Peaches and Ponderings

Yesterday, my friend Isobel and her daughter Michelle and the girls came for a visit, bringing peaches for us to can. We had a nice time fellowshipping over a lunch of salad filled with vegetables from our own gardens. Adeena's cherry tomatoes are wonderful!!

After our company left, Adeena and I and some of the kids began processing the peaches. It is so satisfying to see all of the jars lined up in a row, ready to feed the family in the dead of winter. My 8 year old, Tiana, asked this morning if we could open a jar of peaches for breakfast. No, a thousand times NO!! We want to save the peaches for a day when the wind is howling and the storms are shaking the house, with snow and sleet biting our faces if we dare to peek outside. On that kind of day, opening a jar of peaches is like bringing summer sunshine into the dead of winter.

That is a skill all children need to learn: how to defer pleasures which would be good in the moment, but fantastic later on. Self control is a necessary and difficult character trait to develop. Learning to wait for peaches trains the child to learn to wait for the pleasures of the marriage bed, for instance. What would be good (but would bring guilt and shame if indulged in) would be absolutely fantastic later on, in the proper time and place.

Lord, thank You that You teach us through the little things of life principles that will impact generations. I do pray that You will help my children to learn to wait patiently for Your timing. Help them to learn self-control. Keep them pure in heart and virtuous in character, and lead them to the right life's partner, so they can raise godly seed for Your honour and glory. In Christ, I pray. Amen.