A Child's Book of Character Building by Ron & Rebekah Coriell

Another title I purchased from that reading list (I wish I could figure out which book had that list!) is A Child's Book of Character Building by Ron & Rebekah Coriell (Revell, 1981). A newer printing of this book is available on www.amazon.com. I was excited when I read the authors' bio to discover that they had worked at Cedarville University during the time my eldest brother Bob attended. He, my sister Rebecca, and my dad all have degrees from Cedarville.

This book discusses the following character traits: attentive, faith, creative, diligence, patience, contentment, obedience, wisdom, tenderhearted, thankfulness, honesty, and joyfulness. The discussion of each trait includes a definition, Scripture verse (the 1981 edition uses KJV, not sure about others), and 4 stories showing examples of that trait in action in the Bible, at home, school, and play.  The definitions are easy enough that my four year old was able to memorize it after repeating a few times. Also included are some challenges at the end of the 4 stories, such as (for Attentive), "Ask the child to list 10 people to whom we should be attentive (p. 18)."

My boys, ages 7 and 4 seem to enjoy the stories so far. I am thinking I will continue using this as a daily devotion with them (They do a Bible story book at night with their dad.) and try to work on one character trait each week.

If you are wondering why I keep saying I am planning to try this or that - basically life as I've known it for the past four years has turned upside down. For the past 4 years I have been a part-time high school Spanish teacher at my church's Christian school. It has been a wonderful, fruitful ministry, but it has consumed my life for the past four years, even during school breaks. A few months ago, God enlightened me to the fact that all these other kids were getting the BEST of my time,while my husband & kids were getting the LEFTOVERS, which was not enough. Since I was in a position where my income did not contribute to family finances, it was really easy to make the decision to stop working, once I realized how lopsided my priorities had become. Not intentionally, but as an employee there was a certain allegiance I had to give to my place of employment over my family. Having grown up a good bit of my life as a missionary kid, I have seen so many people in ministry. The biggest priority I have with any ministry is that it cannot be more important that my family. God - family - ministry/job, etc.

So now I am in the process of adjusting to life as a stay at home mom, who will be homeschooling my 2 boys in the Fall. Alex will be in 2nd grade, which I used to teach before he was born, and Will will be in K-4. I will be teaching Alex using the ABeka curriculum, which I extremely familiar with. Will will be using a preschool program called Hands-On Homeschooling, along with www.ixl.com for math, and they will be doing Bible together.

I have rambled way off subject, it is very late, and we have a trip to the Atlanta zoo tomorrow, so I must stop for the night. I look forward to sharing more from The Ministry of Motherhood when I move on to chapter 1 tomorrow.