#17- Patience with William

So sorry I have not been writing! Our internet was down and then we had blog problems…

Anyway, my hard thing from Friday was just having patience with my little brother William. Now William is a great kid but when it is 11:00 at night and you have just returned from a fun but exhausting day at your friends house where you play games like hide and seek tag in the dark with flashlights and do things like army crawl through wet grass to try and make your way to base without being seen, while teamed up with 6 year old William who scraped his leg and is now moaning in pain, he can try your patience. No actually William did a great job being teamed up with me. We piggybacked through the woods, army crawled through the grass, all in pitch black darkness and he was a very brave trooper. (The things some sisters do with you..:) ) But on the 45 minute drive home at 11:00 at night… well…

The Lord gives me grace to have patience with my younger siblings. It can be hard, but hey isn’t that why it is on the do hard things list?

Priscilla

#14- Hard Things of the Heart

Hard things can be actions you do, decisions you make, initiative you take or they can be hard heart things. Hard heart things is looking at your heart, going ‘no that is not right’ then changing. I had one of those hard heart moments recently. It was about contentment. I have always loved farming, the outdoors and gardening. Sometimes I wish that I could live on a farm out in the middle of nowhere, instead of on a 1/2 acre in a small town. That is not good. That is not being content. Discontentment can easily be turned into jealousy. So this weekend I looked at my heart and changed my attitude. Instead of looking at what I didn’t have I looked at what I did have. I have a 1/2 acre to live on in a small, small town neighborhood! That is much more than some people who have tiny little backyards in developments. I am a part of 4H and have many opportunities to participate with those in the agricultural community. I have good friends who live on lots of acreage and I have plenty of memories of romping in the woods, fishing, feeding their goats and chickens, helping in their big garden and more! I have lots of opportunity to farm on 1/2 an acre. We already have a pretty nice garden and we are going to get chickens soon. I am looking into starting a mini farm which is basically using your space wisely and harvesting much more in your garden, to the point of selling fruits and vegetables to others and making a profit off of it. I have so much! And I was discontent?!? God has been working a lot in my heart recently on this matter. This is where God has me now, why not make the most of it?

Priscilla

“Keep your life free from love of money and be content with whatever you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear, what can man do to me?”

Hebrews 13:5-6

#12- Started Teaching Geography to my Siblings

I took some initiative and asked my mom if while she and my brother Jace are at the abortion clinic on Thursday mornings, I could give my younger siblings their geography lesson. We are learning about Africa and we had a great first lesson today. We learned about African animals, African language and the country of South Africa. We read books, watched some videos and listened to some audio stuff. We had a lot of fun! If you are an older sibling you have wonderful opportunity to help with younger siblings and teach and spend time with them. At least once a week I am home with a younger sibling while my mom is usually taking my older brother somewhere. Although I do miss having my mom there it is nice to be able to spend time with my siblings. Siblings use this time wisely! Too much time now siblings are looked it as noisy, annoying and not friends. How backwards is that! I have great relationships with them and I am with them a lot. In fact this week I stayed home by myself for the first time in a while. It was weird (but also a little nice..). The point is your siblings can be very good friends. Make them your friends!

Priscilla

#7- Took Initiative in the Kitchen

So my hard thing today was to take 30 minutes of my time and take some initiative. Taking the garbage and recycling out, snapping the green beans and going to pick all the garden produce. Simple acts like this can make a big difference to some people like our parents. Ephesians 6:2 says “Honor your mother and father…” We can do this by doing little things like helping out where we can. I think about it and I go… “hmm my Mom makes me three meals a day, has home schooled me since preschool, taxis me around everywhere, loves me, supports me and teaches me to be a godly young woman. And my Dad, he goes to work to provide for my meals, our home and everything else, he leads our family, he gives me books to read and projects to do, he loves me, supports me, and teaches me how to be a godly young woman. They both embrace my crazy ideas and are dedicated to help me learn and grow. They love each other, me and my siblings. They do so much for me, why don’t I do something for them? Something as simple as kitchen chores… When you see something that needs to be done, do it, you don’t know who you will bless. 🙂

Priscilla

#4-Wrapped Up Hose

Very simple one today. Hard things don’t have to be big, there is such a thing as small hard things too and this is one of them. Anyway, about the hose…
It’s a long story but we spilled ketchup on our driveway, it looks like someone died on our driveway so my parents, not wanting to be accused of murder asked me if I could clean the ketchup off. I was glad too. I took the hose and cleaned up all the ketchup. No biggie! When putting the hose back though, I decided to take the next step and coil it nicely. It would be easy to leave the hose lying all over the sidewalk, walk away and never think about it again. But that would be easy, not hard. Everyone has a chance to go above and beyond expectations and take initiative. My parents once did a “initiative program” with us to instill in us the habit of not leaving things half done but rising up to do more without being asked. I want to thank them for teaching us skills and character traits like that. Thank you Mom and Dad!!!

Priscilla