Know Your Numbers

By: Stephanie Fink

I love being a mom…usually.  (How’s that for honesty?)

Watching my kids grow up is fun and frustrating.  Exciting and excruciating.  Awesome and awful.  Sacred and scary.  
The first day of each new school year brings the familiar, “Ya gotta know your bus number.  Don’t forget it.  That’s how you’ll get back home, okay?”  I showed them the billboard they had to wear around their neck that said their name and bus number.  They nodded as if they were listening to me.  They made it home.

In a cruel twist of fate, days after my husband and I serenaded our boys with, “8-6-7-5-3-0-9” from the 1982 hit song Jenny, we determined it was time they learn their home phone number.  I’ll let you take one guess as to what they said their home phone number was.

You guessed correctly,“8-6-7-5-3-0-9”. 
This charming phase lasted for oh, only about six months. 

I love being a mom, usually,

I stepped up on my soap box and declared, “Kids, this is serious.  Ya gotta know your numbers.  It’s not funny.  What if you get lost?  Ya gotta know your number!”

With a prayer and the help of the Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star ditty, my kids now know their home phone number.

I love being a mom, usually.

It only took, what felt like, forever for them to learn their address.  But they did.  Then we moved.  And, we’re still in process. 

I love being a mom, usually.

“Know your numbers” has been an important theme pressed into my children.  Two summers ago, I knew they needed some new numbers.  These new numbers would also help them, when they needed help finding their way.  The new numbers were Bible verses. 

That summer we (and I do mean we) memorized eight scriptures.  We started with the most important one, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  We moved onto other ones like, “A friend loves at all times.” Proverbs 17:17

This past year, I’ve also started to show them how, to not just know the numbers, but how to look them up in the Bible.

Lysa TerKeurst wrote, “My goal should never be to raise kids that make me look good.  My goal should be to raise kids who love God and spend their lives making His goodness known in their corner of the world.”

In order to know God and make God known, my kids are going to need to know their numbers.  They’re going to need to know what numbers to call up when they’re scared or happy or lonely or sick or trying to deal with their parents.  I want my kids to be physically safe.  So I taught them their home phone, the garage door key code and in time, they’ll know their home address again.  I also want my kids to be spiritually safe too.  And they’ll need to “know their numbers”. 

Have I mentioned lately that I love being a mom? 

What numbers do you want to teach your kids this summer?


Steph's writing has appeared in Proverbs 31 Ministry, P31 Woman magazine.  In her free time she can be found encouraging numerous MOPS group in the northern Virginia area on the "Colorful Art of Friendship - Allowing God to Paint the Masterpieces" and MOPS leaders on "Being a Bright Light".
Steph can be found blogging at www.encouragedinheart.org or on Facebook at Stephanie Fink or on her Facebook page Encouraged in Heart - Stephanie Fink.  She loves big hair, big cups of coffee and big bear hugs.