Kids books about Faithfulness

We have one month left in the school year, so it’s about that time when I start looking back on our year and despairing at all that we didn’t do, progress that we didn’t make, and completely questioning if I’m even doing a good thing by home educating my children.

It’s easy to feel like my kids are missing out on all of the great parts of a public classroom education. It’s easy to doubt when you can’t see the future. Is everything going to turn out okay?

I am inspired with great faith for the future when I hear other older mothers tell me about how they too had kids who were absent-minded, who struggled with reading or math or writing, who got overwhelmed and screamed at other kids. One mother told me about her trials raising her son, and then followed with – he’s a doctor now, with his own family. Yes, he’d still forget his head if it wasn’t attached to his body, but he found his way, and your son will too. Another mother told me about her daughter’s difficulties learning to read and recognize numbers. Now her daughter writes the software that runs the car I drive. I just have to have a little faith that it will turn out okay.

Heck, my own mother-in-law told me that my husband didn’t do a single thing for one entire year of online high school until 2 weeks before the end of the year. Instead, he’d spent the entire year learning to code on his computer. She was convinced he would fail out of school and never graduate…but he got into the pressure cooker, completed a year’s worth of work in 2 weeks, and ended up the valedictorian. So yeah. Faith.

Sometimes our kids don’t take the path we expect.

My parents didn’t expect me to be a homeschooling mom living in California.

Life just chugs along, each decision leading to the next and when you look back, it all makes sense.

So I must continue to have faith in the life we’ve chosen. Instead of focusing on the progress we didn’t make – I need to look at how far we’ve come since September.

This week we read some books featuring faithful characters and we talked about what it means to believe in something and be reliable. We talked about what it means to be a faithful friend.

What is faithfulness?

Faithfulness is being steady and constant in your support for someone or something. It is trusting that what you believe is important. It is staying strong on a path, even when changes come up that may distract you. When you are a faithful friend, it means you can be trusted and that you are reliable. When you are faithful, you do as you said you would do. If you committed to something, you see it through, even if you’d rather not. Sometimes we believe things that are hard to prove – this is when we need faithfulness. It is okay to believe in things that are hard to prove or that others don’t believe, but your beliefs should not hurt others.

The Treasure by Uri Shulevitz

This is a delightful story in which a man follows his dream to find a treasure, only to find the treasure in his own home. He has faith that a treasure exists out there for him.

Pretzel by Margret and H.A. Rey

Pretzel is a cute story of faithfulness written by the same authors as Curious George. Pretzel is faithful in his unrequited love for Greta, and ultimately wins her heart by saving her life using his unique gifts.

Jennifer and Josephine by Bill Peet

We love Bill Peet! Though some of his books are definitely product of their time (*ahem Smokey…do not recommend due to the inaccurate portrayal of First Nations peoples), Jennifer and Josephine is a story of an old car and the cat who was the car’s faithful companion.

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss

In this story, a little boy remains faithful that the carrot seeds he planted will grow, even while others are doubtful.

The Christmas Tapestry – Patricia Polacco

I dare you to read this one without crying. It is a beautiful story about redemption for a church, for a marriage, and how people can remain faithful in their love for one another across wars, continents, and decades.

Hopefully these stories inspire you to talk about faithfulness with your family!

In what ways are you faithful?

Warmly,

-Heather

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