Monday, March 5, 2012

Child Like

 He said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like  little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven." Matthew 18:3

Kids' hearts are so beautiful and pure. We can learn a lot from them. They are teachable, willingly dependent, they are not power hungry, and they don't notice (or acknowledge) outward differences. One time God used a little girl to teach me (and I am sure a few other people) a big lesson.

I used to be a Starbucks Barista in New York. There were all different types of people that came in and out of our store, which was one of the reasons that I loved the job. In the mix of people, were a lot of homeless people that lived in the area. My manager always gave them free hot coffee, as long as they brought in their own cup. As you can imagine, this didn't always sit well with some of our well off guests.    One day a homeless man came in that I had never seen before. He was extremely dirty and didn't smell pleasant either. He was larger and had a big white grayish (from the dirt) beard. A little girl and her mom were entering the store as this man was leaving. The little girl's face lit up and she ran over to the man excitedly and wrapped her little arms around his legs. She looked up at him with the biggest smile and said, "Hi Santa!"

You should have seen the look of horror on the mother's face as she was begging her daughter to come back to her and get away from the man. God quickly put me in my place though. He showed me that the look on the mother's face matched the condition of my heart. I may not have outwardly displayed the feelings that she did, but I did on the inside. I quickly repented and even though this situation occurred eight years ago, I still remember this lesson well and think about it often.

Ladies, let's focus on being like children this week in our interactions with others. Especially those that are different then us.



2 comments:

  1. Funny, I'm listening to Christmas music in March as I read this post! That's for this important reminder! Shannon

    ReplyDelete