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When I attempt to light the fire of learning in my kids, I light a wick as well.

Before math or science ever open up before us, I start melting wax.

Monday was no different. I had lit a small votive earlier in the day to burn while we churned out our education. My oldest boy was closest to the candle, and as he wrapped up one of his lessons he decided to singe the wick, too. So he got the lid and placed it snug on top and after a few short seconds the flame dimmed to its end.

He knows now that fire needs oxygen to keep aflame. He knows that if you cap the candle, the oxygen is shut out and the blaze burns out too.

He does this all the time. He likes to watch it slowly extinguish. It’s him being all boy I guess.

But on Monday, when he capped that candle tight and forced it to fade quiet, a quick thought and phrase came to my mind….

Don’t put a lid on your kid.

That day, it was like I watched him do it in slow motion. And it was like I was being taught something, too.

Sometimes, even when we’re the ones who set the flame aglow in the first place, we can also end up being the ones who smother it out. Sometimes, even though our deep desire is for our children to light up bright for the world, we unknowingly dim their shining.

We can make them hold so tightly to religious dogma void of heart faith – that it blows them right out.

We can want our homes so clean that every time they adventure into something, we steal the experience by swiping it back to the shelf.

We can force our own bents, passions, and talents onto children who have a completely different story to tell.

We can bog them down with activities, extra tutoring, test prep, taking away all opportunities to simply learn, and grow, and thrive in play.

We can tear them down with our words, or lack of them.

We can puff out their ability to think for themselves and have a respectful opinion, by telling them to get in line and shut it. 

You catch my drift.

But I don’t want the focus of today to be downtrodden and bleak. Rather than looking back and wondering what all we’ve done to cause a dimming – let’s just decide today…. to feed that flame into an outright blaze of glory.

Let’s take every opportunity we have to lift the lid.

We might just about snuff it out every once in a while, for we are mere mortals here needing divine help with it all, but the good grace of God will urge that flame back to brilliance if we let Him.

Sometimes the grace He offers, undoes me. If we all really got grace, really understood it – we would never wane in gratefulness. Thank you, God.

Whether your kids are loading yellow buses, biking their way to their books, off resting in a dorm somewhere, raising their own, or still resting high in wood bunks before their homeschooling day begins…. no matter…. we can all still strike up their glow again. 

Together, let’s seek out sweet opportunities to do so.

Our world is wandering around looking for light.

Let’s make sure we keep those lids off.

 

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Jan Thompson

    Your words today were very much needed. I took them in and saw a brighter light. My love to the H’s. Thank you.?

  2. Kate

    Thanks so much for reading! Love you LOTS! – Kate 🙂

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