[callout]You fell in love with him in The Cinderella Rule. My sweet husband Justin is guest posting for the first time! Enjoy![/callout]

Bethany and I are selfish gift givers! We give in order to receive. It’s really super fun and I believe that we have near perfected it. I got Bethany a 3-hour, in-home cooking lesson – easy to see how this benefits me right?!? Well she bought me a router – Not the internet router but the tool type.

…and my new coffee cup (so I stop using hers).

She also pitched in for this, but my father-in-law forgot it at his house. Perhaps he’s wearing it?

Of course, she bought me the router because she loves me and she knew I wanted it, but also so that I would build her a bench, and the boys a new toy box.

This is why we are selfish gift givers. BUT, we are also very selfless too. Like today.

I slept in WAAAY to long today. I got up around 10 (I am usually up around 5:30). In fact, as a write this, I remember Bethany nudging at me around 5:30 this morning to turn off my alarm clock.

Anyways! I wanted to provide her with some time to rest (clean) this morning. I took the kids outside with me and allowed them to help sand and paint their toy box. After several hours of dripping paint onto the drop cloth, we got the outside of the box painted. As I was cleaning up for the day, I noticed that there was a small handprint’s worth of black paint smudge over Bethany’s newly built & stained bookshelf bench.

I was so upset. I remember yelling “Come On!” and seeing the guy on the street walking his dog stare at me.

He must not have kids.

I now see these events differently.

Josiah (age 3) saw wood that needed to be painted and wanted to be helpful. Voila, big handprint smudge.

But regardless of the frustration, I was able to teach my children how to paint. I taught them to “move forward” in their skills. I guess the thought is that moving forward has a price to pay. As fathers (or mothers), we are responsible for the next generation.

I am willing to endure messed up benches to ensure that my children will have the skills and abilities to succeed!

[reminder]Life can be messy when we are learning. Where do you need to give yourself room to get messy so that you can learn? [/reminder]

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