Teachable Moments

Recently I've been reading the book, "A Mother's Touch" by Elise Arndt. This wasn't a book I had intended to read necessarily, but by happenstance, I was scheduled to work at Elise's speaker table at the Minnesota Hearts at Home conference. During one of the slow periods of the day, I had the chance to talk to Elise for a good 30 minutes. What an incredible lady! She is in her 60's, raised the majority of her children in Papa New Guinea, is a pastor's wife in Michigan and has written a few books, with aspirations to write more. In fact, she rolled off at least three more topics she wants to write about in the future. How fortunate I was to have the time to sit and chat with her. After the conference was over, she signed and gave me a copy of her book.
In the book, she talks about having intentional conversations with your children about God - even before they are old enough to understand. By doing so, you will be comfortable saying those things and your children will grow up hearing the Word spoken in your home. Now I am definitely one to read a book and say to myself, "well, that's a good idea", but never take the initiative to really go any further. However, yesterday I had my chance. Caleb and I were running errands in the afternoon and our last stop was the bank. I needed to drop something off in our safety deposit box, which meant unloading the munchkin and going inside. We took care of everything and then headed back out to the car. On our way, I noticed a very thick, well-used pocketbook laying on the sidewalk. Clearly someone had accidentally dropped this. It contained their money, checkbook, credit cards, everything. I picked it up and brought it back into the bank. They assured me they knew who it belonged to and that they would give her a call right away.
As I got back in the car, I thought about how this would be a very "teachable moment" for my kids and how I could bring Jesus into the conversation. So there I sat, talking to my 11 month old about the Good Samaritan and how it's important to help others and do the right thing. Gosh, if anyone had seen me, they probably thought I was crazy (in fact, they probably thought I was talking to myself). Oh well. And even though I know that Caleb didn't understand a word I was saying, I'm considering it good practice for the future.
So my moral of the story is this: look for the teachable moments in your life and share them with your children - they'll grow up knowing your love for them and the love of God.