One of my fondest memories is when I was in high school and part of my church's youth group. I remember one night I went to church expecting to perform some sort of service project with what my then-church calls "Passion Groups". These groups each serve a specific purpose. The idea of Passion Groups as a whole is for everyone in the youth group to join the group that best suits them and use their individual talents to serve God and other people. I was in the Service Passion Group, because I love doing service projects and getting to know people and hearing their stories, and hopefully in some way in doing that show them the Father's love. So, that night I went to my Passion Group not knowing what service we were to perform that night. Every night is different, and the last time we had put together bags of necessities (toothpaste, granola bars, water, etc.) and taken them to homeless people. Then, we sat and talked with the people and just got to know them and if they wanted to, we prayed with them. It was beyond incredible! The night I remember best, our service project was to have sort of a field day/party for a family that was filled with wonderful, sweet, precious children and their single mom. We set up chalk on the sidewalk, brought out soccer and footballs, had a water balloon fight, spray painted their (and of course our) hair-pink and blue-and then after it all ate brownies, cupcakes, and watched veggie tales. The kids were absolutely precious and completely brought out the kid in everyone in the Service Passion Group. We blew bubbles, played "Don't Let the Balloon Touch the Ground", and made up games where we ran around and pretended to be dinosaurs! It was honestly one of the most fun nights of my life, and it was all completely unexpected, as I didn't know what our service was going to be that night. I'm so blessed that we got the chance to hang out and share God's love with those beautiful-inside and out-kids. It was also great to get to know them. One little girl, Emily, was absolutely PRECIOUS. She had these huge green eyes and strawberry blond-reddish hair. She was only four, and at first she was shy, but after the night she had come out of her shell and was talking away! At the beginning of the night I asked her, "Are you a princess?" This was after we all had pink hair and the girls were saying that we were all princesses. Emily said "Yes" in a shy and timid way. I scooped her up and said "Well then, you get a princess ride!" and I carried her across to where the bubbles were, because she wanted to go blow bubbles. At this point she was still a little shy. By the end of the night, Emily came up to me and asked ME-"Can I have another princess ride?" It was absolutely adorable. I marveled at how innocent she was in her questioning and demeanor. She was so precious and I'm so glad I got to spend a fun night with her. All of the kids were awesome, and I'm so happy that the Father blessed me and my Passion Group by giving us the opportunity to serve Him and this sweet wonderful family. The night was also a reminder to me to have a child-like spirit always and what that exactly means, balancing child-like attributes while still growing up in the world and maturing in my walk with the Lord. Lately I feel like I've been forgetting that, and so I often think back to that evening when I need a reminder of what it's like to have that spirit.
Emily exuded such beautiful characteristics without really even meaning to; it's how she was:
- Honesty
- Innocence
- Silliness
- Joy
- Love
- Peace
- Goodness
- Gentleness
