Kindness...

This past weekend, we made a decision to stay home for church rather than gathering with our local body of believers. Notice that I didn't say that we "skipped" church or that we "didn't go to" church. No...we very much had "church" here in our home. As a family, we worshiped together in song, we prayed, we read Scripture, and I taught an age-appropriate lesson on Kindness (one of the fruits of the Spirit). The kids were a little fidgety and easily distracted, but they LOVED the story and lesson on kindness. And we've been reminding them all week about what kindness is...and encouraging them to walk it out.

The story we read on Sunday involved two little cousins who were excitedly waiting their turns to jump on a trampoline. Little Laura noticed that her cousin, Luke, was SUPER excited to try his next trick so she kindly allowed him to go before her. She gave up her turn so he could go first - something that comes SO unbelievably unnatural for children at this age. But a great lesson in kindness, nonetheless.

I was giddy yesterday as I watched Isaac be very intentional to display kindness toward his cousin. We were giving the children turns to swing in a sheet, and decided to go in order of youngest to oldest. Isaac noticed that his cousin was upset that she had to go last since she was older, so when we called him for his turn, he beamed with joy as he said, "She can go first! I'll let her have my turn and I'll go after her!" I smiled at him and said, "Are you sure?" To which he replied, "Yep...I'm showing kindness!" :)

Wow! He actually got it! :) I was floored. And so excited to see him putting into practice what he learned at "church" this weekend. It totally validated our decision to remain home this Sunday. My heart is rejoicing! And I look forward to watching Isaac's heart grow in maturity as the Lord draws him to Himself.