Children...

The fact that I will start student teaching in a kindergarten classroom this month has me excited. I am excited about the opportunity to invest in the future of young children and to learn how to be a better teacher. I am also looking forward to the fun that I will have as I do this. However, I am more excited about what the children will teach me. I love the honesty of children (well, sometimes). They say what they mean, and like it or not, most of the time it is the truth. They can say the cutest things, but on the other hand, sometimes they can say the meanest things. Still yet, I enjoy holding conversations with children. Although I am not a parent, I have had the great opportunity to spend time with children in schools, with my nieces, and my cousins’ children that live close by. My favorite thing to do with these children is to carry on an “adult” conversation with them. It is especially fun to catch a group of children in my neighborhood (all of them family) jumping on the trampoline and talk to them about life and school. Oh, the stuff they can tell you.
Two weeks ago around nine o’clock on a Friday night, I had six children on my porch waiting to trap a fox. They were waiting to trap the fox that I, my nieces, and my mom saw one night this summer. Driving up late one Saturday night, we spotted a fox running from our front porch to the woods. We chased it in the car until it disappeared in the woods behind my grandpa’s house. It was fun to see the imaginations of my nieces ignite that night. Of course we had to share the news with the neighborhood children. Sharing this news ignited more imaginations, plotting, and planning on how we were going to catch that fox, and who among them was going to turn him into their pet. Now this fox never showed up while we waited on the porch that Friday night. I do not blame the fox. There were six loud children, painted in camouflage carrying flashlights and BB guns in their hands and wearing spot lights around their heads. I would have to say this fox was smart. No need to be sly, old fox, I would run from those kids too. The best part about this was they had fun, and I learned a lot. I learned who was “tough” and who was not so tough. I was able to talk a great deal to Brett, my eight year old cousin about the “Wolfadilla”. According to Brett, this animal can be found all over America. He could not give a description because the “Wolfadilla” moves so fast. Because of their fast speed, no one has been able to describe them just yet. Children are not only honest, but they are funny. Sometimes they are just plain hilarious!
Spending time with children reminds me how precious and fragile a child really is. Children are a gift from God. When these gifts are born to us, it is as if their mind is an empty book with blank pages, just waiting to be written on. As parents and teachers, it is our responsibility to teach them and nurture them. Many times we think that giving children material things will help them, but this is not so. In working with children in schools, I see just as many wealthy children suffering. They are not lacking material things at all. It is not how much we give our children materially that matters. It is how much of our time we give to them that matters. This is love to them. There is an old saying that goes, “The best things in life aren’t things.” Investing in our children spiritually and emotionally are the two most important investments as a parent you will ever make. I pray that I will remember as I teach, spend time with my nieces, cousins, and maybe one day children of my own, that I will look at them as a gift that God chose to entrust to me. Children are watching you. The way you live your life will help them to fill in the blank pages of “their book.” What are you helping them write on the blank pages of their life?

Your children become what you are, so be what you want your children to be.
-author unknown

Lo, children are a heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Psalms 127:3

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou came forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Jeremiah 1:5

But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Mark 10:14

Below are some funny conversations I have had with children this summer.

This conversation took place with my five year old niece Samantha, just a few Saturday’s ago while I was making my bed.

Sam: “Aunt Bette Jo, how many are you?”
Aunt Bette Jo: “You mean how old am I?”
Sam: “Yea.”
Aunt Bette Jo: (Lying, hoping to impress her). “I’m twenty-two.”
Sam: “Gosh!”
Aunt Bette Jo: “What do you mean, Gosh!”
Sam: “You made it all the way past twenty.”
Aunt Bette Jo: “Yeah, I guess I did.” (That’s what I get for lying).
Sam: “When you get to 100, you die. Like Maw Maw Dee Dee. Her died.”

Conversation with Brett at the trampoline. Brett is my cousin’s eight-year old son.

Brett: “Hey Aunt Bette Jo.”
Bette Jo: “Hey Brett. You ready for school?”
Brett: “Uh, no.”
Bette Jo: “Oh, well. I’m sorry. Hopefully it will be a fun year.”
Brett: “Yeah. Hey did you hear paw paw is doing everything that maw maw wouldn’t let him do?”
Bette Jo: “What? What kind of stuff is Paw paw doing?”
Brett: “I don’t know. I just heard he is.”
Bette Jo: “Oh, you just heard.”
Brett: “Yeah, I think it’s stuff like moving pictures around the house.”

Conversation with Jenna as I leave my house on a Saturday. Jenna is my eight-year old niece.

Jenna: “Hey. Didn’t you wear that shirt yesterday?”
Aunt Bette Jo: “Yes, but I washed it.” (Stuck my tongue out at her).
Jenna: (Laughing) “Okay.”

Funny sayings and quotes from Samantha my five year old niece.
“Don’t look at me. It’s all Maw Maw Donna’s fault.”
“We told God to not let it rain while we swimmed, and him listened.”


My least favorite thing to hear the nieces say when I am keeping them.
“That’s not how Maw Maw Donna does it.”