Today I did my first local school visit, a pizza lunch.
It made me think of the last time I brought a food incentive to a school. It was cupcakes and not a single one was interested in my university. ha.
However, I had the opportunity to have a really good conversation with one of the adults who worked there. At the end, I was still loaded with 3 dozen incentive cupcakes and offered them to her.
Her response was of total shock and gratitude; she told me of what a blessing it was, that her son's birthday was the next day and she had needed to bring treats for his class.
It was so genuine.
There was no sob story of why she couldn't provide them herself, though she had told me quite a bit of her life story during our sit there that would have made it easy to. And I'm not being cold when I say sob story: I probably would have teared up.
This past summer I met a girl who, for her birthday, got a mattress. And she was with these kids who got things like iPhones or Coach bags or other hoity toity and was just raving about how awesome this mattress thing was and how excited she was, as she had never had a new one before.
Again, there wasn't a mark of attempt at extracting pity. She was just excited.
For some reason, we as a people group have forgotten how to interact without weighing and measuring each and every word. Well, that's not true. I've seen a whole lot of people go off the handle. More, we have forgotten how to be exuberant.
What is so embarrassing or undignified or wrong with being thrilled at receiving something so seemingly simple as cupcakes or a mattress?
We are so quick to criticize--loudly--in both public and private, so quick to become angry, to become sad, to become wild. But when it comes to being delighted in one another, we are quick not to gush but to check ourselves.
I think we should check ourselves on that.
No comments:
Post a Comment