Jar of Good Works

12 February 2012

Today Ra went to church by herself. The boys and I are sick with a cold and I feel it very inconsiderate to go public gatherings when sick. Our church building is literally our back door neighbor which made it possible for Ra to go without me. She had a part to recite during Primary and she had memorized another of the Articles of Faith and was eager to pass it off with her Sunday school teacher. (She was also excited to try out her new church shoes we bought Monday, I couldn't have kept her home if I wanted to!)

When Ra got back we had lunch and then I explained to the kids that we were going to start a Jar of Good Works. I told them that each time they did something good they would get a bean in the jar. This could be helping each other, making their beds, cleaning their rooms, doing well with spelling or math, etc. etc. I had four different kinds of beans I had already used for some craft projects so I gave each child their own kind of beans. Ra got black beans, El got kidney beans, Ca got pinto beans, and Em got white beans. (Em will get a bean for each milestone she accomplishes as she is only nine months, i.e. her first tooth, her first word, her first step, sleeping through the night, etc. This is so the kids can see that 'good' can mean a lot of things.) All of the beans will go into the same jar and when the jar is full we will take the kids to Chuck E. Cheeses to celebrate how good they were!

I started the jar off by listing some of the things the kids had done today and last night and we managed to get fourteen beans in the jar. I hope the positive reinforcement will work well and I pray that I will be able to keep up with it and not forget about it. I think this is good not only for the kids, but for myself when I get frustrated with the kids it will be a visual reminder of all the good that they do.

Doing this reminded me of the List of Gratitude my family/extended family made during the hard months of November and December 2008 when my Great Grandma Helm and my Grandpa Stephens passed away within a month of each other. It was difficult, but to help us not be so lost in grief we posted a paper on the wall and had people write on it things they were grateful for during the hard time. The final list ended up being many pages long and it was a comfort to know that so much love was there and that God was watching over us.

We read a few more chapters of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett tonight and I am getting ready to pull up my covers and settle in for a chapter or two of Laddie: A True Blue Story by Gene Stratton Porter.