He Desires Me.

Years ago, my old pastor talked about Proverbs 22:6: Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

One of the points he made about this scripture regarding "in the way he should go" was that it didn't say "in the way you think he should go." If you were a star football player, but your boy would rather play piano then as humbling as it may be, ditch the football practice and sign him up for piano.

So now we have Dyson.  

A 6 year old son whom I have bravely chosen to homeschool.  It's been the first week of school and I've already found I'm in for a ride. He is sooo far away from my "sit down and be studious" type 7 year old daughter.

Dyson is well....unique.  He'll play football. But he'd rather invent things. Or destroy things. For example, this is a bike inside of a small cardboard box (see below).  Yes, he took a screw driver and tore it apart. Spokes and all... and then declared "Mom, since we live in such a small space, now we have more room!"

He'll sit for...ummm...30 seconds to do his writing assignment, but then after about 3 letters, I've lost him.  I looked at Jeremy (my 32 year old Dyson) and I asked, "How in the world did you get through school?"  He responded, "I didn't. I slept through every class except shop, because I was so bored."

So, I'll have to be content with three letters, and work for the four tomorrow. I'm going to have to lean on God's wisdom on a daily (or hourly?) basis.  Speaking of hourly, tonight was an hour I thought I had off from the "school teacher" role.  I was wrong.

My husband was roofing and I'm sitting at home. I had spent the entire day doing laundry, preparing for school the next week, scrubbing toilets, grocery shopping, and doing everything that needed to get done so that I could enjoy a day of rest tomorrow. You get my drift.  It was now late and I had mentally checked out. I was ready to grab myself a Mr. Pibb, huge bowl of ice-cream and find something on T.V.  

The next thing I hear is Dyson storming in the house, anger on his face and arms crossed. "MOM! That did NOT go the way I had planned!" Welcome to reality.

He brought me out to the garage and I saw this: 

 Above is the box that was hanging from the string below.

 And below is the broom stick that was hitting the box that was hanging from the string above.

You got it folks. Dyson was playing "piñata," and dang it! It DID NOT GO THE WAY HE HAD PLANNED!!

The next thing I know he is asking the dreaded question, "How do you make a piñata, mom?"

Oh no.  Oh no oh no oh no. I knew what this meant. The last thing I wanted to do was jump on this teachable homeschool moment of an art class that had dropped right into my lap. Could have I said, "we'll figure it out next week, buddy."  Sure. But I knew in my heart now was the time.  With Dyson, especially with Dyson, you take advantage of any teachable moment you get.  Because the stars don't always align for him during normal "school hours".

I sooooo didn't want to.  The thought of the T.V. and an ice cold Mr. Pibb sounded sooooo much more fun.  But the next thing I know we are watching YouTube video's on how to make a piñata and I find myself making paper mache paste out of boiling water and flour, digging through his "this is trash, but Dyson will probably use it for something" bin to pull out a phone book (for it's pages) and a used balloon.

And here we go....

Piñata Making
PHASE 1: 

Yup. Jer came home, walked through the garage and said, "What the heck?"  You'll never know what good things will flow out of our weird son.  We're just along for the ride. I responded, "He is making a piñata. Don't touch it! It needs to dry overnight."

So here we are, encouraging Dyson to express his thoughts through his hands, and trusting it will glorify God in the end.  In this case, he plans to bring glory to God at his birthday party by celebrating himself - Psalm 139, right? Yup.

AND - Did you know that the piñata was created to represent evil? Sin is enticing and attractive, but the reward for those who beat the crap out of it (God vs. Satan) and not give up is an outpouring of gifts and blessings from above A.K.A. CANDY! BAM!

And just think, I could have chosen to gain 5 pounds through Mr. Pibb and ice cream instead of learning all of this.  Rock on.

Anyway, I'll post the end result here in a week or so. But right now he is 25% of the way done (75% ugly and 25% colorful).  After hours of gluing strips of construction paper on, he announced to me with great exhaustion, "Mom, I think I'm going to like my piñata just the way it is."

What he meant to say was, "This sucks and I quit." But leave it to Dyson to be positive.

I'm going to figure something out to help him finish strong. But until then, you'll just have to wait for the end result...and I'm positive you're just dying with excitement to see....

But for now when reflecting on all of this, I am reminded of how God works with me.  He is not just available during school hours. Unlike myself, he is waiting to jump on teachable moments and does not feel inconvenienced when they appear.

There is no bad timing on God's end.  I am so grateful I have a father who is waiting by my side to speak, teach and spend time with me at any given moment. He doesn't say, "just a minute." He doesn't cringe inside desiring some space. He doesn't even just tolerate me...

He desires me. And for that, I am grateful.