Ever have one of those really vivid moments when you learn something? A moment that will come to mind again and again. A point in time that you know will be stuck in your mind forever. I have one that happened a few years ago with my kiddos. We were at a museum standing side-by-side looking at beaver display….you know the kind – they stuff the animals and place them in real life situation. This particular set had 2 or 3 beavers amongst logs and sticks building a dam. As we stood there talking about how neat beavers are my son says, “That’s a funny beaver with a hole in its head” and walks away. I thought it was the strangest comment. I looked again just to be sure, but none of the beavers had holes in their heads. What I saw was a beaver with his head tilted chewing down a small tree. I wish I had a picture to show you what my son saw! I asked him to come back and show me what he was talking about. I knelt down by him and looked at the same beaver. This time I saw a beaver with a small tree sticking out a hole in its head. At the time it was so funny, but God has used this image over and over again to show me something about our relationship.
For years I've seen a distorted view of God. Something that was so close, yet off. I am in a process of learning to leave behind the view I held as true, stand up, if you will, and see God in the way He intended us to see Him. Each month FX has a verse that corresponds with our Big Idea. This month is it Romans 14:12 - “So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” My old perspective loves this verse. It thrives on thoughts like these: "Yes, each of us is accountable for the things we do." "I need to make sure to do all things in a manner worthy of God’s expectations." "What a great verse to teach me and my kids for responsibility." "Let’s make a list and get everything done so I am pleasing."
Honestly, my new perspective has a hard time making sense of this. I need constant reminders that this is not what God wants for me. This world we live in is broken. Adam and Eve messed up. Yet, there is an amazing work of redemption happening! God is making all things new and has asked me to join Him in that daily…hourly. The amazing responsibility I have in this broken world, the account I will give, is to say yes to the invitation of newness. All the extremely mundane tedious responsibilities I have every day are an opportunity for that. My kitchen is a mess after making dinner and I restore it to order as a picture of what Christ is doing. How much more exciting are all of the responsibilities on our plate when we see them as joining Christ in His work. Let’s teach our kids that! Let’s teach them to play and make a mess and just like Jesus cleans us up after we sin, we can clean our toys up.
Today I am going to share with you something we use in our house to teach responsibility. Is it the best, most amazing, 'everyone should use this system' system? No, it is just something that has worked for us. I first read about it on this blog. It uses jewels as money. I like this because my kids like colorful jewels way better than money and it is cheaper for me. Throughout the week they can spend their jewels on things our family has decided, like staying up late and cartoons. You may have a system you like, great! If you need some place to start, give this a try.