The Fruits of My Labor

I often ask myself if all of the time and energy I spend into teaching and nurturing my kids is actually paying off. Most times it is not too obvious on the surface. It isn't until it shows up unexpectedly that makes you sit up and take notice. I can often equate the feeling to putting money into a savings account. You keep socking your money away and the interest is minimal but then after years of doing it you look back at the account and suddenly you have quite a bit of money and it all seemed worth it.

Even though Kevin has been in his Catholic high school for only a few weeks I often question my decision to send him there. After all he was going somewhere completely different and didn't know a soul which can be pretty scary for anyone. The school is strict on its uniform code right down to the belt and tie. They attend mass once a week during school. They are required to do community service. If he is going to pursue the baseball team he has to be in conditioning class after school every day for 2 hours.

He hasn't complained once about any of this...not the lack of friends, clothes restrictions, church, or conditioning. Here was my teen who used to gripe about church ("Do we have to go?" was his Sunday mantra), loves his clothes, hated exercise and never did it. Now he runs almost 4 miles a day, lays out his uniform the night before, and goes to church without a peep.

Yesterday was a test. He had a baseball game at 8 am and ended at 10 am. They won the game which meant that they would advance to the semi-finals and that game would start at 12:30. The timing was perfect. We could go to mass in between the games and be back just in time. Kevin would have to go to church with his dirty uniform on and dark black stripes under his eyes but so what? Jesus wouldn't care.

I was amazed at what happened. HE DIDN'T OBJECT! He accepted it graciously and never uttered a word. This is definitely not the teenager I am used to having around my house. When we were at church he didn't once ask me what time it was to be sure that we were not going to be late getting back to the game. NOT ONCE DID HE ASK ME WHAT TIME IT WAS!

And as I reflect on yesterday and with the worry on my mind if I did the right thing by sending him to Chaminade I have to say that so far my answer is yes.