While we were in transition, I missed our stuff a lot. I missed all of the resources that we have accumulated over the years for homeschool and playing. But what I realized over the last few weeks is that these things cannot replace me with my children. They are just tools, that can be used well or poorly. They don’t babysit, they don’t teach by themselves, and they don’t bring peace upon each of their hearts. Often, they frustrate when they have to be shared, they bore when the kids realize how quickly the satisfaction of playing with them is finished, they actually crowd our lives and our relationships. We get all of these feelings when we elevate our things above what is actually important. In reality, they can delight at times, but that delight most often comes in the context of relationship. What brings those things to life is when we play with them together, when we share them in common as a family.
There was one thing that we had through all of these months of transitioning back over Stateside, that was our relationships with each other- our essence of family. No matter where we were, we were there together. And the dynamic ebbs and flows of each of our relationships together were always there, sometimes with others watching or being involved with us. Now that we have the resources back, I don’t want to forget that the relationships are always first. Because I want my children to understand that to be true, I want them to care for each other and be able to communicate well instead of being wrapped up in their possessions. I hope that I will be able to share more posts along the way of how we are able to do that as a family. And I hope you can too.
