Holding Their Words in My Heart

Today warmed my soul.

The snow was well on its way to piling up when I got home from work, and my mom asked me if I would kindly help her clear the driveway of the fresh precipitation. Oh good, you’re home, now you can help me shovel. Presumptuous.

I got cranky, and defensive. I just worked blah blah many hours and I’m tired and I hate shoveling and I never shovel I’m bad at it leave me alone.

Then I laid down to rest. For Lent, I am taking 30 minutes every afternoon to lay in silence. Horizontally. And quite literally take a rest. Because the horizontality of it all forces me to do nothing else but chill the heck out (#perfectionist #it’sdaytimegottagetstuffdone #selfimposedguilt). I try to take this time to be silent before the Lord, because the rest of the day I find that hard to do.

Anyways, today I was considering not taking the 30 minutes. But I did. And then during that rest time, I told God I was ready to listen. I heard my mom’s boots by the door, and the gravelly sound of the shovel start up, and suddenly, God opened my heart. No crankiness or fatigue; I felt like shoveling wouldn’t be that bad. It might be fun.

So I headed outside, and while I was using these awesome muscles to plow through that snow, a neighbor came over. She is about 9 or 10, and she is just as cute as a button on a hand-sewn sweater. She asked if I had snow pants to wear, which I knew meant please come sledding with us! So I ran inside, got some heavy duty snow gear and headed to her backyard to meet up with the neighborhood children. There were about five or six girls with their pink hats and purple coats and sleds all ready for fun. And we sledded, and built a big snow mound, and made snowballs, and started an igloo, and laid in the snow making angels, and ate snow, and made snow slides and did all sorts of awesome things.

And the beautiful thing is, I knew God was smiling on this. Jesus loves the little children, and through Christ in me those kids got a taste of God the Father’s love and glory. And their words just melted my heart. One girl, who is about 8, said, “Alex, do you want to frolic with me?” And I said laughed like a fiend and said yes. She grabbed my hand and we frolicked about in the snow in a circle. And I loved the Lord in that moment. And she asked if she could have a hug (I. love. hugs.). And when I introduced myself to some other little ones, they said, “that’s a pretty name!” And two girls, separately, as I helped one make a perfect snowball and the other an awesome snow fort, said so nonchalantly and ever so genuinely, “You’re really nice.”

Heart. In a puddle. How beautiful are the compliments that you don’t hold back!

And then I got another: “You know you’re really cool, because you’re at the age when you could be married and stuff but you’re like a kid.” Haha! “But you’re really mature. More mature than my dad.” Seriously these kids rock.

I just love the way God takes notice of these little ones. And I love love love the way God takes care of me by sending me to play with such fun kids. Oh I frolicked, and I gloried, and I thanked the Lord for this day. And my tired legs and sore back remind me of God’s goodness. Oh how I love Him. Oh how smart He is, and kind, and loving. A Lenten resolution triumphs once again.