Black Beauty, the long-loved classic by Anna Sewell about a well-bred horse who chronicles his life through various circumstances and sensitibilties, has been our chapter book of choice during our evening reading sessions.
All the while, my kids have been singing a song from their Wednesday nights at church that has been ringing in my ears.
“Nuggets of gold. Nuggets of gold. Nuggets of gold.”
Based on the scripture in Proverbs 16:16, we can conclude that scripture itself does contain nuggets of gold:
How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
That’s a given.
What is the cherry on top of life is finding said wisdom nuggets in some unlikely places!
Enter the concept of Black & Gold.
Here are the nuggets that I gleaned Anna Sewell’s grand work, from various characters throughout the stories.
On godly morality:
If a thing is right it can be done, and if it is wrong it can be done without; and a good man will find a way.
In view of being a steward of time:
If you in the morning
Throw minutes away,
You can’t pick them up
In the course of a day.
You may hurry and scurry,
And flurry and worry,
You’ve lost them forever,
Forever and aye.
On true religion, and lived out theology:
There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast it is all a sham – all a sham, James, and it won’t stand when things come to be turned inside out and put down for what they are.
On simplicity and sensibility:
If we could act a little more according to common sense, and a good deal less according to fashion, we should find many things work easier;
So many things to glean, it just seems wrong to select so few. Oh, how I hope those quotes will ring in my ears still, and maybe someday sink deep into my kids hearts as true life wisdom, in addition to Scripture. Maybe small little efforts like these will help.
Now, you might be asking, “Well, then what’s the point? Why drive hard away at concepts over your kids heads, and wouldn’t it be easier not to?”
Though much of it tends to go over the kids heads, they have proven their ability to absorb the majority of the events. If the moral life wisdom grasping comes later, all the merrier.
You have to know something about my husband and I.
He is a still and moving pictures guy, with an emphasis in he thinks in photographs and he loves movies. See how he thinks here.
I myself am a words, spoken, read or written, kind of girl, with the secondary love language of music. See my brain here.
(Our eldest, Ellie, is showing signs of sharing my word love language REAL strong. Can’t pry a book out of her hands!)
So, that being said, we almost run the gamut of artistic sensibilities, and we can’t help it. Just a way that joy manifests itself in our lives! The kids are just starting to show us their ways of expressing joy, and it is blowing my mind!
With a few comprehension activities done, and in view of the fact that we are a moving pictures kind of family, why not solidify concepts through the lens of a filmmaker? I love that we can shape little ones’ passions through our passions.
These photos were taken on the night that culminated from many nights of reading the anticipated movie night!
The kids spent some time with a black beauty beauty coloring page, and ellie, out of the blue, made a saddle from a paper plate! Ingenuity at its finest!
That night, I wanted to make a fitting dessert that coordinated with the love of oats that Black Beauty had, and wound my way around Pinterest until I found these monster cookie bars. Gathering together what I had, they turned out to be s’mores monster cookie bars! We loved them, and even had to freeze a bunch and send some to friends, the recipe made so many! Just a funny little moment made me giggle, that shortly after Beauty went on about “glorious oats,” I was dishing up the dessert to everyone. Teehee.
With everybody snuggled up on the couch, I knew that satisfaction filled the room, emanating from Micah, primarily. Movie nights are a treasured tradition for him. The kidsloved the movie, with the exception of a few scenes that were too intense, and they let us know really quickly.
While I still have the song “Black and Gold” by Sam Sparro (such a good groove) ringing in my ears, I thank God for His infinite wisdom which is at our disposal if we simply ask, and these precious memories with my darling family.
