Littlejohns Live With Open Palms

Ah, sharing. I am the youngest of five children and I am raising four children. Sharing has been and continues to be a very common topic in our household. At least several times a day my children hear me say, "We ALWAYS share good things! And you must share because you will be sharing for the rest of your life!!" Because we do not have four of everything, sharing is required and expected in our house. Growing up we had 24 hours after we received a gift to exclusively play with it and call it "ours", after 24 hours it was fair game. Clint and Val taught us, and lived before us, a life that did not hold tightly to materialistic things.

For Mark and I, teaching our children to share is a heart issue. It is acknowledging on a daily basis that every good and perfect gift comes from above. Nothing, not one thing, is "ours". The excruciating process of a selfish person teaching other selfish persons to not be selfish, is just that...excruciating.

I believe when we intentionally hold onto our things with a death grip the depths of our hearts are clearly revealed, and it communicates that our "thing" is of more value than our relationship. And if you haven't picked up on it by now, relationships are everything to this family!

In the safe haven of our home, if we refuse to do the tedious and exhausting work of teaching our children to let go of their "stuff" and unreservedly run after their relationships with their siblings by placing them above their Polly Pockets, Discovery animal farm set, clock radios, and Lala Loopsies, then honestly, what are we doing?

I want to leave the legacy that Littlejohns live with open palms. WHATEVER we have is not ours; our money, our home, our stuff, our cars, (even the dead one) our education, our savings, our retirement, our jobs, our health, our time, our talents, and our precious children are all good and unspeakable gifts from our good and gracious God. . When we refuse to share good things because we are distracted by our love of things, we lose. We lose the ability to have meaningful and unconditional relationships. And above all else in this world I want my children to have meaningful and unconditional relationships. So that is why we will spend one more day doing the seemingly impossible, and we will strive to teach our children to share good things!!

Here is to sharing!
~Sara