The Things We Teach Our Children

I'm pretty sure that part of the point of parenting is to teach your children things about life, and how to navigate through it. But sometimes, even the good things that we teach us come back to get us.

For the past 5 months, Ella and I (sometimes Brad) have gone to East Nashville Cooperative Ministry on Sunday evenings to help with a meal for the homeless and working poor. Each week we help to set tables, serve food, and spend time eating and talking with our new friends. Ella loves Soulfeast, and know that on Sundays we go to church and Soulfeast. On Sunday night, a local youth group was helping out, and one of our very best friends invited us over for dinner. We made the decision to forgo Soulfeast this week, and come back next week. When Ella learned of this, she was not going for it. She said that she wanted to go to Soulfeast, they needed us. So, Brad went over to our friend's house alone while Ella and I went to Soulfeast to set things up and get the meal started. After we had done that she was "so excited" to go for dinner. I guess that she is our little humanitarian.

Then, this morning, I had given Ella her waffles and dried cranberries for breakfast, and came to the table with my own breakfast of toast with butter and a banana. Ella looked at my breakfast and said, "You have two pieces of toast?" I told her that I did and then she said, "God likes it when we share, Mommy," while greedily eyeing my piece of toast. I asked her if she would like a bite of my toast and she said, "Yes Mommy, God likes it when we share." And with a sly smile, she ate my toast!

She's obviously learning some of the things that we're trying to teach her, which is wonderful. Perhaps I should be thankful for the times when she reminds me of ways to act in our world.