Sharing and Teamwork

Sharing and teamwork seem to come up in conversation constantly in my home right now. Nate wants to be just like his big brother which means he is constantly taking things from Ben and Ben does not tolerate such rudeness. Ben also accuses Nate of making all the messes and wants no responsibility in cleaning it all up. Nate's favorite word seems to be "me" and it isn't possible for him to say it once. He must say "Me! Me! Me! Me!" at the top of his lungs to get his point across. Yesterday I heard them screaming at each other outside and found them with all four little hands wrapped around one little shovel and they were pulling and tugging back and forth.

So, we talk about sharing. We talk about teamwork. We talk about how we can do things more fun and more efficiently when we share and work as a team. Sometimes it works and we all get along great and the playroom gets picked up in record time without an uprising from the littles. But, other times there are tears and stomping and pushing and pulling (yes, my sweet boys do this too).

In all my training up of my little people in my house, I have been learning this lesson for myself as well. Life is so much more fun and efficient when we all work well as a team. We are privileged to work with an amazing group of people, but we are all still people and we don't always function perfectly together. But, lately, I think we have really shined.

Just a few short weeks ago our director's wife (and really great friend) gave birth to their second son FOUR weeks early. The baby had to remain in the hospital for two weeks and spent some time in the NICU. Everyone on staff was talking about it! How can we help? What can we do? Can we clean? Make dinner? As their life settled a bit they did allow us to help and we are still bringing meals! It was so exciting to watch everyone get together, share in the joy of the new birth as well as the fear in the uncertainty as we waited for each update on the new baby. We prayed and then prayed some more! We all went through this together.

The body of Christ, when we truly put aside our selfish desires of the flesh, is the best team to be on! We have the same foundation and the same goals but individual ways of going about things. When we function together, each using our own unique gifts, we can do amazing things! It is our prayer that we do this as we plant churches, as we raise our family, even as we play!