There are two kinds of things a child learns from play: the character things and the joy things.

Most play, when it’s successful, makes joy so predominate over all the other effects that we ought to value it for this alone — because joy is a reflection of our Father who is in Heaven. It’s a taste of heavenly joy.

Children don’t say, “Oh joy!” but “Golly, we had fun!” But it means the same thing. And early childhood is the time to connect play with God and the joys of eternity.

I have a suspicion that certain people aren’t convinced that this will work; perhaps it sounds like mealy twaddle. But consider: early childhood is not a time of doubts. When taught very young that God provides, and is the source of all blessings, children simply understand it as true. It’s part of their wonderful wisdom.

The other night, one of our boys was watching the fire. When we were alone, he said, “I love watching the fire. I was thinking, God is awful good to give us a nice house with a fireplace so we can have fires in it.”

Perhaps he will not think of it in quite that way when he’s older. He may think then that a fireplace is a blessing because it invites companionship, and his friends enjoy coming to his house and eating in front of the fire.

But he has the right thing first, and when the day comes to reflect as a mature person on the joys of this life, he does not have to discover their Source. He knows it already.

Sharing, which is probably the first and most obvious of the lessons to be learned in play, is difficult and has to be learned painfully. It’s learned faster when we take pains to praise sharing when we see it.

Not sharing can bring play to a dismal end; we can teach children about it by pointing this out also. Using the same motive as before, we can remind him that playmates are other Christs, and we must be as considerate and gentle with them as we would with the Christ Child Himself.

This is very difficult, especially when playmates seem most of the time to be piggish contenders for wagons and balls and blocks or the coveted roles of leader, mother, and queen.

But the same principles apply, and it helps children to learn surrender by recalling our Lord’s counsel that it’s better to act as servant than master, to take the lower place than the higher.

Also, in a nice way, we can help them see over possessiveness, bossiness, and brutality in play as signs that people don’t understand what God wants of them or how He meant them to love.

Also — and this helps immensely — we can smooth resentment against brutish playmates many times by reminding children to pray for them (privately!). Not only has this smoothed resentment, but it has had a noticeable effect on the playmates. And why not?

No Christian is obliged, however, to stand by and allow his children to be victimized forever by playmates. Up to a certain point, he can learn lessons in Christian graciousness by giving in. Past that point, he can often become badly hurt (physically and spiritually) by becoming a kind of professional scapegoat.

It’s too much to expect a child to rise to the heights of detachment every time he faces a conflict, and when he’s hopelessly outweighed, outvoiced, and pushed around time after time, it’s good to remove him and substitute other companions or some other form of play.

There are such things as self-respect and discrimination to be learned, as well as justice to be upheld; and we do neither our children nor their playmates any favor by allowing neighborhood tyrants to dominate without any correction.

This teaching of Christian behavior does not stop with our own children. We’re supposed to help all men find Christ. Often abuses can be smoothed out and eliminated by plunging to the heart of the matter and reminding the neighborhood bully that he has an obligation in God’s sight to protect, not victimize, the smaller members of his society.

The drive for security is usually the root of such bullying, and a boy who had to find it by dominating can often find greater satisfaction playing the role of protector.

A friend of mine settled such a conflict between two boys by inviting them into her home one day during Lent and reminding them of the meaning of Lent and of Easter. “He did it to teach you how to love each other. You have an obligation to Him to try to get along.”

She helped them sort out their whole altercation, piece by piece, and when they analyzed it, each could see he was partly to blame.

An uncomfortable rift between two neighboring families was nicely avoided, and the boys were grateful for her help. “Not that they thanked me in so many words,” she says, “but they went out hanging on each other.”

It takes time and patience and understanding and, most of all, faith to appreciate that the aggressors of this world are such because they’re unhappy and haven’t tried hard enough to love.

REVIEWS:

This maglet is a great way to inspire yourself to stay on track and in some ways get back on track when you’ve fallen off!!! Very easy to read and understand the concepts. It helps me to stay on the “happy” path. Thank you Leane!

This ‘maglet’ is absolutely wonderful with important topics for the Catholic wife from a traditional Catholic perspective. The booklet is very pleasing to the eye as well as very pleasing to read. It was shipped in a very timely manner. I haven’t had a chance to read through it all yet; however, from what I have read thus far I know I will thoroughly enjoy this and be able to apply what I read towards my own life. It is difficult nowadays to find any sort of literature that is positively and specifically written for traditional Catholic women in general. We are out there and I certainly appreciate finding such a gem of a publication! I highly recommend this maglet for any traditional Catholic wife and those becoming a wife. I look forward to ordering other publications by Leane VanderPutten. Highly recommended!

I really enjoyed reading the Maglet. Great job Leane!

❤️🌹Our first line of defense is the bond we must have with our husband. Besides our spiritual life, which gives us the grace to do so, we must put our relationship with our husband first. It is something we work on each day.

How do we do this? Many times it is just by a tweaking of the attitude, seeing things from a different perspective. It is by practicing the virtues….self-sacrifice, submission, thankfulness, kindness, graciousness, etc.

The articles in this maglet will help you with these things. They are written by authors that are solid Catholics, as well as authors with old-fashioned values….

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