Letters to Your Child

"Direct  your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it." (Proverbs 22:6)

My principal shared this wonderful letter from a mother to her son on her blog this week, and I thought I'd share it with you, too.

I've been thinking a lot lately about writing letters.  I have this quiet fear that God might call me home before I'm done raising my daughters.  This thought paralyzes me, because there's so much more that I need to teach them.  So I've been thinking a lot about writing my precious girls letters.  One on their graduation from high school.  For Prom.  On their first day of college.  Their wedding day.  Upon the birth of their first child.  These are the big moments.

But the letter I linked above is fitting for those small moments that we might miss if we're too busy thinking about the "big stuff".  It was written upon her son's first day of third grade.  It was meant to instruct her son about being compassionate and listening to that small voice in your heart if you see someone being treated as less than a beloved child of God.  

It is in these "small moments" that the most important parenting happens.  When a child is hurt or wronged by a classmate or friend.  When success or failure is experienced for the first time.  When a child sees an injustice.  When a heart is filled, then broken.  It is in these moments that we learn virtues like courage, faith, hope, temperance, and love. 

What is the biggest "small moment" you've experienced with your kids lately, and how did you handle it?