety of gifts God has filled our house with.  The ones in shiny paper piling up in the corner of my room, and the ones that spill milk on the table, drop their dirty socks on the floor and are constantly hungry.  I had made the executive decision not to do Christmas cards this year.  I decided the expense and the time commitment were too much, so I would just let them slide.  We received our first pile in the mail yesterday, and it became apparent that everyone thought I was way out in bah humbug land.  I have two ladies in my home that have much more skill in the area of photo design than I do, so the cards may be late, like Epiphany, hopefully before Easter, but they will be coming.  We have a few things like that.  Things that the kids are much better at than I am.  The issue becomes time management.  What's more important, geometry or Christmas cards?  It's a rhetorical question, but it illustrates the point.  The world says geometry, and my kids do too, so how do I fit in Christmas cards?

This is where I start thinking crazy things like, "maybe we should homeschool."  A bit reactionary?  Maybe.  There are an increasing number of things I really want our family to be able to do, that don't fit the school schedule.  I do believe education is important, but I don't believe that it trumps everything else.  What I believe even more strongly is that education can look very different in each and every family.  Even in our small school community there are folks that spend hours doing homework and extra-curricular activities, and others that give homework an allotted time, and then put it down to do other things.  This is something I have been thinking about since Madie started kindergarten.  We have done a variety of things in the past, and who knows what will happen in the future?  This year we are all happily at school and I am very grateful for the amazing teachers, and administration that we have been blessed by for the last six years.  The school is not a problem, it is just a scheduling issue I wrestle with.

One of the huge advantages of having the kids at school is that they get to explore gifts that I don't have and would probably neglect to expose them to.  I have a couple of kids that are gifted artists, who knew?  They didn't get it from me, and I would not know how to nurture those gifts the way other artists can.  They have been given training in art, music, athletics, writing, drama, storytelling, movie-making, that I wouldn't have had the first clue how to do.  Different kids have gravitated to different areas.  It has kept me on my toes, trying to learn about the things that they are interested in.  I am learning to love what they love, and not try to fit them in a little me mold.  It is easy to drag them along to all the things I like to do, but I need to be willing to go to the things they like to do. 

I am seeing more and more that my attitude towards things is more powerful than I realized.  I really can't stand girl's basketball.  Honestly I was a tall gangly 7th grader.  There were three girls in my graduating class that went on to play basketball in college, two of them at division 1 schools.  They pretty much threw me around the court for two years in Jr. High.  The refs don't bother calling fouls in Jr. High because it takes too much time.  My rules Nazi side found that really frustrating.  I remembered it being an unpleasant experience, but it was a vague feeling.  Two years ago Brook really wanted to play.  I told her she could, and dutifully sat through the season gnawing on my tongue, so that I didn't embarrass her or the school by telling the refs what I thought of the way they handled the game.  Apparently I made my opinions about girl's basketball clear enough that Brook has never gone out since.  I'm not completely sure that is a bad thing in this case, but I try to keep my negative experience to myself.  My kids are going to excel in some areas where I stink.  They are going to have gifts in areas where I am a blockhead.  I need to be supportive and encouraging whenever possible.  I realize I do have boundaries, and I hope that they aren't too far off.  I'll be at every track meet, in every event, if I can just stay out of the gym when the girls are playing hoop.  Sorry girls, it's just not my thing.  I'll do my best to give grace to the rest of the activities that they kids want to try out.

All of this means that for this season of life I need to let some things that I love to do sit on the back burner.  Sometimes I have to forgo book group to be at a basketball game.  Sometimes I have to figure out how to put enough money aside so that I can hire someone to help hone a skill that I don't have at all.  It takes time, money, attention, and giving some things up.  Watching the kids mature in some of their skills is so worth the sacrifice.  They can make our home and our family richer.  They provide a broader perspective.  They can encourage one another and spur each other on to greater accomplishment.  Helen is more diligent in practicing piano, which makes Eden work harder at it so that she can stay ahead.  Bronwyn just might beat Mads in the 100m this year.  Madie knows that, and is pushing herself a little harder in this off season.  The kids are teaching each other Latin.  I apparently butcher the pronunciations, although no one speaks Latin so who cares?  I am just very grateful that they are building a much better family then I could have by myself.  When people ask me how I do it, I know it is by grace, through faith, and that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us richly.  He covers a multitude of sins.  He shows His strength in our weakness.  It is nothing I have ever done or am doing that keeps us going.  I trust in Jesus every single day.  I start with His Word before I have breakfast.  I thank him for a night of some sort of sleep, and sunrise no matter what.  I lay my plan before Him, knowing that He will revise it.  In the end, I know that His story is much, much better than mine would have been without Him.