Patches

Share Now

Last night in Ray’s devotional talk at church, he encouraged us to overflow with gratitude. His Bible reference was:

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted
and now being built up in Him
and established in your faith,
just as you were instructed,
and overflowing with gratitude.
Colossians 2:6-7

Ray pointed out that it’s really not much fun to give ourselves a present. To illustrate this, he pretended to hand himself a present with one hand, saying “Here you go, Ray.” He received it with his other hand and said, “Thank you.”

It’s much more special to receive a gift from someone else.

Sometimes a gift receiver responds to the giver with an I-don’t-really-need-this attitude. Receiving a gift graciously requires humility. In fact, sometimes receiving a gift is a very humbling experience.

As I thought about how Ray’s devotional applied to homeschooling, I realized that gratitude is, like so many things, a matter of character. And character development is one of the most important items on a homeschooling mama’s agenda.

I found this surprising photo from Library of Congress. Titled “Patch-work,” photographer Harry Whittier Frees created it in 1914.

This dress-clad puppy is sewing a patch onto the backside of a smaller puppy’s costume. Gratitude can’t be attached like a patch — neither can being truthful, being respectful, being kind, or other essential character traits.

Overflowing gratitude comes from deep in the heart. It might include thank you notes, brief words of thanks, a hostess gift, or somesuch, but overflowing gratitude is bigger than those things. Overflowing gratitude bubbles out of what is inside a person. When overflowing gratitude bubbles out, humility bubbles out, too.

I shared one of the Deuteronomy passages about teaching “when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road . . . ” yesterday. That’s how to train a child to have overflowing gratitude. When they’re little, we sew gratitude patches onto our children by requiring them to say “Thank you” or by requiring them to write thank you notes and such, but an overflowing grateful heart takes years of the sitting-walking-lying down-rising up kind of nurturing.

The blessing of homeschooling gives you so many of those nurturing opportunities.

Of course, the most important thing a mama can do to nurture a grateful heart is to share her faith with her children, like Lois and Eunice did with Timothy:

For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you,
which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois
and your mother Eunice,
and I am sure that it is in you as well.
2 Timothy 1:5

Mamas can also obey the teaching Paul taught fathers in Ephesians:

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger,
but bring them up
in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4

When we look back to that passage Ray shared last night, we see that overflowing gratitude and being in Christ go hand in hand.

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted
and now being built up in Him
and established in your faith,
just as you were instructed,
and overflowing with gratitude.
Colossians 2:6-7

 

breitling navitimer replica watches uk
buy replica rolex watches china
overstock watches fake

Share Now

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *