Fruits of the Spirit

Over the last few weeks, the kids have learned about the Apostle Paul and the Fruits of the Spirit in Sunday School.  Today the finished the lesson learning about Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. The last seemed to have captured Katharine's interest: Lukas pulled Lennon's throat "just because" this afternoon and Katharine tried to be the big sister and pulled Lukas' hair in retaliation. Upon inquiring why Lukas was crying, she explained the situation to me. Sitting between Katharine and Lukas, I asked if that was the right choice and what she could have done differently. I got the answer that she "could have practiced self-control" and not hurt Lukas. Thank you, dear Sunday School teachers! Later on, Erik tried the "Marshmallow Test" on Katharine, which he had read about in "The New Yorker". He did his own version and turned it into the cake test. He put a small slice of chocolate cake in front of Katharine and told her that if she could wait 10 minutes without touching the cake. If she did, she would get a slice twice the size on her plate. The rest of us were not allowed to distract her. Well, there were about three minutes of distraction and seven minutes of absolute self-control. So yes, Katharine got her big slice of cake. For the rest of the afternoon Katharine has been telling her brothers to practice self-control. So, "self-control" seems to be the word of the day. Erik took a video of Katharine and I hope he will post some of it. I hope we will continue practicing self-control, patience, kindness, generosity, love, faithfulness, peace and joy...