25 April 2008

The flower

The kids are doing well, but we are praying for some friends to come in to their lives soon. They have been fabulous with each other, but right now they are all they have, and it has been that way for months now. Sometimes I think that they aren't interested at all in ministry or even Emthonjeni. They fuss when it is time to go, they hang back without getting involved while we are there. I"m realizing more that they are just self conscious. The kids there all know each other, and all know Emthonjeni, and speak Zulu and Tswana for the most part... kind of puts my kids on the outside of the circle. But then, they surprise me with a comment or something they write in a letter... something they noticed or remembered. God is working in their lives as well as ours... and I need to be patient.



This week we finished reading James together, and I had the kids read it through on their own one day and pick out a special passage to do a poster on yesterday while Billy and I were away. Avery picks out "but the one who is rich should take pride in his low position because he will pass away like a wild flower." I'm thinking that she picked it just because she wanted to draw a flower on her poster . I was good though, instead of scolding her right off, I asked her to explain to me why she chose that verse... but to tell the truth, I was really only asking her so she would have to admit she didn't' do the assignment.

She takes a deep breath and answers .. "Well, I see so many rich people just passing by the poor people like they don't matter, like they don't even have value, like only the rich people are important...they forget that God made us all. They forget that maybe they have richness because God gave it to them so they can help other people with it. They just think they are so fancy like a flower but forget that they are just a flower. I don't want to be like them. I want to always remember that no one is more important than someone else and I"m not more important because I have a big house or beautiful clothes or good food. I want to always love."

4 comments:

  1. Wow.

    I can totally see that conversation taking place... both sides of it.

    And wow again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. umm humm...there is a bigger reason why we don't always understand our kids, and the lessons they teach us (I think) are God saying, "Listen".
    The beat goes on!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The beauty I find in your family brings me to tears.

    Kids really are closer to God, aren't they?

    ReplyDelete

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