Thursday, March 22, 2012

A Do Over Day

The other day God did a great thing.

He always does great things, by the way, but this was an extra bit of fun for me so I'm going to tell you about it. First, I have to explain that on St. Patrick's Day, I decided to be festive. In honor of the holiday, I made green butter for my kids to put on their biscuits.

I am SO clever and fun!!!


Upon entering the kitchen, my kids took a look at the green butter next to the biscuits and said:

"Ewww, what IS that?"
"I bet it tastes weird."
"I'm not putting that on my food!"

Sniff...and oh yeah, I never realized you all had such discriminating taste in food dye.

But I digress.

Here's the God part. Our church is just finishing up work on our first permanent space. One of my friends is a gifted artist and was painting murals for our children's ministry area. Her problem was that a couple of her kids are in year-round school and this just happens to be their spring break.

I offered to babysit, figuring it would be a practical way to serve God and support her at the same time. I picked up her girls, aged 7 and 9, and we went to their home.

"What should we do?" I asked.

"We know!" One ran out of the room, while the other climbed up on the kitchen countertop like a monkey and rummaged through a cabinet.

You'll never guess what they brought down....

In case you haven't seen one in awhile, this is the new and improved Easy Bake Oven. I could hardly contain myself. And they couldn't believe that I could possibly be excited by this.

"Are you sure this would be ok with your mom?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, no problem at all. We get to bake anytime."

So bake we did...

As I watched their little hands, pour, mix and stir, I started to get a little choked up. I miss my little girls. I regret that because I got so busy with life and work, I missed baking in the Easy Bake Oven more often. 

They were like little women working together, singing and dancing around the kitchen. They even got  gossipy about their little sister.




"She's a mess."

"Yeah, five-year olds are such trouble!"

We talked and baked and waited patiently for our strawberry/chocolate creation. 



Afterwards, we made homemade macaroni and cheese, (they proclaimed it THE BEST!), cleaned the kitchen, and went out to the backyard for trampoline jumping. The bees scared us away so we came in and took fake pictures kissing Justin Bieber, thanks to a handy iPhone app.




Incidentally, after the cake came out of the oven slot, they said, "This is the best day ever! Our mom NEVER has time to let us use the Easy Bake." I explained that moms were very busy people with lots to do. Sometime's you just have to borrow a mom for things like this. They howled with laughter at the thought of borrowing someone else's mom, but I think I'm on to something (they were laughing at my jokes!!!)

And get this...I didn't even have to reprimand them for lying because they're not my kids - I could just bask in their undying admiration of me. When I told them about my sad green butter story, the 9-year old commiserated and then offered her mother's butter so I could do it for them. This time we made it blue and she thought it was WONDERFUL.

We finished the day playing solitaire together, and I had one girl snuggled on my lap and another leaning up against me and I thanked God for the "do over." Imagine that.

I thought I was going over there to serve Him and instead, He served me. It really was the best day ever!

The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11





1 comment:

  1. Absolutely loved this post, and the kissing Bieber picture, priceless :)

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