Those teachable moments

At Lego camp, Colin has been building simple machines & learning new terms that pertain to these machines. Terms like strength & integrity, balance & fulcrum & so forth. On our way home yesterday from class, I asked him if he remembered what each of those terms meant. He did a pretty good job of explaining them to me.

In a pure God-inspired moment, I said, "Did you know that integrity has another type of meaning that kind of has to do with making a building strong, but has to do with a strong heart? It means that you do the right thing, even when no one is looking, even when it's the hard thing to do...it takes a really strong person to do that." His answer, "Mom, what are we having for supper?"

I thought that conversation flew right over his head or he wasn't that much interested.

Later that evening, I was laying in bed with him & talking about the day (which honestly does not happen much here because at that time of day, I'm ready to put them to bed, close the door & have them go to sleep). He said, "Mom, what was the other meaning...you know the heart one...for balance?"

"You mean for integrity?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

So, I told him again.

He then said, "Yeah , it's really hard to do the right thing all the the time, especially when you're not watching."

We talked about a couple of things during the day in which he showed & didn't show integrity. Then I asked if he knew any friends that were people of integrity. Right away he thought of his good kindergarten buddy, Gabe.

"You know, that's probably a really good friend to have."

"Yep. Hey mom, I wonder what we're going to make in class tomorrow. My teacher, Mr. Mike is really funny..."

And that was that. But I'm so thankful I was there for that 1 minute conversation! I'm praying it will be one of many little conversations that add up to make him a better man.