Beautiful moments of success...

When my firstborn child was a toddler/pre-schooler, I would regularly visit the local library with her and check out at least 20 children's books. Most every night I would read a huge stack of books so often that we even memorized words to some of the books. Those were the days! Today, with four crying out loud, I'm lucky to get to the library once a month...and even then...the books the kids check out somehow get scattered in the car, in bedrooms, in various bookshelves or beds where I have a hard time locating them if ever I have time to READ them aloud. But you know, just when I start to get those, "You are not an attentive enough mom" or " You don't read enough to your kids" voices in my head; God appears. He appears in subtle ways that one would not expect, but He speaks volumes!

As parents we think we must be the only ones teaching our children the love of reading, writing, etc. and certainly this is true in the early stages. But what a beautiful thing when the fruit of that early formation results of one or more of your children doing the same for his/her siblings! It's the ultimate goal if you think about it....with all things..from passing on the faith, to reading to others, to giving to the poor to sharing special things. When your children reach the point of "doing for others selflessly" .... that, in itself can be considered successful parenting! My kids practice this stuff on each other all the time! At times the outcome is positive and at other times they end up being selfish. Today, my heart filled with pride as I watched Nick offer to read a book Jack brought home from the school library. His younger brothers were riveted to every word, and so was Nick.

I had to take a picture of the moment.....



Here is what Nick read to his brothers.