It's so often said that while we try to teach our children about life, they end up teaching us. This couldn't be more true for me yesterday. A short story (who am I kidding, all of my stories end up long) about my afternoon yesterday. It had as usual been a long, tiring day and I still had a mile of things left on my to do list and it was 5pm. Peyton had soccer practice and I really wanted to re energize so I stopped at Starbucks before her practice. I got my drink and Peyton's water and her and I drove off heading to practice. As we sat at the stop light, Peyton looked out the window and for the first time in her young, innocent life not only saw, but became deeply intrigued by a man sitting on the side of the road. The man was dirty, holding a sign that read "Please, Please Help" and had such a sad look on his face. Then I could see the wheels turning as she looked out the window and continued to watch the man. Then she asked... "Mommy, why is he sitting there?" I explained that he was asking for help because he did not have a home or any food or money. Peyton became devastated by this and told me, "Well mommy, that's sad" I am not sure what it was about this particular time as we have seen homeless individuals in the past and I have tried to explain how we can help. This time though, it really got to her. She then told me that she had a great idea and knew what God would want us to do. She asked me to go back, pick the man up and let him live with us so he would have a home and food like us. I wanted to cry because I didn't know how to explain that I couldn't do that. I then said "well Peyton, we can't do that but maybe one day when we have time, we can pack him up some food and small things and bring it to him"... She had an even better idea. At Joyful Noise Nursery School, each year the children bring in canned food to take to the food pantry at St. Andrews Church. I never knew how much Peyton thought about it and what a gift those teachers had given her by teaching her about kindness and giving to the less fortunate. She told me that we needed to go home and get together a bunch of food and take it to Joyful Noise so they could take it to this man. I was touched beyond words and realized even more what a kind, compassionate, loving, giving child of God my daughter is. I have no doubt that He put her on this earth to teach others kindness and compassion as she taught me yesterday.
As we drove off, I promised Peyton that we would put together a care package for the church and also put together some little goody bags for any local homeless we come across. I would love to start serving in this way and teach my children that we are all equal and to show kindness, compassion and mercy the same way God has for us. Recently Jasper lost a lifelong friend and this friend had spent a lot of years trying to help the homeless and show them God's light. I would love for Jasper and I to kind of "pay it forward" so to speak and continue that work in honor of him and to show his parents that his memory and compassion lives on. On another side of that, I was so very, very disappointed in myself at that moment because the thought went through my head to turn around, hit the grocery store and grab this man some food. I however selfishly with my Starbucks in hand, worried that Peyton would be late for practice and drove right on by. As God spoke to me and gave me the perfect opportunity to teach my child, I selfishly denied it and drove right past. Ended up being 5 minutes early for practice to. My moral of this story is to remind you that we always have little ones watching us and learning from us. We need to set a good example and teach our children about kindness, compassion and mercy. Raise our children up with God in their hearts and teach them to follow their hearts and to help. To serve and to love. I can promise that I have made it my mission to become more compassionate and to start serving in this aspect as my daughter reminded me how easy it is.Through her young eyes and in her mind, she considers us all to be equal and thinks we should all have God's love, blessings, food, water, a house....If only the rest of us got that bigger picture! I hope to be more like my five year old in the future.
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