Living Books - The Carrot Seed

Through researching home school materials, I have learned about Charlotte Mason's method of teaching. Simply, she emphasized being outdoors and experiencing God's creation firsthand. She also encouraged "living books" that come alive to the reader, teaching valuable lessons along the way. There are tons of book lists online, so each week at story time I have been combing the library shelves in search of these living books. What treasures we have found! I hope to share some of our favorites over the next weeks and the lessons we are learning from them. The first is:

Summary: A little boy plants a carrot seed, but his family repeatedly tells him that it will not come up. He continues to care for it by pulling weeds and watering the ground, even though he cannot see any growth. Then eventually one day, it comes up!

Lessons: Despite discouragement, continue to believe and work toward what is within you. At times, people may say "there is no God, you cannot see Him." If you continue to believe and nurture the seed of belief He has planted in you, one day you will reap the reward.

The lesson I learned for myself, was that if God has given me a dream, I should continue to believe and work toward that dream (even if I don't see the fruit yet.) Just like the little boy; he believed, worked, and after time, he reaped. What a lesson for the young and old!

Bible Parallel: The story of Noah who continued to work toward what God called him to do, despite ridicule. His faith and hard work saved his life and his family.