Teachable Moments

I love teachable moments. They come quite frequently when you're with your kids all the time!

Some of them are fun teachable moments - those times when history comes alive or you see science in action and it all falls right into place with what you've been learning every day.

Other moments are not nearly as fun, especially for Mommy, but they are just as important, if not moreso!

We experienced just such a teachable moment last Friday. Doug and I have been walking for exercise. We started off walking for thirty minutes at a solid, but not overly speedy pace. But lately we've upped it, pushing ourselves intensely. Four miles per hour, then four and a half. Lengthening our time to 45 minutes. Then adding stairs. Down and then back up the stairs every other lap, totaling 20 flights of stairs through the course of our 45 minutes. Last Thursday we closed in on the end of our 45 minutes only to discover that we were walking much faster than normal. Pushing ourselves had increased our speed to five miles per hour, and we realized how much the walking had been paying off!

Then came Friday. Barely ten minutes in, I knew I was in trouble. I felt nauseous and physically sapped. I always feel like I really have to push myself to make it the full 45 minutes. But, Friday was different. Friday I felt that I would surely be sick if I even tried. And that's when it occurred to me - I'd had no water all day. Here it was 4:00 in the afternoon, a point in the day where I have usually consumed somewhere between 32 and 48 ounces of water. And I'd had none. I enjoyed a glass of orange juice with breakfast and a can of caffeine free diet Dr Pepper for lunch. But no water.

Just to let you know, the body doesn't like a five mile per hour walk with stair climbing thrown in for fun if it has not had an appropriate amount of water leading up to that point.

After 20 minutes, I had to call it quits, less than halfway through our normal time.

The kids are always with us through this walking, playing around us as we walk. As I went to guzzle water from a water fountain, Olivia questioned why I was stopping so soon. She knew it was too early for me to be stopping.

I had to share with her that I had been a slacker that day. I knew what I needed to do, but just hadn't put for the effort to do it. I reminded her of Prov 18:9, a verse we had memorized in school last year. I explained that because I had been slack in drinking my water, I destroyed my body's ability to do the exercise. Not getting around to doing things we know we should be doing is just as bad as blatant sin. It is still missing the mark. It is slacking, and it is destructive.

Olivia got it.

I must say that I would have much preferred to have been able to complete the walk that day. But, as I acknowledged my lack of diligence and focused on making a fresh commitment before the Lord to care properly for this temple, He took my mistake and turned it into a precious learning moment for my children. I can't imagine anything better coming out of my mistakes.

As we show our children we are learning, they will learn and grow as well. Parents, let's grow together with them, shall we?