Teaching By Example

My! I love my man!

In the early morning of each workday, I get to crawl out of our warm bed and tramp downstairs, all blurry eyed and dream filled. Hot coffee is waiting and, better yet, a warm ‘good morning’ embrace from the Carpenter.

My! I love that man!

He quietly readies himself for work and I quietly ready his lunch, trying to put in delightful treats that not only taste good but are also somewhat healthy. He is usually off 25 – 30 minutes later and I get to stand in the kitchen window watching him pull away. Each day my heart travels up the road with that man; he keeps it well.

My! I love that man!

When the kids get up an hour or so later, the first thing Phin asks is, “Where is Papa?”

“You know son.”

“At work in the city!”

Our children have, in their Papa, a wonderful example of a hard worker. Currently, we are working on teaching diligence to the children – that they may do a job efficiently and well. Actually, it seems like we’ve been working on this for a long while. Sometimes when Phinehas is unloading the dishwasher or sweeping under the table he’ll stop and, with his little chest all puffed out, say, “Am I a dil-i-gent worker, like my wonderful Papa? Am I doing a good job?” Often I can say, “Yes, son! You are doing a wonderful job! You’re growing to be an excellent worker, just like your Papa!” Sometimes I need to say, “Well… no not really. You’re just standing there talking about doing a good job. Hop to it and get working and when you’re done I’ll let you know if you did a diligent job or not.” He is learning, and it is a delight to see him progress (though, if I’m honest, I’d have to say that sometimes it tries my patience as it is a s-l-o-w process!)

Abigail has started doing the breakfast dishes by hand. Yes, we have a dishwasher, but the breakfast dishes are few and it is a good job for her. She is happily doing her job to be a blessing to Papa and to learn how to be a ‘good woman’ some day. When I compliment her, especially when I tell Andrew about her accomplishments, she glows from within! Yes, she is a wonderful helper to me, but I want to teach her how to be pleasing to her Papa – and one day, her husband. She is surely on the right path!

Speaking of Abigail, I now know how I sound when I sing. It isn’t as fair and as lovely as I had hoped! This past spring I had a very bad cough and it really messed up my throat (excuses, excuses!). Since then, I feel as though I cannot sing very loud, nor do I have any semblance of range (not that I had a good one, before!) Anyway, for those of you who know the song In Christ Alone, you may recall that there is a point that the melody jumps a little high: “… What heights of love, what depths of peace, when FEARS are stilled…” Well, when Abbi is singing she jumps about 3 octaves and screeches out the word “FEARS” in a backbone tingling, hair-standing-on-edge, eardrum-bursting squawk that makes me cringe. I want to stop my piano playing and tell her adamantly to stop goofing, each and every time! But, when I look at her little face I can see that she really isn’t trying to be funny! In my heart of hearts I know that she is, yet again, just emulating her mother… teaching by example.