Leading By Example

Being a mother to eleven little ones is not an easy job. Especially when you´ve never been a mother before. But, I am thankful for the ministry that the Lord has allowed me to be apart of.
One thing that I love about my job is that so often God speaks to me through the boys. He shows me areas of my life that need work as I see them in the boys.
I get very frustrated when I have to pick up the boys stuff off of the floor. It´s not the job itself that bothers me, but the disrespect I see toward the things they own.
A few days ago, I had a "great idea"...picking up each toy, shoe, pajama, and other discarded item, I began placing them in a large plastic garbage bag. Once in there, I had decided, that the only way the owner could reclaim them would be by paying for them.
Now my boys do not have much money, in fact only two of them regularly have a few pesos to spend on a special treat. So, of course, our currency could not be monetary. Instead I instated a new sort of credit. For each item that I had collected, the owner would in turn work for 10 minutes to earn that item back again.
When the kids came home from school, I noticed that Hector did not meet us at the lunch table. Arriving back at the house I found the reason for his absence: Hector had no shoes! All of his sandals and play shoes were safe inside their plastic waiting place. Tears streaming down his face, he said he didn´t understand where they could possibly be. Because of course, he had put them in the closet where they belonged. Long story short, Hector learned a lesson that day.
But I didn´t learn it until the following day. I was sitting on the computer finishing some last minute details for the children´s evening devotional, when Fabian came in. He headed toward the sink and began to fill it with water.
"Fabi, don´t worry about that right now," I said, "I will wash those while the kids are sitting here at the table doing their homework."
To that he replied, "No, it´s better that it´s cleaned up now. If the kids come here and see the house untidy, they won´t understand why you have a different standard for them than for ourselves."
Wow. How true. Am I teachñing the kids to respect their own things, when my own house goes overlooked many days. What is my example teaching them?


Please Lord, help me not to have double standards. Help me to teach the children you have entrusted me with through example.

used up writing utensils

I have a habit of going to our warehouse and looking around. I am amazed by the way in which God provides for our needs, and blesses us way beyond the neccessary.
And every once in a while I am puzzled as to why some things are donated. Sometimes even to the point of embarrasment.
The other day tucked on a shelf just between the college-lined notebooks, and boxes of fresh and point-tipped Crayola crayons was a hand-crafted box constructed of cardboard and con tact paper. It caught my eye and I lowered it from the shelf.
Once in my hand I decided to reveal the contents of the mystery container. Sliding it open I was surprised to find the following: Around 30 pencils who had seen better days.
None of these pencils were more than 3 inches long, and the vast majority were just barely an inch and a half. Most of them were chewed on, to the point that their paint no longer existed and there were no erasers to be had.
But there they were, a whole box of them. It brought a smile to my face. I imagined an sweet, old Sunday School teacher saving them up and sending them to us, making sure that nothing went to waste. And I felt some sort of attachment for these little pencils so I asked for the box and was on my way.
It was on my walk back to my apartment when God spoke to me through that box of used up writing utensils.

How often do you give me just that, Carmen.

In an instant, I went from seeing these pencils as an old lady's love gift to something completely different.

How often do you give me what is left? What is left of your time, what is left of your energy.

Whoa, now that hits home. A verse goes through my head:

"Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops." Proverbs 3:9

Lately God has been showing me that his desire is more than my tithes. His desire is to be my number one. To be the first One I think about in the morning, to be my top priority.

Now I hope this didn't come across wrong, that I'm saying that the donor of the pencils was wrong for sending them. What I'm asking you is a question: Are you giving God your best? Or have you been content in handing him the leftovers?

Thank you, Lord, for teaching me through the little things...even stubby, chew-marked pencils.