sand dollars and sea shells

Just over a week ago, my dear, sweet friend, Kay (or as my kids call her "Gramma Kay"), entertained the kids and me for a couple of days at her lovely beach house on Hood Canal . It was a delightful time (as it is every year) and the weather cooperated beautifully for playing on the beach. One highlight was the looooong walk we took one morning to see the sand dollar beds.







Now, I'm assuming I'm not the only one who didn't know that sand dollars live in these HUGE beds together and when they are alive--they are black. When the water becomes extremely shallow in the beds, they lay down and somehow burrow a bit under the sand. When the water is a bit higher, the stand up on their sides (see next pic). There must have been hundreds of thousands of these sand dollars in beds scattered all over that area of the beach.









Another amazing part of that walk was the discussion we had about sea shells. The kids observed that many sea shells that are plain on the outside are beautiful on the inside and vice versa. Kay and I shared how we had often observed the same pattern in people. Just because someone looks great on the outside, doesn't mean they are beautiful on the inside. And, some of the people we've known who weren't much to look at on the outside had some of the most beautiful hearts. We also observed that just in the same way a shell's beautiful, pearly inside is usually made by the animal inside experiencing some sort of irritation, so it's the same with people. Usually, the "beautiful people" I know have experienced some sort of tragedy, pain or hardship that, while difficult to endure while it's going on, helps produce the loveliness left behind.


I love the Deuteronomy 6 principle of parenting--teaching your children God's wisdom, "...when you sit in your in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up...."--and I'll add, "When you're on the beach!"

Life is full of teachable moments. There are so many lessons all around us just waiting to be used to help our children understand the ways of the Lord. I love how He encases nuggets of wisdom in the most surprising places....like sand dollars and sea shells!