each according to their strength

I don’t quite understand yet why it made me smile so much. But there we all were, in a little single file train, walking to the library, me and my kids. We had a whack of children’s books to return, and the first thing I thought of was, “How am I going to lug all these books in here by myself?”

And then I thought, “Well, it might be fun to spread the load a little.”

So I did, each according to their strength.

I gave the most books to my eldest son.

Then about four light books for my middle daughter (she’s almost 4).

And a few light ones for my two-year-old.

There were a couple of odd-sized books leftover for me.

Happily, I shut the door of the minivan and beckoned my children to follow me. I sensed a shift in them, now that they had books under their armpits. Giving them a job to do that was neither too hard nor too easy, but just right, helped them focus. Once they had a little domain to govern, they changed from children who wanted to careen into the next activity, into good, dutiful citizens, each doing their part and contributing to the common goal of getting those books from the minivan to the return bin.

How else can I say it but that it pleased me?