Beware of Little Girls

So last night in A.W.A.N.A most of the time was taken up by rehearsal for the Christmas music. Game time was going to be combined and I needed an idea so everyone could play together and have a good time. Well my teens love to play dodge ball, and my little ones always want to play dodge ball. But the idea of a 15 year old hurling a ball at ridiculous speeds toward a 4 year is probably not the 4 year olds idea of fun. So I changed the rules a little. Everyone who was older/taller had to throw left handed (Or for the southpaws, the opposite hand) I wasn't completely sure how well it would work, but I thought hey these aren't my children... J/K. I talked with the teens said if I see you pelt one of my wee ones, they'd be in some serious trouble.

(oh look a rabbit trail) Speaking of my teens, we have the best kids at our church I have ever seen. Our older ones willingly play games and include the young kids all the time. It's quite interesting to see the Warrior run full speed at the 15 year olds and tackle them quite effectively.

back on track here...

So here are the little girls I am referring to are Liver Pie, Sis and the Princess. (as pictured below)

Remember these faces should you ever come across them on the dodge ball field. They are extremely dangerous and should be considered lethal with a ball.

So here's how it went down. We all played as a group and had a blast. Sis was on my team (thankfully) and she was a fighter. She would run up to the line and nail anyone who dared get near her. And the way I remember it the Mad Monk had entered the game and was hitting people left and right, until his beloved daughter threw a ball when he wasn't ready. He did a really good three stooges impression trying to catch it but was unsuccessful. Sis Cheered! and grinned at me. I applauded from the sideline because her father got me out earlier, I was avenged!!! So in another game I had developed a nice side arm throw. It worked wonders on the teens. It would curve a little once thrown. Well the sneaky, Liver Pie had just thrown a ball that went randomly flying into the crowd (these were dangerous cause they came out of no where, no where meaning from about 2 feet off the ground from the cute giggling blondie) and I threw my ball trying to hit an older kid. I missed and it hit Liver Pie in the chest. She clapped her hands together catching the ball as if she meant to do it. I was in shock!!! Although at first she thought she was out but we had to explain to her that it was me that was out. She gloated the rest of the night, there wasn't a moment that went by when she didn't tell me that she caught my ball. Man, what do these parents teach their kids?

Stupid Dodge Ball!!!

Oh and the little princess who I am going to start a petition to get it changed to the little warrior princess. She wins MVP (Most Valuable Player).

This girl stayed in longer than anyone on both teams. I don't know if it was skill or size but she was good. see the pic below for a size comparison of the Little (Warrior) Princess.

I mean come on how do you hit her. She was bouncing and jumping. She even outlasted her brother in every game. I guess it could be her size. Although, if she ever figures out that she can't hit anyone from the back of the room, there will be no safe place on the court. The Princess even cried when we were done because she wasn't done playing and wanted to make sure their team won. Sounds like my wife when playing any game. Such determination.

But in closing I think these girls are very precious. Their parents ought to be proud of them. I know I am. I'm just more cautious now...

Angel Tree

This year Our company took on the Salvation Army Angel Tree. In short they find children who are in need of gifts for Christmas. Some of the children are in orphanages or foster care, or maybe the parents are going through a hard time, or even a single parent. We don't really know the situation but we are assured from the Salvation army that they do a little research so that we are not being scammed. I'm not sure people would actually do that but people surprise me all the time. So as I went through the names trying to find a boy or a girl to get gifts for, I came across a girl named Kaylene. I liked the name. We even named our dog Kaylee. So the named jumped out to me cause I liked. She had a list of needs and wants on there and I considered them to be reasonable for a 12 year old girl.

I had many thoughts about who this little girl was. I wondered what was her situation, what does she really need, what does she really like. Shelly and I thought for a while trying to come up with things to get her. On her card she had listed:

Want: Video journal

Need: Jacket

then it listed her sizes so if we wanted we could buy clothes for her.

I thought that was neat, but a little more info about the girl would have been helpful. What does she like does she have a favorite color, does she like cartoon show or something? Here is an example if she like the Dallas Cowboys (okay not a great example) then I could get her a jacket with the Dallas Cowboys on it and she would just love it. Okay well anyway that's not the point of my post. I'm sure they do the best they can. So I tried to do the best I could. There was a 60-70 dollar range for the gifts you would buy. I though okay that sounds fair I guess. So we went shopping.

We ended up spending about $120 and were shocked that it added up so quickly. I guess your heart gets pretty big at Christmas time. As I thought about it more I realized what I had done. Since we have had 2 miscarriages this past year, I was substituting this girl as my own. My eyes were welling with tears as I talked to Shelly about. She then cried thinking about what we didn't have. We talked about it and decided to return some things. First of because we don't really have the money to be spending (we weren't spending that kind of money on our family's). Second because they had a limit in their original asking for someone to spend. We returned a few clothes and settled on about an $80 price range. Still over, but there were some things we felt we should get. So here's what we got her.

The video journal

new black fleece jacket w/ hoodie (girls love the hoodie)

Thumper pajamas

various candies in Christmas packaging ( Reese, Hershey, gummy life-savers)

Candy flavor lip gloss

A Bible (that's what it looked like)

Doesn't seem like much but the video journal was almost $30 and the bible was $25.

I wasn't sure about getting her a bible at first. I wondered if the Salvation army would approve, then I thought, I don't care. I felt that I should share the one gift that she needed. That is the gift that only God can give. I figured if the little girl was a Christian, how happy would she be when she got her own new bible that is leather and a pretty Burgundy. If she does not know Christ, then I must rely on God's Sovereignty to save her soul. We kept thinking, maybe we should write something in it or put some sort of list of verses for her to read. I did put her name in it and put the date and put that it was from the millers. After a while I wondered what should I have written that was not already written. How convincing can I be? Can I convince someone to choose Christ? Am I head of the Marketing department for Christ? Are we selling Jesus? (BTW this will another blog in the future)

I was reminded of this passage in Luke 16:29-30

But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'

So what I was able to give her was Moses and the prophets. I just pray that the Lord would reveal himself to her and she would come to know him through His word. This is all I can really do for her. Until she knows Christ she will never know true peace and love.