My heart was filled with joy yesterday. I am so overwhelmingly proud of Dekker. He is breaking trail in the most beautiful ways.
It snowed for a good few hours yesterday. It wasn’t especially cold, so it wasn’t miserable out. Once the kids were home from school, I asked Dekker if he would be willing to shovel our sidewalk. He was absolutely willing, partly because of his beautiful heart, and partly because of our exciting shovel 😆 On our local garage sale day in spring, we picked up the worlds oldest snow throwing shovel for a cool $3 😎Dekker played with it the other day, and got a kick out of it. He is a very official kind of guy, so when I asked him if he would shovel the sidewalk, he inquired, “Uuuh, with the Turbo Shovel?” Yes, with the Turbo Shovel. And he was GONE.
It took a little figuring to get it moving. Its pretty rattly, so either there’s a rock in it or its a little broken. But I bonked it on the concrete a couple of times, and we got it working!
Once he got into the swing of it, he was totally happy. I had mentioned that it would be nice to shovel for others, so as soon as he was done our sidewalk, he made his way over across the street to Tom and Rae’s.
Guys. Nothing thrills my heart more.
He was in no rush either. He worked consistently and did his very best. Sure, he just blew all the snow onto the street, which isn’t ideal, but he was in a groove and I had zero plans to go correct him. Maybe next time I’ll direct him, but this was too good!
He ran home in between because he had run out of cord. Most of our cords are tied up in Brady’s tools, but we found him a little bit more length and he ran back to finish the job to the best of his ability.
It. Was. TOO. CUTE.
He came home very happily, and put his stuff away nicely. He came back into the house and changed out of his wet jeans. And then he snuggled in to read until supper. He didn’t toot his own horn or make a big show of what he had done. He just did a loving thing and moved forward, not worried if any of us had seen or if he had been praised up. He didn’t do it for show. He did it to be loving.
Its important to learn that we do good things from our hearts, not from our heads. We don’t do them for praise, but to be good people. We don’t do them for people, but for God. I learned this a harder way as a child, through disappointment and tears. I am beyond grateful that my children can learn it in a beautiful way, and to be met with love and acknowledgement.
Thank you, Dekker, for being such a willing boy, and for teaching your siblings beautiful things! 💜
Wow, amazing job Dekker! What a great heart and work ethic already! Love you Dekker, and Mom and Dad for being the example! ❤️