Little Red Wagon

I was home alone with the boys, we were getting ready for my niece Abbey's 13th birthday party. The boys were playing outside while I finished some chores then we were going to leave for the party. I hear them going up and down the driveway in their wagon, I hear laughter and a few yells of un-fairness. A few minutes later Ian comes in the house rather sheepishly. He tells me they ran the wagon so hard into my flower planter they knocked it over dumping my newly planted light purple impatiens out. At first they just kind of put the flowers back in hoping I wouldn't notice, and then Ian tried to push the roots under the dirt. But a lot of impatiens were lost in the accident. Usually with reports like this I just fuss at them, it was an accident, not an intentional offense. But that day I cried, looked out the window at my planter and now pathetic impatiens and I cried. It mattered a lot to me. I took time to pick the flowers I wanted, got soil for my planter and I planted them in the special rows that my husband taught me to do. I watered my flowers and I was proud of them. Ian didn't really know what to say, other than he was sorry. I went into the laundry room to finish rotating the loads. Ian met me there with a note that said:

"I'm very sorry please forgive me for everything I've done rong. I've tried to help I really have
but whenever I do it just turns out rong. So please, please forgive me. Please.
From: Ian To: Mom."

He also emptied his wallet and gave me his $14.00 he was saving. And..........I cried again. Felt a little foolish that I got so emotional about the flowers, but eventually my heart remembered this verse....

"Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone: but if it dies, it bears much fruit."  John 12:24         

I've been talking to Chris in the past few week about how the boys don't respect my things, or what I do for them. We've been working on that with them and in this situation Ian showed me that he got it. It blessed my heart, he is teachable, he is compassionate. Chris took me to pick out new flowers and he re-planted my planter for me, better than it was. A simple, silly lesson to some, maybe, but not to this mother. To me it meant the world.

P.S. I gave him the money back.