Learning Patience, Stewardship & Gabriel's cute response

This summer we have been learning about stewardship with two different Christian curriculums I purchased. One was super basic but very good when you have a 3 year old and another a bit more in depth. The kids also memorized some Scripture along with the one. We have finally completed the books and I plan to repeat them next summer. The more in depth book did not just talk about money but stewardship of time, etc.

Anyway, Gabriel has been saving and saving money to buy a wood castle at a toy store. He reads books for $ which is a good deal for him since he loves reading. He just finished an over 500 page book today that he did not spend more than a week reading. He told me he wished it would never end! Besides that book he has ready MANY, MANY, MANY books while saving for this castle. Well, we have stopped in to check to see if the castle was there (it is not like a Toys-R-Us with huge stock) and the owner or manager knew Gabriel was saving up for it. Gabriel was learning in the process to put 10% to tithe and 20% to savings. Well, today he reached his goal and he and the others were SOOOOOOOO excited to go get the castle. We got to the store with less than 10 minutes to closing. When we got the castle the lady threw in an $8 dollar figurine with a canon as a congratulations on his hard work! He had wanted that toy too and talked of saving up for it on the way to buy the castle! That was so neat that lady rewarded his diligence and hard work!

I am so thankful he is learning to be patient with his money.

As we were leaving the store the owner/ manager said to Gabriel "Have a fun evening!" I got such a kick out of Gabriel's response . . . "There are 3 more kids at home. I have 2 brothers and a sister so I will!" What a blessing to hear that response.

Side note for my Mommy mind to remember: The other day the dishes were stacked up in the sink and Gabriel saw them and he called Ross over and they happily did the dishes. Gabriel has his own jobs but that is not one of them. We do sometimes ask him to do the the dishes but this time he saw a job that needed to be done and he did it without being asked. What a blessing when they reach that stage!