dream big

You never know what kind of conversation you’ll get on the drive to school in the morning.  Raising three girls is teaching me so much about our species.  One thing I’ve learned: Don’t even try to predict the mood in the room fifteen minutes from now, nor the course of the conversation, nor the hairstyles, nor even the wardrobe selections.  Each of these things are like the weather in the Reeves’ household:  If you don’t like it, just wait a minute.

They are not predictable, girls.  I guess I should say, “we” are not predictable.  It makes life fun, scary, and totally nerve-wracking.  Poor Dan.  But, sometimes the very best things in life are surprises.  This morning, after the chaotic series of events that it takes to get all five of us out the door by 7:10am – [every day we’re not tardy is a work of the Lord] – we had the most delightful conversation about something that would’ve never been on my early morning radar.  Kenya.

My fifth grade creative genius had told the school counselor about Compassion, Intl, and was brainstorming ways her school can help.  I think her motto is: Go big, or go home.  She’d like the class who raises the most money to get to go visit the Compassion kids in another country.  The child we sponsor through Compassion lives in Kenya… so I guess that’s why our kindergartner’s mind immediately went there.  As she was unbuckling to hop out onto the school playground, she piped up, “We need to save up all our money, so I can get on a plane to Kenya!!!” 

I watched them walk with their backpacks on their back and their lunch boxes in their hands, into American public school.  I thought three things:

1 - This is why we don’t ride the bus.  On the way to school we pass all the kids waiting on the corners for the bus to pick them up and drive them to school.  On the way home each day we turn onto our street three seconds after the bus kids are dropped off, like clockwork.  Our gas budget is ridiculous; they’re in three different schools on two opposite sides of town.  But this is why we don’t ride the bus.  And it’s worth it.

2 - This is why we don’t home school.  Well, the first reason is because we would kill each other.  But this is a close second.  I am NOT knocking homeschooling.  We did it for two years.  Some of my BEST friends home school.  We take it year-by-year, praying each year for God to place us exactly where He wants us.  All I know is, this year, my kids have been handplaced by God in three American public schools… wonderful schools, with wonderful teachers and staff… but mission fields as radical and adventurous as Lottie Moon’s. 

3 - They’re going to be grown-ups.  Like, really soon.  I had this image of the three of them all grown up – not in jail, or selling drugs on the streets – but in love with Jesus and making a difference in their world, (our world), for Him.  A few weeks ago  when they hopped out of my van and walked into school the first day, I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest, split in three pieces, sprouted legs and entered kindergarten, fifth grade, and eighth grade.   That’s how I feel every year.  But I was reminded by Psalm 127, “Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.”  They’re made to be shot out.  Not kept in storage.  The implication is the number one scariest thing about parenting: I have absolutely no idea where they’ll end up.  Today I had a vision of them ending up in places I dare not dream about.  It was beautiful.  Maybe like my fifth grader, as a parent I need to go big, or go home.  Dream big.  PRAY big. 

So I’m gonna help Callie save pennies.  The writer of Psalm 127 calls kids another thing, in addition to “arrows.”  He calls them a “gift.”  Arrows are given to be shot out, but gifts are given to be enjoyed.  So I’m gonna enjoy them today, too, and every day they’re in my quiver.  I’m not guaranteed where they’ll end up – on the same side of the globe as me, or the opposite.  But today they’re here.  Three amazing, quirky, perfect gifts handed straight from God’s hand to mine, with a loving smile and a hearty, “ENJOY!”

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth.

-        Psalm 127:3-4

        If  you had time to read this blog, you have time to find out more about Compassion, International.  Here's a link to their website.  Enjoy!

        www.Compassion.com