We want to teach young leaders to embrace true humility, even as we teach them confidence. But bug collecting and humility? Really, Cathy?
Well, yes, it may seem a little odd to release a podcast on bug collecting now. Especially since school just started and everyone is swamped. Anna and I have NOT lost our minds. We just think we can make the connection between something as simple as collecting bugs and, you guessed it, humility.
We think that’s a win-win for moms. Keep reading to see if you agree.
Here’s the deal, next spring when teachers assign bug and wildflower collecting, there won’t be any bugs. And wildflowers are pretty slim pickings until June, at least here in East Texas.
You may have noticed as you swat at flies, dirt daubers, and wasps, the best bug catching time is now. So turn you children loose to find bugs and wild flowers now. While sunset is still later.
Then, preserve their finds. Perdue has great 4H info here for insects. Southern Living gives 4 ways to dry flowers.
Next spring, your children will think you’re a genius.
Humility and Bug Collecting
I couldn’t decide if I wanted to talk about humility or intelligence with bug and flower collecting. But Anna thinks they all tie together beautifully. She really likes our Camp Krafve definition of Humility.
Camp Krafve Definition of Humble—Able to put others before myself because I know God has my back.
“I love that, when you were talking about nature, Mom, you were conflicted and you couldn’t decide if this idea of collecting beautiful things in nature goes better with humility or intelligence,” Anna laughs. She turns to her hubby as an example of both.
How Humility and Nature Go Together
“Having lived with him (her husband) for over 15 years, so my theory is that if you will cultivate in your children a love of nature, it will also innately cultivate in them humility,” explains Anna. “It’s one of the reasons I was very attracted to him.”
Before they were officially dating and were just friends, he called her to say, “I’m looking at the most beautiful sunset.” Or, “it’s raining here; the lightning is gorgeous.”
“He wanted to say how awesome our God is. Because he is innately aware to his bones that nature declares the glory of God,” she says.
When you see something and it is beautiful, according to Anna, it is God is showing up in this world He created. “As we’ve been married longer, I’ve learned my husband is one of the most humble leaders I have ever met,” she adds.
“His parents set about on purpose to teach their kids stewardship and love of what God made. Also, he (her hubby) is really smart, so that’s why I think it’s great you couldn’t pick between intelligence and humility,” she laughs.
Her husband is very smart.
“He’s tall and handsome, too, but that’s beside the point” she laughs.
Butterfly Wings and Humility
Like a butterfly wing, humility is intricately connected with intelligence and wisdom.
“When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom.” ~Proverbs 11:2, NKJV
Anna’s house could be a natural history mini-museum. They’ve extensively collected butterfly wings, mummified lizards, frog bones, small mammal skulls, you name it. All found after the fact, just for the record.
Once the word got out among her art students that Mrs. Pierce liked studying the skeletal structures of animals, she had to make some clear guidelines about what they could bring (already dead, found, clean) and could not bring (alive when they found it, slimy, or stinky) to her classroom.
“We have a skull, we think it’s a raccoon skull. My husband found it for me. He knew it was a treasure,” she says, “It’s got all its teeth.”
She takes it to school for her art students to study.
“When kids see the eye socket, they understand that an eye is not a circle; not two dots like on a smiley face. Eyes have bone structure around them and shadows.”
As she talks, you can hear the excitement in her voice. Her hands wave in the air.
She has no idea her mother is thinking, That is so gross! I can’t believe she takes dead skulls to class! So I guess this proves if you want a great art teacher you should pick Anna, not me!
“Well, I’m also a firm believer in crowd sourcing,” she laughs. “So I crowdsource my dear fifth grade boys. That age boys love finding dead bugs.”
She never worries about her collection getting beat up when kids touch things. She has a ready supply.
“I often regularly show up to class and there’s a dead bug right in the middle of my desk, waiting on me with a very loving note, from a little boy who just knows it’s the thing I always wanted.”
Boys are not the only ones who love to surprise her with nature.
“I got some of the best turtle shells for Christmas. Two of my fifth grade girls just knew they had the perfect Christmas gift for me,” she laughs, “It was so much better than anything else they could have picked. I was so excited.”
I might prefer chocolate to dead turtles.
“Chocolate is pretty good, too,” Anna laughs.
Nature Within Reach
Not everyone lives in the country. But nature is within reach for those whose outdoor footprint consists of a small patio or balcony. Some free ways to collect nature include:
- at city parks,
- at grandparents’ homes
- by walking around the block,
- by spending the day at state or national parks,
- by finding a nature museum and making use of any outdoor free spaces,
- or by visiting college campuses.
While we can’t pick flowers or catch butterflies in public spaces, no one will mind if you catch a beetle or pick a dandelion.
“If you have a small place, I strongly suggest getting your child a field notebook. Let them draw pictures of the nature you see,” Anna suggests, “They can collect clouds of different shapes. Then, they don’t have to bring home everything they find.” We are both huge fans of field guides.
Anna’s hubby used to collect rocks and sticks behind his bed, according to a reliable source. When he was tot, his mom used to pull out his bed and clear out his secret cache periodically. Possibly, it’s hereditary.
“My daughter has twenty treasure boxes. Anytime she’s looking for something specific we have to open a dozen different boxes,” laughs Anna.
Humility, Observation, and Messy People
Learning to observe nature can help your child respond humbly when around messy people. Don’t we all have messy people in our lives? Yeah, okay, and sometimes the messy people are us!
“Also, observing deeply, developed intelligence and imagination,” adds Anna.
“Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” ~Georgia O’Keeffe, Georgia O’Keeffe
“When you observe closely, like a flower, of course, you see the beauty of what you’re looking at,” says Anna. “You see the details, all the goodness of it.”
But you also observe any of the flaws; the bug crawling on the blossom, the eaten spot, the blemishes, the imperfections, according to Anna. In the process, the flower becomes personal, something you claim in your heart, because you know and understand the flower.
Just like when you have a friend.
Of course, teaching our children to love nature, even with any perceived “flaws,” is easy because kids are so attracted to nature anyway. Loving nature translates so beautifully in the rest of their lives, especially into their relationships.
God is the God of Bouquets
When you help your kids collect bugs or flowers or rocks or sea shells, you’re teaching them to respect and value God’s design of creation and the variety He purposely packed into it.
“I’ve often told the kids ‘God is the God of bouquets,’ laughs Anna.
He loves variety. Nuances are His great pleasure. Just consider the nuances of His design for trees. Magnolia, Pine, Oak, Mesquite; there’s so much variety just among trees!
I really hope you’ll listen in to the podcast because Anna told about a specific exercise she does each year with her students to teach them how very dear each one is to God’s heart. If you listen in, there was much more.
Instead, I’m skipping to a summary of what she said about apologizing.
Because apologizing is essential to humility.
Apologizing: The Contagious Skill
Anna explains how one parent can set the tone for the whole family.
“Periodically jokingly I complain to God. I just groan because my husband is so dear in his humility; he inevitably apologizes first,” she laughs. “Because once my husband has humbled himself before me and apologized for things—I mean, that’s it—I get to do it, too.”
Anna and I know not all people have a spouse like hers. If you need some creative ideas to reboot your marriage, please check out my book, Marriage Conversations.
Teaching Our Children Humility
I was heartbroken the first time someone told me they went through their whole childhood never hearing their dad apologize. I’ve since learned that’s actually more common than we might think. Apologizing is a crucial skill to teach sons, in particular, but daughters, too.
If you lived your whole childhood with a parent who never apologized, you can change that dynamic for your children. And give them a new, much healthier way of living, simply by apologizing to them from time to time.
“If you model it, it comes back to bless you,” reports Anna. She experienced this boom-a-rang effect of humility when her kids were just tots.
“The first time one of my kids truly said something mean to me, it hurt. They’re so powerful and they don’t understand how powerful they are.”
She chose to be silent and let her face express her hurt. She was amazed when their little conscience responded immediately.
“They apologized and they said, just like we do in our family, ‘Mama, I messed up, I did (whatever they’d done wrong). Would you forgive me?’ It was beautiful. It was such an unexpected blessing.”
Don’t ya love it as a parent when you keep doing the right thing, for their sakes, and it boom-a-rangs back to you unexpectedly!
“Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love.” ~Stevie Wonder
Thank you for Reading–AND Listening!
Today’s blog may seem rather long. In fact, Anna covered so much good ground in our podcast, I really wanted to share much more.
Especially if you’re a teacher, I hope you’ll file the podcast away and listen in after the back-to-school rush settles down.
I often think about having faith in God. But I’m so grateful to ponder Anna’s thoughts about God having faith in us. He loves that bouquet; the variety He’s put in every one of us. He’s essentially put His faith in us to draw others to Himself.
“He is innately faith-full. He can not be separated from that; it’s who He is,” she says.
I love that. God’s faithfulness is demonstrated in each individual, even when we’re messy. Observing what He made, reveals His nature. It inspires us with awe and humility.
Finally, Mary Ottman
Finally, a shout out to my friend Mary Ottman who just spoke in New York at a United Nations Association event called, Empowering Women and Girls to Thrive Summit. Her talk is titled “How to Turn Timid Team Members Into Confident Powerhouses.”
You may wonder where I found such a great voice to do the announcements for Fireside Talk Radio. That beautiful twang belongs to Mary who gave me her voice-over as a gift when I first started podcasting years ago. So you can imagine how proud and happy I am to see her honored. Congrats dear friend!
Grateful and Humbled
I am so grateful. For YOU, for Mary and all who keep truth seeking, for my family. And especially for God’s ongoing, redeeming work in our hearts and lives. And I am always humbled that folks like you actually read my stuff. Thank you!
🙂
Cathy
May we pray together?
Dear good Father, we want to be humble people, but humility is so hard. Our pride gets in the way. Noone wants to apologize. But you gave us the perfect example of humility in Your Son, Jesus, who humbled Himself and even went to the cross for us. Help us be like You. Even more than we love our pride, we want to teach our kids and grandkids the beauty of humility. Thank You for giving us nature to see Your creative love for us in every aspect. Bless us now because that is Your heart’s desire. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
We LOVE to Hear From YOU!
What is the biggest truth you’ve learned from nature? How are you teaching your children to have healthy relationships? Would you be interested in getting resources to small churches? If so, keep reading below.
Resources for Small Churches
If I can serve you or your church in any way, I hope you will let me. Contact me, if you want to know more about how to:
- sponsor resources for small churches to grow in better communication.
- cultivate better communication in your church, or sponsor resources for small churches to grow in better communication.
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More Great Quotes about Humility
“Because we are all made in His image, each person reflects part of the image of God.” ~Anna Krafve Pierce
“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.” ~Philippians 2:3 NKJV (For more on stewardship and sharing, click here.)
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” ~Matthew 6:28-30 NKJV
“Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another….” ~Romans 12:10 NKJV
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Cathy Krafve, host of Fireside Talk Radio and author of The Well: The Art of Drawing Out Authentic Conversations and Marriage Conversation: From Coexisting to Cherished. Your stories, ideas, and questions welcomed here!
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