A Lesson I learned from Caps for Sale

This has been a very busy week with our county fair, and the kids both have animals they have entered in the fair- Bug has a Pig, and Doodle a rabbit. It's been crazy busy trying to get it all done. I've had a particularly hard week with my 6 year old, and had sent him to his room for something- I can't recall what he did.

While he was down there, I sat down to read Caps for Sale our Before FIAR title for the week to my Roo. If you've never read the story- it's a simple one- in the story a Pedler is selling some caps, and no one wants to buy any- so he sits down to rest under a tree. When he wakes up, he checks to see if his hats are still there, but it turns out some monkeys were in the tree, and stole his hats. He trys to get the hats back by yelling, stomping and pointing his finger at them. The monkeys just yell, stop and point their fingers back at him. Finally in desperation he takes off his cap and throws it on the ground. The monkeys in return toss their hats to the ground.

As I got to the part where the pedler waves a finger at the monkeys- wanting the monkeys to do something- it hit me. I'm like that pedler. I wave my finger, shake my fists, stamp my feet, get angry and yell all too often. Expecting my little monkeys to do what I say. When they are really just watching and copying what I DO. Even MY little monkeys are like those monkeys in the tree, they do what I do. Monkey see, monkey do as the saying goes. So starting NOW! I'm trying harder to be a better example to them, if I want them to clean up- they need to see me cleaning. If I want them to read and study, they need to see me reading and studying. If I want them to pray, they need to see me praying. Wow....what simple lessons can be learned from a children's book. I guess that's why it's called a classic- because you can still learn lessons from it no matter how old you are.