Smiling at the Future
One of my childhood memories is watching old Shirley Temple movies on television. If my memory serves me correctly, they came on on Sunday morning before we went to Sunday School. Looking back now, that doesn’t seem to be the very best time for TV time. I shared her movies with our children when they were growing up, and one of our daughters told me yesterday that she was about to watch one with her daughter.
One scene that I often remember is a time when Shirley Temple was playing a little rich girl. Those who took care of her were fastidious about her health. In this scene, she sat at a fancy table, set just right, and with one or more servants in attendance. She took a bite of something that she didn’t like and proclaimed, “My, that was an awfully big vitamin!”
I don’t remember my parents giving me big doses of cod liver oil like the spoonfuls I used to see children take on television. My little brother Steve and I got our red vitamins out of a glass One-a-Day vitamin bottle and swallowed them with water — no cute flavored chewable pills like our children took or chewable gummies like I’ve seen our grandchildren eat. Those “awfully big vitamins” seem to be getting easier and easier to take.
As homeschooling mamas, you have daily opportunities to nourish your children’s growing bodies and to nourish their minds, hearts, and souls.
You can nourish their minds with useful knowledge, wholesome literature, and wholesome experiences, and by teaching them how to learn.
You can nourish their hearts by engulfing them in a mama’s love.
You can nourish their souls by teaching them the Bible, including them in a loving Christian fellowship, and introducing them to Jesus.
Right now, with the world feeling like a different place than the one we knew three months ago, I think we all need a good big dose of hope.
What a great time to meditate on this verse from Proverbs. Let’s smile at the future ourselves and give big doses of hope to all of our loved ones.
Strength and dignity are her clothing,
And she smiles at the future.
Proverbs 31:26