My Friday Night Surprise

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Today is a major work day for this year’s Homeschool Dramatic Society play. When I sat down to write today’s story, I thought of one of my all-time favorite lines of one of our daughter’s plays. Imagine a teenage boy dressed up as a poor Appalachian man  and speaking this line with a major Southern drawl. It goes like this: “Yore not safe from surprise ’til yore dead!”

Well, I had one of those super-surprising experiences a couple of weeks ago. Ray and I were at a church conference, where we had a Notgrass History booth in the exhibit hall. One night, as we headed to our room in the hotel, we waited for an elevator.

Passengers in the newly-installed elevator in the Washington Monument in 1927. Courtesy Library of Congress.

I noticed the youngest member of a family who was also waiting with his daddy, mama, and two siblings. Each of the children was well-behaved but it seemed that the mama was paying particular attention to the littlest one, who was about 6 or 7 years old. I got the impression that he kept life pretty interesting in his family. Both parents seemed poised for whatever might happen next.

The little guy was adorable. He wasn’t particularly bouncy, but stood near his mother, chattering away and holding art supplies.

All of sudden, before any of us could quite take in what was happening, the little boy looked my way and said, “I’m going to kiss you.” Before we knew it, he had walked the four steps or so to me and landed a peck right at his lip-level, which was right on my belly. Kiss planted, he walked back to his mama. Everyone was speechless. I tried to diffuse the embarrassment with: “It’s fine. I’ll take all the kisses I can get.”

The parents continued in a mild state of shock, while I had a cute kid story to my tell my own kids. I know you must think I make up some of my stories, but I don’t! This really happened to me! Ask Ray! He was there!

I’m guessing that all of your children have embarrassed you at one time or another — and that one or more of them has a great propensity for embarrassing you. Maybe one has a diagnosis that keeps you tense all the time when you are in public.

Teaching us humility must be one of God’s intentions when He gives us children. Having children also teaches us to pray — hard — and to depend on Him.

Sometimes our children don’t only embarrass us; they disappoint us. That is a perfect time to think about our relationship with our Heavenly Father and how we have disappointed Him. And that is the perfect time to appreciate His amazing grace.

It’s also the perfect time to remember that even the only perfect Parent, Our Father in Heaven, has children who disappoint Him. In fact, everyone of His children have disappointed Him, except His only begotten Son whom He sent to save those disappointing kids.

Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord,
and He will exalt you.
James 4:10

 

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