Roll Out Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy, Ole' Days of Summer

Our last day of school!  Hooray

The last of the pencils and crayons are put away.  They lasted a whole school year. But now. . .we'll be getting some new ones.  The laid back mornings have begun.  Lingering over coffee while the boys play "just 5 more minutes Mommy."  Moving slower, noticing more, relaxing.  Our last day of home school was the 21st of June.  What progress the boys have made!  There is cause to celebrate and recount all the faithfulness of God, in all the millions of little things He accomplished in our little class room.  This will take some time to do, and I'm all for taking the time.

One of the most important things I have learned about my adopted boys is that the obvious answer is hardly ever the answer.  It takes a great deal of time and effort to get to the root of any situation.  We used to wonder where we would find all the time it would take and God had the answer in front of us all the time.  "Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry!"  James 1:19.  As the boys become more secure in our family, they have more to say.  Sometimes it comes out angry, sometimes sad and even somtimes happy.  Peter actually started saying, "I'm sad, Mommy."  By listening, taking the time to empathize with them, we built a foundation of learning.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.  And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Gen. 2:1-2

God was calling me to rest from the intensity of home school.  This whole first week was hard because I was listening to the wrong voices saying, "Just because you are on a break doesn't mean you don't do anything, that's lazy."  By Wednesday afternoon I was completely spent and I could finally hear His voice, the only voice worth listening to, saying, "I give my beloved rest.  Rest and refresh."  By God's grace, that's just what I did.  If God rested after He finished His work of creation and made the day holy, who I am to argue.  Then this little thought came to me.

I want to rest when it's time to run and I want to run when it's time to rest!  I am not exhausted because of any burdens or loads, I am exhausted because I am disobeying God.

Once that thought took hold of my heart and attention, peace flooded my soul and the pajamas stayed on!  The boys and I were able to just be playful with each other, talk to each other, listen to each other, snuggle each other.  We are able to go to the pool and continue our "rest" doing the one thing on earth that always brings the boys great pleasure, swimming.  And the most remarkable thing happened. All the repetition, all the things learned, all the therapies, all the structured times, the new games, the field trips spill out!  Eliot reads words on labels and loves the "rhyming game".  He runs around at the pool making friends.  He is showing signs of self-governing as situations arise where there is a choice to obey or disobey.  I love how he begins talking to himself and winds up convincing himself to not do or do!

Peter is talking so much more.  His inter-relational skills with our family seemingly overnight have favorably changed.  And because of all the swimming he is doing it seems like he has grown taller.  He too is making friends and looks forward to seeing them whether at church or the pool.  The melt downs happen less and less as he begins to use more and more of his vocabulary.  And because God called me to rest, because God called me to take off the "teacher" hat, and put on the "Mommy on a rest" hat, I get to bask in the goodness of God to our little family, our little school and all the work that He began and completed.  It stirs in me a desire to obey more quickly and run more directly to Him for instruction.  And if that is happening for me, then it is happening for them.  And it is happening.

One of my favorite quotes is by Jim Elliot, a missionary who lost his life for the Gospel.  He said, "Wherever you are, be all there."  So for the rest of my little summer break, my little boys and I will be enjoying God, and each other.  We will laugh, cry, try new things, go to family camp.  We will learn to canoe, dive off the diving board, find our courage in the big kids pool.  We will read stories all snuggled up together, play a few games, learn to ride a bike and sing.  When our favorite songs come on we'll drop everything and shake our booties!  Yes, and we will thank Jesus for making it all happen, for making it fit all together.  Bring it on, we're all here.  Hope you too enjoy your lazy, hazy, crazy ole' days of summer.