Lucy's heart

Last Saturday Lucy woke up and came and cuddled with me for a few minutes before we got up. She went to her room to get something and when she made it to the living room she had her penny love box/piggy bank. She started taking the money out and separating it. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "Mama, I want to give this money to another little girl." Of course my heart melted. We went on to have a little conversation about who she wanted to give the money to and what she wanted to do. She wanted to give lots of girls a dollar with several coins and began to separate it all out.



I was trying to think of some way to channel her desire without having to go to the street corner and find a girl to hand $1.27 to. I thought about the Operation Christmas Child and we looked it up online and watched some of the videos about the program.

Lucy said "Yes, Mama, that's what I want to do...can I go give it to them now?"
Mama said "No, but we can go this morning and buy things to put in a box and send."

Lucy was super excited but she thought all she needed to bring were the pennies in her box because she has the most of them. She did not want to bring the dollars because "I only have 12 of those, Mama and a lot of pennies." I convinced her to take some of the dollars too and we loaded up - after breakfast and headed to the dollar store. Lucy picked out things for the little girl - with some guidance and Samuel caught on and wanted to buy things for a little boy. He told me he would give me money for it when we got home. So, Lucy spent $7, Samuel spent $7 and I pitched in $7. What a great morning! They were both excited and only asked several times if they could have something for Christmas.

The children were so excited to pack it up but we didn't actually do the packing until this Friday night when I said - "Hey, why don't we pack our boxes." Samuel jumped up and found the plastic boxes we bought and said "Yeah, that will be great - its for other kids and that is important!" (FYI - 2 second earlier they were fighting over who go to hold a silly band). They had a good time figuring out how to fit everything into their boxes. Then when the boxes were full we prayed for the little girl and little boy who would receive these boxes. Lucy's prayer was so sweet "God, I hope she likes these toys, help her to be happy, help her if she is sick to feel better. Amen." and Samuel "Dear God, thank you for giving me lots of toys, help this boy if he is feeling bad to feel better when he gets this box, I hope he really likes the monster trucks. Amen."


Carefully decorated boxes with love.

Sweet, sweet reminder of what is important - help me to remember their little hearts are growing and do enjoy giving even when I get frustrated with their selfish hearts - isn't my heart just as selfish and often less giving I'm just better at hiding it? Lord, make me thankful and grateful, especially this Thanksgiving season!