What else Am I doing!

Those plastic balls
Yes our creche at church has one of those turtle shaped plastic ball containers that you see at small family friendly stores and the toddlers love them. Once they come in the room they head straight for those toys and all we have to do is make sure they do not kill each other with them. Or at least that is what I thought until recently. So I signed up for toddler duty in what truthfully was a self righteous way. I did not want to be a foreign spectator at church. I wanted to help and yes I believed they needed my help and how impressed they wold all be that I would help. But what started out as just a mostly self-righteous gesture has become a lesson in love for me. From just showing up, I was now asked to attend training and on Saturday morning at that! I gave in and then I had to sign clearance papers to show I was fit to help. I bristled at that but could find no real reason not to comply with the requirements. Next came Sunday school training. Now we we asked to teach those unruly kids about Gods love for them. Even more we were required to clean our classroom and that included wiping down each one of these balls-maybe 200 or more- to clean them. I did not sign up for this but again I could find no real reason not to continue. Well the last Sunday I had worked we had one child and maybe I was not sure I wanted to see any more. But then our children's worker, not the best diplomat, told us we should come at 9 to pray and then she gave us a load of work to study and prepare to teach the children. We were asked to read and pray over the Bible verses and something changed in my heart. I realized I had not even ever prayed for the kids and did not much care about them beyond the 20 minutes or so we had them. But as I prayed for them my heart began to change. So yes, I went early enough to our classroom and as I cleaned those colored toys and the crib and so on,I prayed for them and for me. My goodness, eight kids showed up and they were as noisy and crazy as you ever could find. Some cried since this was their first time but we managed, and even had a small window to teach them that God made their hands and feet. When it was done I was exhausted but happy to have this incredible opportunity to touch the lives of children even for a short time. God has plans for them and they are starting to learn this and it is not to early for them and not too late for me!