April 1998....."Hey, Can You Choke a Flower?"

Just one of those cute kid stories that goes with directing a youth group for elementary aged kids.

   This is a true story that took place during a Youth Adventures group meeting. For a "Fun In Nature" activity the group had planned to plant flowers in several beds outside of our church for the enjoyment of everyone. So our group, which consists of 15 kids from Kindergarten to 8th grade and one four-year-old exception, conducted our meeting and spent several hours planting petunias, vincas, silver ferny things, and snap dragons, just to name a few types of flowers.

   The project began with myself and a few helpers digging up the beds prior to the meeting, which usually lasts about two hours, so that the kids would have plenty of time to plant the nearly 175 bedding plants that had been purchased for the project by generous donations from our congregation. The digging took several uninterrupted hours so by the time the children arrived to "Adventure" this mommy/leader was already quite tired. Anyway this is sooo cute it makes a mommy smile.

   Ok the children arrive and begin gathering around the beds, everyone was anxious to dig into the soil (get dirty mostly) and help to take care of God's Earth like we have been instructed as descendants of Noah. (NOTE: this was part of our devotion period how God showed that we are very important by giving Noah and all that follow him the job of taking care of the things he created.) So the 15 kids line up around a very large flower bed, having tug-of-wars over the limited number of hand spades available, and I shout above the chaos to get their attention, instruct them as to how we plant the flowers by demonstrating with a ready specimen, and then tell them to, "be careful not to break the flower stems and have fun."

   Well my assistants and myself are going from child to child helping, passing out rich potting soil, instructing and answering a bevy of questions, when our "exception" pecks me on the back, startling me out of 10 years of life and says, "Excuse me please, can you choke a flower?" To which I smile and say, "Darlin, if you hold it like I showed you and don't break the stem in half then it will grow, but I don't believe you can choke one like you can your sister." This endless supply of energy grins enormously and bounces off to where she had been planting her flower, and announces to the rotten little boy who had been teasing her, "See I told you I was doing it just fine, you can't choke a flower, but if you don't leave me alone I might choke you."

   Our exception is a wonderful little girl, who is also quite the attention sponge, which sometimes is to her detriment when it comes to attracting the attention of the boys, who are close to her age but just enough older to enjoy tormenting her for her lack of knowledge in some areas. We encourage her to always be nice and warn the harassers to toe the line, but from time to time seeing this interaction of the ages is quite humorous. One must be present to see this little spitfire of a girl in action with her straight short brown hair and sparkling eyes (usually full of mischief) bouncing joyfully when she learns something new. And that smile I'm sure makes Jesus reach for shades when she gets one over on her tormentors.

   This group of children is definitely a hand full of dynamite from time to time, but they have become a joy for me to work with. My joy is two-fold with YA, first I'm a Mommy with kids in this group, and I'm the leader of the group. When one of them figures something out that they hadn't thought of before, or I see pride in them because they accomplished something that they didn't think they could do, the "leader me" feels truly blessed by my Lord for having been given the opportunity to be an instrument for Him in their young lives. When my little boy, who struggles so often with life's everyday things, stood up and recited the oath from memory without missing a word and then realizing that he had done it, beamed from ear to ear and received an ovation of support from his peers. Oh folks I must honestly say, the "Mommy me" was soooo proud of him and so humble that God let me help that smile appear, words are not adequate to describe.

   So my message today is simple....no, you can't choke the flowers, but oh how they will grow if you nurture them.

Go to FAS/FAE page to learn more about my special son.

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