Sharing

I hesitate to share these pictures, because I genuinely do not want to be "that Mom". I don't want to violate the rules that Jesus Christ set forth for us in Matthew 6:1-4. But, because a friend (thanks Kat!) shared this idea when her daughter did it, the thought was put in our hearts to do it ourselves. That's why I'm going to share this with all of you. Because I'm glad someone told us about the idea.

I'm ashamed to say that I don't think I would have come up with this idea on my own. But it was such a great experience. The original idea came from Bridget's 6th birthday party, when she had her guests bring food donations for a local animal shelter, instead of bringing presents. (As you know, between parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles, kids get a LOT of birthday presents right there!). I talked with Bear about doing something like this for her big birthday party, but instead of the animal shelter, we could collect food donations for a new food pantry that a local church in our area had just opened months before. After she was assured that she would still get presents from us and her grandparents and her aunts and uncles (she IS only 6, after all.... presents on your birthday are just - well - important), she really looked forward to her friends bringing the food donations.

We went a few days ago to deliver the bags of food to this new Care Center. Like I said before, it was a special experience. Especially because Poodle was allowed to help stock the food on the shelves! It was a really beautiful way to cement in her mind what she was doing and had done. The people volunteering there were as kind as they could be, and the whole process was truly a gentle one. I'm so glad Bear was willing to do this. We were blessed to be a blessing, I hope.

And even NoMan got in on the act - although he didn't really know what was going on. He just wanted to be like Poodle.