Invisible Collections

Baseball cards. Teacups. Thimbles. Handbags. Wall art. I’ve seen all sorts of collections, from the fairly normal (Pez dispensers) to the down-right bizarre (locks of hair from celebrities). These all have something in common, though. You can display them. But what if you’re like me and you collect something that’s pretty much unseen? How do you share your thought collection with others? How do you flaunt quotes?

Now, I guess I could frame every single quote I’ve collected over the years and hang them. There are a couple of problems with this though. Either I’d have to print them off in very tiny letters . . . or I’d have to take down all the pictures of my kids and family. This might offend them. And my hubby wouldn’t like all the holes in the walls. I could leave the computer on all day and require a show and tell time to all my visitors, but it’s not necessarily visually appealing, and it would be pretty time-consuming.

Well, lucky for me, I’m a homeschooling mom and every day can be my show and tell. One of the things I have done for the past few years is share with my lucky little guys a “Quote of the Week.” At the beginning of the year I choose thirty-six quotes that I think would benefit them and set them aside in a computer file for printing off as the school year progresses. Sometimes they are terrific quotes from people we are studying, but more often they are thought-provoking gems.

For instance, from Teddy Roosevelt, “Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.” I think that’s a good one for my boys to learn.

And from Henry Ward Beecher, “Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.”

I also like funny quotes, as do my boys. Such as, “We’ll be friends until we are old and senile. Then, we will be new friends!”

And this one from Robert Block, “The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.” Somehow, I think they can relate to that last one.

So the other day, I shared one of those thought-provokers from Oswald Chambers, “We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.” I asked my younger son, who is seven, what he thought that meant. He replied, “Follow Jesus.”

Now this is my kid who whenever asked what Sunday School was about would reply, “Jesus.” It didn’t matter whether they were studying the Old or New Testaments. It was always Jesus.

So I looked at him and said, “Actually, I don’t think that’s quite it. Try again.”

He replied matter-of-factly, “God’s the King and will take care of stuff ‘cause He’s in charge, and He can.”

Now that’s a keeper for my other invisible collection: The times when my kids “get it.”

Invisible Collections