Friend of mine, friend of mine, what do you see?

Do you remember the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? That is one of the few books that Michael will let us read to him right now. He will actually sit still and let you read it to him multiple times. Yesterday God touched my heart through my son’s preschool class.  I walked into class and was immediately greeted by one of the afternoon teachers. She said with excitement, “Ms. K  made me promise to show you this. Come look.” Well, I was sure I was going to find a toy that was broken to pieces or a child with a mark from Michael hitting him. Instead what I found was a lesson in perception.

As she pointed at the wall, she told me that they used the handprints to make elephants. The thumb was the trunk and the other fingers were the legs. She smiled and said, “Look, Michael’s elephant is stampeding!” I looked up at the wall and there it was…a beautiful grey elephant running. It was beautiful. Michael’s teachers could choose to shy away from handprint activities or to try to make Michael’s look ‘better’, but they don’t. They love this little man and all his uniqueness. Instead of looking at the handprint and seeing something that needed touching up, they saw a beautiful elephant in motion. Folks, this is what life is all about. We choose to see things the way we want to see them. I am the world's worst about expecting the worst. Through Bible study, prayer and Christian fellowship I continue to work on that. We can let things get the best of us. We can be consumed with fear, guilt, anger, hostility and many other emotions. We can also choose to take lemons and make lemonade. Just as we can choose our reaction we can choose to look at things from a different perspective.

Ephesians 6 talks about putting on the armor of God. He does not leave us defenseless. Through prayer and allowing the Holy Spirit to equip us we can help ourselves look for the opportunity in situations…for the unexpected. I praise God each morning as I pull out of the parking lot to go to work and each evening as I pull out to go home that Michael is surrounded each day by such loving teachers. These teachers choose to look for opportunity. These teachers choose to look for the unexpected. These same teachers helped build the foundation that Mary Emma stands on today. They instilled a love of learning in her and a curiosity that will carry her far in life.  Ephesians 6:4 tells us to bring our children up in the training and instruction of the Lord. It is no coincidence that when our children are baptized that the church vows to help raise the child. In addition to this wonderful preschool we are blessed to have a church in which our children can grow with God. Both our children attend Sunday school and church, and Mary Emma does children's choir on Wednesdays. If you aren't in church or aren't taking your kids to church I invite you to start looking for a church that you can call home. Our walk with Christ is not meant to be a solitary journey, but one in community.

These same teachers who showed me the stampeding elephant inspire me to look at situations differently. Life isn’t easy and life can be hard. Life can throw curve balls at you that you never saw coming. Do you duck and let it pass you by or do you throw your hand up, catch the ball and do something with it? Michael’s challenges were certainly a curve ball for our family, but we have received abundant blessings and the elephants are one of them. So, as we go thru today let’s ask ourselves if there is more to see.

Friend of mine, friend of mine, what do you see?

We see stampeding elephants! That’s what we see!