Persistence - Lessons from my 4-yr-old

I think we could all take a lesson from my four-year-old. Recently, everywhere we go, my four-year-old little man, Ethan looks for money. He literally gets on his hands and knees in stores… looking under displays… looking in all of those places that nobody has swept up in months probably…. And his hard work ALWAYS pays off. It never fails – every single time we have left our house in the last several weeks, Ethan returns home with at least one penny, or several, to happily put in his green polka-dotted piggy bank. On great days, he finds dimes and quarters and you know when that happens because my four-year-old literally shrieks with excitement… a shrill so high that sometimes my husband and I have to tell him to quiet down and calm down. A few days ago in the mall, Ethan found two quarters. In four year-old land, this is a HUGE deal. Why? Because the mall has gumball machines! One quarter equals one gumball. But guess what? The last two times we’ve gone to the mall with quarters, since we only bring one per child, Ethan has decided he doesn’t want to spend his. In fact, he wants to save his quarters so that he can buy the toys that equals FOUR quarters. There’s nothing like giving your small child (who is ‘too young’ for even Kindergarten) a quarter and him making a decision to wait and save while his twin older brothers quickly spend theirs in a split-seconds time. Ethan is so calm. He simply says… “No, I’ll just wait.” What?? My husband and I these last two times have been so surprised.

We found ourselves in a conversation last night about how hard Ethan works. He literally spends his time with us on a mission to find that money and EVERY S I N G L E TIME iT pays off. Our other boys do not have the same ‘luck’. One of the twins, Landon, will ever-so-often find some money… and the other twin, Aiden, is so distracted by everything around him, he forgets to look. But Ethan never fails… He is so persistent and focused. And today, it paid off in a huge way. While walking through a store, Ethan disappears for a second and quickly returns to my side exclaiming: MOM! MOM! MOM! LOOK! I FOUND A DOLLAR!

I look down… and I was completely shocked.

Ethan found a whopping $20 bill.

How many of you have ever found that much money? Maybe some of you … and if you have, you probably remember that day clearly…. Am I right?

My husband and I started to laugh… Ethan’s hard work has literally… PAID off. We thought that the first thing we should do is see if anyone was missing any money and after talking with a few store employees, they told Ethan it was all his!

So instead of making him put his money in his piggy bank, we allowed him to pick out a toy. And his choice made us even more proud… he chose to get himself and his twin brothers their own toys.

So, like I said, I think we can all learn a lesson …. Or two… from Ethan. Hard work and persistence pays off. And, it is always better sharing your good fortunes with others.

Have your children ever taught you a lesson? I’d love to hear your stories!