My sister-in-law, Nicole, has a cute children's book about buckets. Forgive me for not being cooler and giving you the name and author, etc, I can get that info if anyone really wants it. Anyhow, it talks about how everyone has a bucket, and throughout the day we either fill up or dip from other people's buckets. Sharing, saying kind words, generally being nice fills the bucket of others, and in turn fills our own buckets. Being rude, mocking, not sharing, or ignoring other people dips from their buckets, and likewise, dips from our own. Some people think they can fill their own bucket by dipping from other people's, but that never works, they only feel more empty as a result. So, it encourages us to be bucket fillers.
LOVED this book, super simple, profound, and easily grasped by little people, who truly want everyone's bucket to be full.
We use this theory a lot in our house. When we see Isaak being nice we'll say something like, "ISAAK!! That filled my bucket!! Thank you!" or, "Did you see that big smile Kaebri gave you? You totally filled her bucket!!" Conversely, we'll say, "Oh, that dipped from my bucket, my bucket is empty now. What could you do to fill it up?" or, "Were you being a bucket filler or a bucket dipper?" Isaak is highly motivated (most of the time) by these invisible buckets. Sometimes I'll see him do something nice for Kaebri, and he'll run right over and say to me, "Mommy!! I filled Kaebri's bucket!! She's sooo happy now!"
The other night, after Isaak took painstakingly long to say a prayer (he's been rather rebellious in this department lately) I leaned over gave him a squeeze and told him how happy Heavenly Father was to hear from him. He smiled and said, "I filled His bucket!!" :) I just smiled and said, "Yes, you did Bug, I'm sure of it!"
4 comments:
I often think of that story! Thanks for the reminder and for filling my bucket today with your compliments!
oh, girl. you have no idea how badly we need a new 'idea' or way of reminding our girls how important it is to be NICE to each other! You better believe i just put this book on hold at the library! (it's called "have you filled a bucket today")
thanks for the idea!!
lol.. ok funny thing. My sophomore year of HS, we got a new principal. He gathered each class and quoted that book and actually BROUGHT IN A BUCKET AND LADLE! We all thought he was so lame (given we all were way sad to lose our old one) and totally made fun of him throughout the REST of high school. We thought it was for elementary age kids, not HS... obviously this demonstrates it very well! ;) It works for kids, not for high schoolers... lol So when I read this it totally gave me a flashback and made me literally lol... ;)
Great concept! Heard it before, but I didn't realize there was a book! Delightful, we will have to check it out! (And I'm older than High School!) =0)
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