Just a Swinging

At home here in Missouri I have the privilege of getting to stay home with my children. I love - love - love my children and getting to spend my time with them. SO grateful that I am able to do that! Their young lives flash by like lightening! Yesterday my oldest son went to an elementary school for the first time (Pre-Kindergarten Summer School) He starts Kindergarten this fall. It seems like the last 5 years of his life have raced like a sprint to this point. Our lives and time spent here on earth are truly vapors, some of us get many years and some lives are cut very short. Because I stay home I also get to spend a couple days a week taking care of a few friends children. Yesterday was a Monday, sometimes Monday's are hard days for all of us. One of my extra little guys was a bit tired and very emotional on this particular Monday. He needed a lot of extra loving and comfort throughout the day (don't we all have days like that?), but there is one thing made him smile every time... swinging. He would get in the swing, push off and slowly swing through the air, and the minute he felt the air blowing on his face he couldn't help but grin. He sometimes wanted a push and sometimes wanted to go it alone, but the swinging through the air somehow made the burden of his day lighter.

At Hosetta School in Sierra Leone we were able to hang up a simple disc swing for the children. The Tennis Club of our team member Brooke had donated money and items to add to the playground activities at the school. After we got the swing up I got the chance to take a group of kids down to that area to play. It is quite something to watch the face of a child light up when they get on a swing, maybe for the first time in their life. The girl in this first picture's name is Jenaba. Jenaba is deaf and during my stay there I didn't see her smile more than just a few times. Her Smile is BEAUTIFUL! and My heart lightens up when I see this picture!

I helped the kids get up and down, and even had to hold Kadiatu on, her disabilities keep her from being able to hold the rope herself. (she's the girl in the pics below with a pink wash cloth safety pinned to her dress) What a joy it was to be a part of this simple thing that will hopefully continue to bring smiles and happiness to those children. Thanks to Brooke and her Tennis Club for their giving hearts!

Swinging and flying through the air reminded me of this beautiful butterfly my family saw at the butterfly house at the zoo last summer. At the first glance it seems very ordinary, plain and brown, but very unique in its design. When it opens its wings and does what God designed it to do - Fly - you get blessed to see a brilliant blue beauty and grace as it seems to float through the air. A wonderful lesson for us to learn that we glorify Him most when we do what He created us to do. This picture doesn't do it justice, nor does the picture of Jenaba's smile. It's only a glimpse of how amazing it is to see small pieces of God's incredible plan. Did you know that the life span of this amazing butterfly is only 115 days. Our amazing creator poured indescribable detail and beauty into making this butterfly, knowing its life was very - very short. How wonderfully created and precious are each one of us, His children all over the world. Our lives are but a blink when you think of all the ages of history, but what amazing diverse detail He took in creating us! Our time is short and our days seem to race by, but we can make the most of every second if we choose!

Thanks to my little guy who needed that swing yesterday! Thanks to Jenaba's smile for teaching me what truly matters! Above all Thanks to my Amazing Creator who poured indescribable uniqueness and love into His creation. And thanks to you for reading my thoughts and stories, its taking me a while to work through them and get them on the blog, but I have so much more to share with you!

Some dessert-- my "extra love needed" little guy yesterday repeated this phrase all day "I want my Mommy, I miss my Mom" Now I didn't share that to make his mommy cry (sorry! I gave him lots of hugs and reassured him that mommy would be back to get him) but it made me think... what if I longed for my Lord like that? When things don't go my way or when I get lonely and discouraged, that my first thoughts would be "I need you Lord!" and "I know you are with me!"
Scripture that speaks to my life:
Psalm 139
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You Know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. (1-4)
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to me. (13-16)
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (23-24)