Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

     Do you have a favorite time of the day? Perhaps of the week? Maybe it is the moment that the clock reaches five in the afternoon every Friday? For some it might be that series of minutes early in the morning just as the sun rises over the horizon and the birds start to sing. Maybe it is those quiet moments at night when everyone has gone to bed and you’re curled up under the covers listening to the house in peace?

     There is a moment I look forward to every week. It happens every Sunday morning at church. That moment is children’s time. Oh yes, that magical moment when the pastor comes out of the pulpit and sits down on the steps, inviting all the children to come down and visit with him.

     Most of the time there is a story, or a thought that the pastor has prepared dutifully that he wishes to share with the youngsters. The joy I find is that moment when he looses all control and children’s time becomes something akin to herding cats. You know what I’m talking about don’t you? That moment where little Mark is sharing way more information about his parents than any of us need to know, or perhaps little Emily wants to show us her polka dot underwear.

     One moment we are talking about Noah and the Ark and the next moment it is pure anarchy in the sanctuary and the children have taken over as parents attempt to hush them from the pews with little to no affect. It makes me giggle every time and is truly one of the highlights of my week.

     It made me think this afternoon about the words little kids learn. Those sweet wonderful words first spoken. Mommy…Daddy…Cat…Doggy…Drink….Potty. Those words that come stumbling from untrained lips that make each of us melt. There is something wonderful about children when they speak. And then they turn two years old.

Suddenly every word is “why”. “Why..Why…Why..Why…Why?” And for every why question that is answered a “why” follows it. Makes you crazy just to think about it doesn’t it?

     But the one word that drives me crazier than “why” coming out of a child’s mouth has to be the word “mine”. Oh gosh…there is that phase that they go through where everything is “MINE”. Mine…Mine…Mine…Mine…Mine. The cat is mine, the television mine, Dad’s car keys are mine, the antique glass globe that they climbed up on the shelf to retrieve is mine. Fortunately for most of us, children grow out of that and learn to share.

     Sometimes though we grow up and forget that not everything in life is “Mine”. We label things as “Mine” as though it will keep other people from getting at them. As though we planted our flag in or on them and no one else would ever think of coming near them. We try to portray possession to items that aren’t in the true sense of the world truly singularly mine. We forget sometimes that some of the most wonderful things we have are meant to be shared. Somewhere between speaking our first “mine” and attempting to amass more stuff than anyone else before we die, we loose the ability to share.

     Regardless of our stage in life, we can all look around us and find humor and joy in things as silly as the chaos of children’s time at church, to the simple act of sharing things that are mine. And in the end it makes us all just a little better human beings.

See you next week….remember, we’re all in this together.