A Child Can Love

I haven't written in a while and I miss it. But I want to recount something that made me think about the journey of love and that even a child can love.

Recently I joined a friend in serving at a soup kitchen. My family has been talking about this for a long time and the opportunity finally came up. The kitchen is called "The Upper Room". It serves low income families in the Placerville area. Anyone can come and they provide a fairly good hot meal and a second take home meal for anyone that wants one. I talked to my wife about it and we made the decision to take my children and allow them the opportunity to love with us. My children are 5, 8, and 10 so it was somewhat of a risk but we both felt that they could handle it. We'd at least give it one shot and see what happened.

On the way to the kitchen my son fell asleep in the car. Normally this isn't a big deal but he doesn't wake up very easily and usually needs 10-15 minutes to really wake up. Wake him up early and he's not happy. We got there and there were more people to help than there were people waiting to eat. To be honest I didn't want to cause any stir so I politely offered to go home and fill in next time. But it was obvious God wanted us there. My friend Brandon insisted we stay and he was actually a little frustrated because we were told this was the day to help. Somebody forgot to tell someone something.

We ended up staying and basically it was a little crazy Volunteers were looking for opportunities and it still felt a little crowded. As things began to hum, my wife and I stood back and held my son who was not still not happy and watched our two daughters light up. Something inside of them rose to the occasion and they were awesome. They loved it.

What was interesting is that it normally would have been very easy for them to find their child moments and complain about this or that. From the moment we walked into the door until bedtime, they were different people. They had connected to love by giving love.

My wife and I were simply astounded at the change in their demeanor, which most of the time is good but this was exceptional. And later I spoke with a good friend who said the exact same thing happened with his children (7,10).

This last week I was out of town but my wife went anyway, without me. The exact same thing happened. It was not a fluke. Yes, even a child can love.