Lessons from Nanny Theresa

I am spoiled. I have a nanny. It's true. She comes a few hours five days a week to help me with the kids and various household tasks. She has been a tremendous blessing to our family. In addition to the wonderful help she is, I've also learned a lot from her. Sometimes she and I will talk for hours while the kids are playing or napping. I've learned a lot about her culture (she is from Sri Lanka), her life here in Bahrain (she's been here 25 years), and what is it like to look at the world from another person's perspective.

The other day I was dropping her off at her house. Along the way, somebody cut in front of me in the turning lane at a stoplight. I threw my hands up in mild disgust and Theresa just laughed. She said, "Augusta, Arabs! They have no discipline! They are doing whatever they feel like doing!" Then she added, "It is a problem in my country, too. The people are always just doing what they want. They are never thinking!"

In response to this I said, "Why doesn't someone teach them? Why doesn't someone give them discipline?" She replied, "Augusta, who will teach them?"

"Uh, their parents," I offered lamely.

She said, "How can they teach them? The parents are the same. They have no discipline either."

For some reason that really stuck with me as something to seriously consider when I'm raising my own children. I'm grateful that God is teaching me through all sorts of ways. Sometimes the things He has to say to me come from very surprising places.

Augusta