You see, I am a nineties girl. I graduated high school in 1998 from Conway High school (Hail to the blue and white, in all its radiant splendor, yada yada yada, go Wampus Cats, go!) and sometimes when I write on time sensitive subject matter, I forget that there are readers who may not realize exactly what I am in reference to. This is one of those posts, sorta.
The year was 1995ish. You see, while I may not have ever been a high school cheerleader (surprise, surprise, I know...), I was determined to wear the shoes that hit the nineties school yard the same way the flock of seagulls hairstyle hit the eighties. They were called Asics and they were beautiful. At the time, if you didn't own a pair of them, it was basically the same generational sin as if you were a girl who didn't own a Cabbage patch doll in the year 1986. The need was great to own a pair and in true-high-school-girl-drama-language, you were lame if you didn't. Or even worse, if your parents bought you the knockoffs from Walmart or somewhere else, you might as well banish yourself to the ball pit at Showbiz pizza (or Chuck-e-Cheese).
I had honestly forgotten about all of this stuff for a long time until I had kids. It was then that words like "North face" and "Under Armor" started surfacing on Christmas lists and I realized the kind of fear that my parents must have faced when I started uttering words like "Asics" or "Birkenstocks" to them. The days of simple clearance buys during Christmas shopping became utterances that mimicked, "I am not paying $58 for a fleece pullover just because the label reads a specific way." The grinch in me forced a smile on my face as I grumbled to the cashier, "You bet I want my receipt," as if keeping a record of the misery would somehow make me feel better when I was filing for bankruptcy after the new year.
Today, my outlook changed a little bit. (Don't act like you didn't see it coming...You knew this story would take a turn....Stay focused, people. Christmas is on the way for crying out loud.) For the last two weeks, I have had the honor to work with a precious family to which four children under the age of ten belong. Tonight, I was on a mission to find enough clothes to simply provide their mama for one outfit for every day of school per child. Each child had two complete outfits of their own, so I needed three additional outfits per child, or 12 outfits total. I headed to the pantry and pulled out my list with each child's size as well as if they were a boy or a girl and started digging in. With every piece of clothing that I placed in its pile according to the child's need, I remembered those old Asics. I remembered how proud I was of mine that I had to wear them like all of the popular girls. As I examined each shirt, pair of pants, and even nightgowns, I wondered what these kids would feel like when they didn't have to wear the same outfit every other day because that is all they had.
Suddenly I began to feel angry when I would find a shirt or pair of pants on it that had a blemish on it. I remember thinking about how special I felt in those Asics. How dare I find anything but the best for these kids?
Folks, I know I get on here a lot and talk about God's plan for each one of our lives and how His love is so abundant, and how it changed me. That is all true, and I will never backtrack on that statement. -My life is the result of an ever-powerful, ever-loving God who saw something in me that I sometimes have a hard time coming to grips with. Like me, really? But yes, and you too. There are also days when I question why the answers don't come as clearly for this person as they do for that one; why God deals His hand this way over here and a different way over there. But what I do know is that while I may never know that answer until I come face to face with Him, I cannot stand by and do nothing.
Matthew 5:14 says that we are the light of the world. We are. So ask yourself, how can I shine my light today? Is it by checking on an elderly neighbor? Is it by making calling up a local pantry and seeing what they need at the moment? Is it by simply initiating a conversation with your checker at Kroger and telling them they are doing a good job? The possibilities are endless. The reward is eternal. <3
No comments:
Post a Comment