Lessons Don’t Always go as Planed

I wrote this story down a while back but I thought that you all might enjoy it today especially since I am tired and any post I wrote today would likely be boring.

Almost all good Christian homeschoolers will go through it at one time or another. Do you remember that 365-day course in creation vs. evolution that, when you come to the end, makes you wish that you could just be one of those kids who just accepted what is taught in the public school and didn’t have to think about everything? Oh well, as it is said in the good book, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. ” Anyway, it is an important study, but as your mother can probably attest, lessons don’t always go as you plan them, especially when you get Dad involved.

Now that I have your attention and sympathy, let me tell you about our year-long study on creation vs. evolution, though, to be quite honest, it really wasn’t that long. I think it was the 300 day version; I guess I was lucky.

I (the oldest) and my next two siblings had gone through a video course on creation vs. evolution and done the workbook that went with it. We had attended a great conference and had spent a lot of time discussing the impossibility of things coming about by random chance. My mom and dad planned out a small lesson one Sunday to kick off a small study for the younger three kids that they would be doing (the short 150-day version). We had a lot of fun doing some of the fun activities that Mom had planned, trying to draw cards with the days of creation on them in order, a quiz on what happened on certain days of creation and other such things. The highlight of the party however, was yet to come.

We all gathered together in the living room, and Mom showed us six dice she had painted white and written the letters p-r-a-i-s-e in black ink on each die. Dad talked about the impossibility of molecules lining up to make life, even simple life. To illustrate this he said that no matter how much time you spent rolling those dice, it was nearly impossible to ever get them to spell the word “praise.” We all took turns rolling the dice and sure enough, we just could not get them to spell “praise.” Sometimes, we would only have two of the same letter but all the others would be right. Mom used this to explain that even if one factor was changed, life could not exist. After we had tried for a while, Dad picked up the dice

“See children,” Dad explained, “we could spend the rest of our lives, and we would never get these dice to spell ‘praise.’” As he said this he rolled the dice on to the floor to prove his point. It is at this very moment that I think Mom wished dad had never touched those dice, and all of us kids stared with open mouths then started laughing. Dad had done the impossible – he had rolled the word “praise,” therefore ruining what should have been a fool-proof lesson. Thankfully, I have parents that can laugh at life, and our whole family was laughing for a long time. I think Mom said something like;

“Yes, it is impossible … unless, of course, your dad is throwing the dice.”
The lesson about the impossibility of life coming about by chance was somewhat ruined that day, though Dad was quick to point out that even simple life needed more than six letters to line up in order to work. However, we all learned two other valuable lessons that day. One was that when things don’t go as you have planed, or you mess something up, learn to laugh at yourself and move on. Sometimes we need to remember that the lessons aren’t all about getting things perfect or making great test scores. They are also about fun and the love of learning.

The other lesson we learned was that you should never, ever, if at all possible, give Dad the dice. He is always lucky with them no matter if you are playing a board game or teaching the impossibility of life arising by chance. And, just in case you were wondering, we still have those dice that have the six letters that could spell “praise,” and though we have tried hard, not one of us have been able to get them to make a word. Dad hasn’t even tried again, though.