Child-Like Heart

Children are the most interesting conversationalists. They also have the purest mind of all human kind. I have a two nephews, a five year old and a two month old, and three nieces, a 5 month old, three year old and a four year old in the Montana/Washington area. Three of them I see most frequently. This summer, I was blessed to be offered a job babysitting my sister's son, five, and daughter, 3. This particular week of babysitting was long because of VBS and my brother's daughter, four, was staying at my house the entire week as well. Family gets on your nerves after a while especially when they know how to push your buttons and when you haven't had any alone time to chill in peace. Another factor that plays into a long week especially when children are in the learning stage is sharing and taking turns. One day, as the children were playing outside, I heard a bone chilling scream that turned into a cry. It was my three year old niece. Apparently my four year old took a toy from my three year old niece. We went through the whole "lets wait our turn and ask first" thing. As usual, the guilty one goes and has a pity party. I explained to her that we need to share and wait our turn and also that telling our friends they are mean because they did the right thing makes them not want to play with us anymore. She took that kinda hard. As I went to tend to my sister's children, the tree year old went straight up to the four year old and told her that it was mean for her to take what wasn't hers and to say mean things was wrong. She also pointed out that she wanted to play with her, but she didn't want to if she was gonna pout and be mean. The two girls worked it out and played together. Witnessing a three year old have the guts to stand up and let her friend know that she still loved her, but wanted her to do the right thing isn't an everyday sight. I took that as a very interesting moral in my Christian walk. As Christians, we need to let the world know God loves them, but that He doesn't always like what they do. The scary part is facing someone that you think will pummel you in the face for telling them they are doing things all wrong. I was shocked to see a little girl as young as three years old go straight to the problem and tell the person for herself! Sure little hand-outs work, but face to face confrontations is even stronger and more effective. God really showed me something that day and He used a three year old to do it. Talk about being taught a lesson!!