I had an epiphany while updating my signature on my iPhone email a few days ago…
You know, that place where you quote a Bible verse, your favorite mentor or something else clever like “please forgive any misspelling as I am using my iPhone, it’s winter and I have stupid gloves…” And then you put your job title, position in life or salary. Just kidding. Or at least your phone number.
Well that got me thinking: what is my job? I had someone ask me last week what I did. Even my son asked last week, “mom what do you want to be when you grow up?”
Last weekend Calista helped me set up for teaching a weekend in the book of Ephesians. I loved having her and the boys a part of what Brian does and I used to do full time. I loved having them play with students, sing with the worship team and even draw on a manuscript.
This week, Elam decided to give one last try on 2 wheels before the snow flies. He is learning on our short driveway and is so proud!
Teaching my kids how to do something is one joy that never, ever gets old.
So I had my epiphany: I am training World Changers (InterVarsity lingo) in Training. WCiT
I want to teach Calista, Elam and XS that we read our Bible every day, pray and memorize verses. So we do a “quiet time” with them at night.
I want to teach them self-control, so we are teaching XS especially, to take deep breaths to slow down and stop tantrums. Especially since lately he gets mad when he leaves school (he wants to stay and attend!), when I turn to go home and he wants to go to “Wook’s” (Luke’s) so I can go “buh-bye!” or if he can’t get the Lego motorcyle to stand up. I have 3 children. One is just familiarizing himself with the roads around here yet he is the one who I swear knows every intersection and where we are headed before I tell him. He is so bossy in the backseat it’s almost irritating until he has a meltdown when I don’t follow his directions. Then it’s just laughable in a sad way.
I want to teach them to pray for their friends that are struggling so I ask what they are noticing around them… For instance 2 of Calista’s classmates cried every single day of the first month of school. We started to pray for them and they stopped!
We had teacher conferences this week and without going into details, Calista is brilliant. One of the things her teacher is working on in 1st grade is reading comprehension, asking questions after they have read stories. When she gave us examples of how to practice at home, I laughed on the inside. It was very similar to how we teach college students how to study the Bible and interpret it faithfully using the text. Who knew Calista’s teacher was also training her to be a World Changer?!