Bearing Fruit in Due Time

It's much better, I think, to assume that the child is doing his part, and that the seed you have sown will bear fruit in due time.

From a letter written by Annie Sullivan, May 8, 1887.

Last year, I reread the book, The Story of My Life by Helen Keller, a book I devoured in high school. We never had one of those water-pump moments with Pamela, but Anne Sullivan's philosophy of education is so much like Charlotte Mason's that I gained a new appreciation for her genius. Right now, we are sowing little seeds via RDI, and today I saw it bear fruit.

My mother, who lives across the street, has a wonderful garden, blooming with tomatoes, asparagus, roses, persimmons, banana peppers, and four kinds of berries. Pamela loves her Oma's raspberries, and three raspberries were ripe yesterday--the first fruits of the season. Mom handed them to me for Pamela, and I strolled home with three berries in one hand and a bag of stuff in the other. I walked into the house very excited and acting mysteriously. I teased Pamela, "Guess what I have?"

She was very interested and ran to the kitchen to peek in the bag I had left on the counter (a big disappointment, of course). So, I told her, "No, it's in my hand!"

She ran up to me eagerly and I said, "First you have to open your mouth and close your eyes." She had the biggest smile on her face, but she was so eager that she kept peeking. So, I playfully chided her about peeking, and she laughed and smiled.

Then, I said, "Here, you can touch it and try to guess." The moment she did she blurted out, "Raspberries!" and I congratulated her. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth and I fed her the raspberries one at a time. Pamela's smiles were huge during this little episode and she was just delighted.

While this was not a ground-breaking, water-pump moment, the following verse (Luke 2:19) about Mary comes into my mind:

But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.