My wife and I always encourage our children to help others. We model the behavior by serving in our church, volunteering at the homeless shelter, or delivering meals to people who cannot leave their homes. We also like introduce them to other people who make service a priority.

One evening, we invited a missionary to our house to talk to the kids about her experiences in China. They were so excited because they had never met a real life missionary before. My five-year-old son, N, was beside himself with anticipation. 

The missionary’s name is Christine and she works for Campus Crusade for Christ. As she shared this information with us, N, interrupted.

“May I ask you a question,” he asked.

“Of course,” she answered.

“Did you vote for Barack Obama?”

“No,” she replied with a surprised look on her face. “I voted for John McCain. Did you vote for Obama?”

He looked at her as if she were crazy and said, “Of course not. I’m too young to vote.”

We took a seat in the living room and Christine proceeded to tell the kids about her work. A few minutes into her talk, she pulled out a book to share some photographs. N interjected again.

“Is this the part where we give you money?”

Christine chuckled and continued with her presentation. N kept interrupting her with questions. It really bothered him that some of the pages in the album did not have photographs on them. N told Christine that she needed to fix that. Meanwhile my daughter, Nee, sat as quietly as a church mouse and only opened her mouth to ask Christine what her favorite color was.

When it was time to actually give her money, N, said, “Wait. I’ve got to get my piggy bank.” He ran upstairs and quickly returned. My wife, K, asked him if he wanted to give her a dollar. He said no.

“Two dollars,” she asked. Again he said, “No.”

“Three dollars?” He thought for a moment then replied. “Yeah that sounds about right.”

Christine felt a bit awkward about taking N’s money, but we assured her that he would have been extremely hurt if she refused. N has a heart full of love and wants to share all he has with everyone.

A few days later, we received two cards from Christine. The smaller card was address to K and me. It was a standard “thank you for contribution” card. The bigger card was for the boy. Christine wrote a treatise on how N’s generosity and curiosity touched her spirit and filled her heart with joy. When I read the part about how his donation bought a Bible for a Chinese child, N’s face beamed with pride.

What started out as a lesson on giving for the children, turned into a lesson in love for the adults.

Stay Strong,
Mocha Dad

Question: How do you teach your children to help others?

Tags: barack obama, bible, campus crusade for christ, china, church, daughter, john mccain, missionary, piggy bank, son, volunteer, wife

Yesterday my wife and I took our daughter to her first day of second grade. She had been looking forward to this day for a long time and was very excited. After negotiating the first day of the car pool line, we managed to get into the school’s parking lot. As we searched for a parking space, my daughter asked, “What are you doing?” My wife responded, “We’re parking so we can take you to your classroom.”

A look of horror came across her face. “No,” she responded. “Just drop me off. I’ll go in by myself.” And with that proclamation, Nee let us know that she was independent. We stopped the van to let her out and watched as she ran to the gym to meet her new teacher and classmates. Of course you know that the story doesn’t end there. I took off work to take her to school, so I was determined to do so. We parked and sneaked to her classroom before the class arrived. When we got there, several other parents were already waiting to greet their little darlings. I was glad to see several other fathers. Our numbers did not come close to the number of mothers, but we made a respectable showing.

When Nia walked into the classroom, she was surprised to see us. I was surprised that there were two other African American girls in her class. As I mentioned before, Nee attends a private school, so I was glad to see that the school is becoming more diverse.

After meeting Nee’s teacher and visiting with a few of the other parents, I took a few pictures to document the day, and gave Nee a pep talk and a kiss good-bye. We walked away happy to see our little girl was settling into her first day of second grade.

Getting to this first day of school was not without drama. All summer, Nee and my wife fretted over which class Nee would be placed in and which of her friends would be in class with her. Each night, Nee prayed that her best friend would be in her class. My wife and I prayed that Nee would be placed with the best teacher for her. Of course, my wife had her own idea of who she thought was the best teacher, but we prayed nonetheless.

The class lists are sent out each year during the first week of August. As you can imagine, anticipation began to swell by the last week of July. My wife was at the mailbox everyday until that letter finally showed up. When she opened it, the look on her face told me that things didn’t work out the way she wanted them to. Nee was not placed in the preferred teacher’s class and to make things worse, Nee’s friend would not be in class with her either.

My wife was crushed and I knew that Nee would be even more devastated. The only thing I thought about was that Nee would believe that God doesn’t answer her prayers. The last time she prayed with such fervency was when my wife was pregnant with our third child. Nee already had a brother and she desperately wanted a little sister. When she found out that we were having a boy, she was inconsolable for at least 10 minutes. She has finally warmed up to her baby brother and loves him to death, but I knew that explaining God’s ways to her would be more difficult this time.

As expected, Nee burst into tears when she saw the list. She tried to throw the paper in the garbage as if that would make things better. The first thing out of her mouth was that God never answers her prayers. I hated to see my little princesses hurting like this and I didn’t know if I could say anything that would make her feel better and not lose her faith in God.

When she had calmed down, I explained to her that God doesn’t always answer her prayers the way the she expects Him to. I told her that there was a reason for God’s placing her and her friend in different classes. Perhaps, God wanted her to make friends with a new girl, or maybe He had a separate plan for her friend. I continued by letting her know that Daddy doesn’t understand why God arranged things the way that He did, but it is important that she has faith that God did the right thing. I could tell that she was still disappointed, but my talk seemed to help a little.

On the day before classes started, the school held an open house for parents and students to see their new classrooms and to meet the teacher. This is where Nee found out that God does indeed work in mysterious ways. This year, the school moved to a team teaching concept for the elementary grades. Therefore, Nee would be taught by the teacher that her mother desired. More importantly, she will be able to spend time with her best friend throughout the school day. Praise God!

Last night before bed, I read Hebrews 11:1 to Nee. It states: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Because of here experiences in the past couple of weeks, Nee finally understood the meaning of this simple, yet complex verse.

For me, the start of the school year turned out to be an exercise in faith and sort of an emotional roller coaster. With a start like this, I’m looking forward to the rest of the year.

Stay strong,
Mocha Dad

Tags: african american, bible, black, class, dad, daughter, education, faith, father, God, prayer, school