Boys are Overrated

I volunteer at a community center twice a week. The center is a branch off from our church, so you can call it Christian based although we don't shove the belief down the throats of the kids. Basically, we offer a safe place for kids of all ages to come hang out and be entertained.  And we feed them. So that makes them happy!

The young girls seem to enjoy talking with me and ask me to "hang out" with them. From the six year old little ladies who ask me to make bracelets for them to the twelve year old tweens who talk to me about boys.  

Sigh...boys.  

Why are preteens so worried about boys already? I was one of them twenty years ago. Well, to be honest, I was boy crazy as early as kindergarten. I so very deeply wanted to be in love. I have no idea why. But boys had the answer to some epic question I started seeking very early in life.

Today, one of the twelve year old girls named Chelsie (who has a twelve year old boyfriend named Gavin who also hangs out at the center) asked me, "Why do you say we are too young to have boyfriends?" Oh. My. Gosh! God opened up a door for me to stick a foot into! But I tripped as I was walking in.

I didn't know how to answer. And I didn't know how to tactfully bring God into the conversation without scaring the Chrisitanity right out of her. I fumbled with my words until this came out:

"Well, I think there is more in life that should be of greater importance to you at this age."

Ooh. That was good!

"What do you mean?" She asked

Yay, God is giving me another chance.

"Are you ready to get married, Chelsie?"

She laughed.  "Not for a while."

"Then why do something that is meant to find your husband when you are not even ready to think about marriage?"

She took that to heart. I sat there with thoughts of saying, "also, Jesus wouldn't be happy with you," or, "because you should spend the time you are worshiping your boyfriend worshiping god instead."  I thought about it, but I knew if I said it, I would lose her. She didn't need to hear that. So I said this to make her want to hear more from me:

"Speaking from experience, not as a mom, not as a grown up, nothing but someone who has been there too, Chels, if I could go back and forget about boys until I was much older and focused on something else, my life would have been so different."

She stared at me ready to hear more, but I allowed one of the younger girls to interrupt by tying a bracelet I was braiding onto her outstretched wrist. I said enough. Just enough. 

Now she is waiting to hear what I would have rather focused on instead of boys. How my life would have been different. And God will give me that opportunity to tell her the love she is looking for is way easier to get than to obsess over boys all the time.  God has me there for a reason.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Last night, I was tucking my kids into bed.  As always they were each calling me back to their room for more attention, so I went between the three rooms with various conversations, stopping to pick books up in the hallway, found a pair of discarded jammie bottoms, and then closed each door.  As I did that, I noticed my daughter had put a new sign up on her door.  It simply reads: "Revelations 3:20"

Since I don't have the bible memorized I had to look it up:

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."

She made me smile.

The last month and a half have been some of the hardest times of my life.  And through it all I am working so hard to walk back to God.  In doing so, I'm reading the bible constantly, praying about everything, and doing what God wants me to do in all things.  I've asked God to guide me and use me.

My kids have seen what I am doing.  Last week, my daughter found a kids' devotional book that I had bought for her at a yard sale two years ago.  Knowing how I read several devotionals a day, she asked if we could read it together each night.  The first night only she and her oldest brother joined.  The next night all four of them wanted to listen and to hear me pray.

She's begun falling asleep with the bible in her hands as she is fervently trying to read and understand God's word.  She's not understanding it yet, but that's not what matters.  What matters is the willingness to want to be God's child and to do what God is telling us to do.

I couldn't be prouder each night when I check on each of the kids when I go to bed.  They are all snuggled up in their beds snoozing away.  And there she is sleeping peacefully with the bible in her hands.  Through all of this hurting I am going through right now, God is using me to work on these precious children of mine.  Thank you, God!