This morning, Brooke had a Young Women's meeting to attend, so the boys and I were left to hold down the fort together. We spent most of the morning working hard to clean the house in preparation for Mom's return and they were all a big help. They vacuumed, dusted, cleaned windows and toilets, washed the dog and even helped take down the outside Christmas lights.
Partially as a reward for their hard work and partially because I had some work to get done for my calling at church, I let them play Xbox for a while. Typically after they have been playing for a while, their competitive nature gets the best of them and Mom and Dad make them take a break before there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Today, however, they never reached the boiling point. In fact, each time I checked on them, I was impressed that they seemed to be trying to help Devon learn how to play the game better. When it was finally time to stop playing, they were all excited to tell me that they had reached a higher level in the game than they had ever reached before.
They all learned an important lesson today and it was a good reminder for me too . . . that we get a lot further in life when we help each other. Too often we let the small, sometimes petty, things in our lives get in the way of achieving great things. What a difference we could make if we would patiently help those around us learn to play the game better rather than getting frustrated that they don't know how to play the game very well.
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