Yesterday I wrote a few writing assignments geared toward self-examination on the dry-erase board in our living room for our kids to complete during the afternoon. Below you can find some of their answers.

Write a list of at least 5 goals you have for the remainder of the year 2015:

(Gleny, 10 years old):

1. [Keep singing] praises in choir
2. Love Josselyn and Gabriela more [the two young sisters who arrived this month to our home]
3. Keep doing well in my studies
4. Keep having a relationship with God
5. Concentrate more on the Way of Jesus Christ

(Dayana, 14 years old):

1. Be able to have a good level of music [proficiency], principally in violin
2. Be able to pass my exams (pass them with effort)
3. Be able to concentrate on God and have the power to be a teacher [of His Word]
4. Learn English well
5. Be able to learn another [musical] instrument
6. Have a good level [of proficiency] in piano
7. Be able to do well in all of my classes
8. Be able to become a positive young woman
9. Learn more about life
10. To truly have a good attitude on a heart-level
11. Be able to be sincere from  the heart
12. Learn to cook
13. Learn more from you [Darwin, I and others]
14. Be able to have more moments with Pa and Ma
15. Be able to show love and help others

Write at least 8 things that you have learned recently (from God’s Word, at school, from another person, in daily life, etc.):

(Gleny, 10 years old):

1. What I learned is that we have a relationship with God and that we can reflect Him.
2. God gave us a place where we could enjoy Him. [In the Garden of ‘Eden’, which means ‘Pleasure’] He gave us all of our pleasure so that we could eat any fruit from any tree except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
3. We have the full decision to choose good or evil, but we see choosing evil as being easier.
4. What I have learned from my daily life is that respect is important among people. To be sincere, sometimes I do not respect my siblings.
5. Another thing I have learned is sincerity. You always have to be honest with other people so that they believe you.
6. Honesty is useful to us to be true, sincere and just.
7. Friendliness is useful to us to be happy and to share with others.
8. Loving others is important because I believe that if I want others to love me then I should do the same for them.

(Jackeline, 11 years old):

1. I learned to love and appreciate others
2. To pray
3. To not have hatred or repay evil with evil
4. To read His Word
5. To trust
6. To not have fear
7. To never give up
8. To have a good attitude
9. To have compassion
10. To have self-control

(Dayana, 14 years old):

1. To not focus on the appearances of others but rather on how they are in their heart
2. To be firm in my word
3. To wait for the appropriate time for things to occur (example: get married)
4. To show who I am without fear
5. To listen to others
6. To speak of God with people who need Him without fear
7. To have love, compassion and hope in this life
8. To have patience with what I do and have love towards others

I will also include 8-year-old Jason’s list of things he has learned recently because it is kind of funny…

1. To not fight
2. To not make a ruckus
3. To not say bad things
4. To always say “I can”
5. To not tell others they are ugly
6. To not laugh while we are praying at church
7. To not laugh at old people
8. To not hate other people