Faith of a Child

One of the perks of my job is the moments that I truly get to see the childlike faith that we are to have. One day last week, as I was frusterated with the chaos at work, I was reminded this again.

There's one little girl who always wants me to play the game War with her... You know, the game where you take a deck of cards and compete by flipping over cards and the higher card wins...

Anyways, I was sitting at the table the other day hanging out with some kids. This girl came up to me and saw two cards sitting facedown on the table. She jokingly asked me if I'd play War with her with those two cards. I decided to go along with it (knowing it wouldn't take long). I told her not to look and dealt us each a card. As we flipped over our cards we discovered that they were both 3s.

Being the competitive person that I am, I automatically said, "I win because I'm the oldest." Immediately this six year old girl said, "No, I win because I have the red 3 and you have the black 3. Black is sin and red is Jesus' blood. Jesus' blood covers sin so I win."

Couldn't argue with that. At first I laughed. When I stopped to think about it I realized how quickly and automatically that had come to her and how true it is. It's a simple reminder of the Gospel, but one that we need constantly. Jesus always wins and I am so glad that He does!

Coats of Many Colors (and styles)

As the weather has been rather cold lately, I've been noticing some interesting fashion (or lack thereof). It seems that as people get colder, they care less about what they look like and more about keeping warm, myself included. As I was on the bus today, however, I was reminded of a time in my life (or a few) when staying warm was about looking cool (or thinking I did).

The lady in front of me on the bus was wearing a coat that I used to own. It probably wasn't the same exact coat, seeing as how things in my family were usually passed down through the years and there's no way it would have been in that good of condition. However, it brought me back to my jr. high-ish years. Some of you may remember the coat. It was a black Adidas coat with the white stripes down the arms. It had a hood and zipped up the front. I HAD to have it at the time as everyone who was anyone had an identical jacket. Now it seems silly. Not quite as silly as some of the other coats that I HAD to have over the years though...

My twenty sixth birthday is in a few weeks. As I am not looking forward to the milestone at all, I can't help but remember another birthday years ago. I was maybe turning six or seven-ish. I don't remember exactly, but once again there was a coat that I wanted extremely badly. It was large, extremely puffy, and was red with Mickey Mouse heads all over it. Who doesn't want something like that? hahahaha... The story goes that my parents looked all over town until they found the coat of my dreams. I remember the occasion when I opened it. It even came in matching Mickey Mouse wrapping paper! I was ecstatic and immediately put it on. Thankfully, this fashion fo paux (0r however you spell that) didn't last ten years and I no longer own anything with Mickey Mouse on it.

Time now to skip ahead a few years. I was probably in fourth or fifth grade. At this point in my life I owned a massive, knee-length, denim coat. Not a jean jacket mind you, a full fledged stuffed coat. I vaguely remembered this coat and then my sister reminded me that it was knee length, which made the story even better. When I went on a hunt for proof of this coat, I found that Emma had one very similar (which was often the case with us). I called her out on this since she was making fun of mine and she assured me that she had hers first. Apparently I wanted to copy her (which was also often the case at this point in our lives).

So, why ramble on about coats for my first blog post ever? Because I feel like it. This is going to be a very random blog because I'm a very random person. As much as my taste in coats has changed over the years, so has much else about me, and so do my thoughts on a daily (0r even minutely) basis. So, you may wonder what coat I've been wearing in the current arctic temperatures. I'm here to tell you that it's ugly. It's a big fluffy black coat that has seen some serious sun fading, so now is mostly brown (splotchy). Do I care though? No. It keeps me warm. And I am fortunate to even own a coat, much less have a warm place to reside. No matter how hideous my coats have been over the years, I have always been extremely blessed.