The Experiment
Somewhere along the way---probably while switching out summer clothes for winter clothes--I realized that our family has an issue with excess. Sifting through dozens of huge totes of hand-me-downs, the thought occurred to me, "what my children really need is LESS, not more." If we were truly practical, we would have one outfit for each day of the week that we would wash and reuse week-by-week. Yes, a Monday outfit...a Tuesday outfit...a Wednesday outfit...etc... you get the drift. Because we're in the phase where my little princesses change clothes every 12 minutes it seems, this "one outfit a day" deal sounds pretty sweet to me.
We have the same issue with dishes. We have every color of IKEA cup/bowl/plate you can imagine, and then some. And it seemed that each and every cup/bowl/plate was being used each and every day. The kids would forget which cup/bowl/plate they were using and just get another one. And pretty soon, cups/bowls/plates were overflowing in the sink.
So, on the precipice of a major nuclear meltdown, I decided to try an experiment. I took one of those now-empty plastic totes and put every cup/bowl/plate in the entire house in it.
And then I hid it.
We loaded up the bus and headed to Target (because every stressed-out mom knows that shopping there makes everything feel better). Each person got to pick out their very own reusable cup, bowl, and plate. Jared and Julie just got plain solid colored ones, Jared in red and Julie in blue. Lizzy got a pretty floral set, and Sam picked out the Avengers. Leah went with the predictable Hello Kitty set, and Laney picked out Dora. Everyone had their VERY OWN, COMPLETELY UNIQUE cup, bowl and plate. (I rationalized this expense by concluding that it was cheaper than in-patient psychiatric therapy.)
There is just one simple rule to our experiment:
If you want to eat, wash your cup, bowl, and plate.
In just two weeks, the results have been remarkable. We have significantly reduced the amount of dishes we do in a day, mommy's not going psycho at the end of every meal, and best of all, the kids are learning to take more responsibility for cleaning up after themselves (holla!).
So, you may be wondering: what does Katie's dish experiment have to do with anything? I think the point of my whole story is this: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." (Luke 12:48) As a parent, it is my responsibility to teach my children this truth: to whom much is given, much is required. As they can prove to me that they can take care of small things, then I can begin to trust them with bigger and bigger things. Ultimately, the goal is that they are responsible adults as they leave our home. So, we start very small: taking care of their own dishes.
God is the best parent of all, and teaches His children in much the same way. I think about David in the Bible. He was anointed to be King of Israel when he was just a teenager. It would be 22 more years before he took complete reign of the throne. In those years, God gave him so many opportunities to show that he could be faithful in the small things: at first, it was as simple as shepherding a flock; then came fighting the lion and the bear to defend his flock. This prepared him for fighting even bigger battles: GOLIATH. He fought and won many major battles as a soldier in the army, and pretty soon, he was being threatened by King Saul himself. God knew that David needed to experience all these little things to prepare him for the big thing: being king over God's chosen people.
It took 22 years for David to learn these lessons---and it takes about 22 years for a parent to prepare a child for life. God gave David increasingly bigger battles to fight, and David rose to the challenge. Like David, I want my children to do big things for God. But first, we start small. Today, it's as simple as doing their own dishes.
We have the same issue with dishes. We have every color of IKEA cup/bowl/plate you can imagine, and then some. And it seemed that each and every cup/bowl/plate was being used each and every day. The kids would forget which cup/bowl/plate they were using and just get another one. And pretty soon, cups/bowls/plates were overflowing in the sink.
So, on the precipice of a major nuclear meltdown, I decided to try an experiment. I took one of those now-empty plastic totes and put every cup/bowl/plate in the entire house in it.
And then I hid it.
We loaded up the bus and headed to Target (because every stressed-out mom knows that shopping there makes everything feel better). Each person got to pick out their very own reusable cup, bowl, and plate. Jared and Julie just got plain solid colored ones, Jared in red and Julie in blue. Lizzy got a pretty floral set, and Sam picked out the Avengers. Leah went with the predictable Hello Kitty set, and Laney picked out Dora. Everyone had their VERY OWN, COMPLETELY UNIQUE cup, bowl and plate. (I rationalized this expense by concluding that it was cheaper than in-patient psychiatric therapy.)
There is just one simple rule to our experiment:
If you want to eat, wash your cup, bowl, and plate.
In just two weeks, the results have been remarkable. We have significantly reduced the amount of dishes we do in a day, mommy's not going psycho at the end of every meal, and best of all, the kids are learning to take more responsibility for cleaning up after themselves (holla!).
So, you may be wondering: what does Katie's dish experiment have to do with anything? I think the point of my whole story is this: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." (Luke 12:48) As a parent, it is my responsibility to teach my children this truth: to whom much is given, much is required. As they can prove to me that they can take care of small things, then I can begin to trust them with bigger and bigger things. Ultimately, the goal is that they are responsible adults as they leave our home. So, we start very small: taking care of their own dishes.
God is the best parent of all, and teaches His children in much the same way. I think about David in the Bible. He was anointed to be King of Israel when he was just a teenager. It would be 22 more years before he took complete reign of the throne. In those years, God gave him so many opportunities to show that he could be faithful in the small things: at first, it was as simple as shepherding a flock; then came fighting the lion and the bear to defend his flock. This prepared him for fighting even bigger battles: GOLIATH. He fought and won many major battles as a soldier in the army, and pretty soon, he was being threatened by King Saul himself. God knew that David needed to experience all these little things to prepare him for the big thing: being king over God's chosen people.
It took 22 years for David to learn these lessons---and it takes about 22 years for a parent to prepare a child for life. God gave David increasingly bigger battles to fight, and David rose to the challenge. Like David, I want my children to do big things for God. But first, we start small. Today, it's as simple as doing their own dishes.
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