Moving Past

The most amazing thing happened yesterday. Little Bit came into the bathroom while I was showering to tell me she had decided to name her new little doll Sparkle.

The amazing part? She knocked before she entered and she closed the door when she left. Without being reminded!!!!

You do not KNOW how long we have worked on those two skills around this house! I had to lock doors that I didn't want them to open, listen to them accidentally body slam themselves into the door while they tried to open it and then remind them, "You are supposed to knock when a door is closed." I think that went on for 2 years.

But now, I don't have to lock doors anymore because they automatically knock.

I got to wondering what else we are past that used to concern or bother me. Well, there are no more thumb or pacifier suckers in this house and that went on to Guinness proportions around here. They both stopped on their own. It's not even on our radar. Something that used to concern me so much is just....gone.

There are many other things as well. Things that we got past and that aren't issues any longer.

Isn't that how it should be? The author of Hebrews chewed them out just a bit about this:

"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

I am turning 40 today. I have been a Christian like...26 years. Am I past the things I should be past? Am I making progress? Are the things that used to be issues in the past as they should be?

I am encouraged to see progress in my children, but am I looking for their spiritual progress? They have learned to knock on closed doors. Have they learned how to look up scripture? They have memorized our phone number. Have they memorized Bible verses? They have learned to say, "I'm sorry." Have they learned about forgiveness?

I take this parenting thing very seriously. I take my children's "spiritual development" (that's such a weird phrase but I don't know how else to describe it) very seriously. I know it's not exactly separate from the rest of their development....it's all connected. In a few years, we should not still be concerned with the same things we are concerned with today.

We should keep moving.

What things are in the past at your house that used to be a big deal? What are you hoping will get in the past like....yesterday?