The Gel Pen Story

Madison has had an emotional couple of days. I find that the summer is wearing her out and she is getting very sad at random times. The other day, we went to the gym and I let her take her church bag with pens and paper to color. She was so excited to color with friends and we even printed out pictures for her to take. Later that afternoon, she went to color again at home and we realized the pens were left at the gym. She was devastated. After many tears and searching, the pens were still gone. She asked me if we can buy more pens. I went through the thought process of...

Should this be a lesson for her? Should I replace things that she looses? Should I spend unnecessary money? Can she save up to buy the pens? Can she save up to pay for half with her allowance? Can she earn pens instead of allowance? What is the right thing for me to do? I discussed it with her and regardless, she would need to do chores to earn either money or pens. She was very sad about that idea.

Yesterday we went back to the gym and they had been turned in. She was so excited. We got in the car and I hear, "NOW I DO NOT NEED TO DO ANY CHORES!" Is this the lesson I wanted to teach? I tried to focus her onto how God listened to her prayers and how there are good, honest people in the world that turned her pens in, but I do not think she heard a word of it. Too funny.