imagination.

When I was a little girl I remember trying to play "make believe" games with adults.  They never played right.  I don't know how to explain it, but I just remember getting frustrated with my mom or my babysitters because they just seemed to forget how to pretend.  I told myself that I would never forget how to pretend.

Today I hung out with my favorite four year old.  When I got to her house, we first played Barbies for awhile...and I found myself forgetting how to pretend. I definitely needed practice.  Then, we played a "make-believe" game where I am not quite sure what was going on, but we were trying to get away from bad people.  There were a lot of hiding, maps, and secret passageways involved.  Again, I found myself lost in her little world.  I had become one of those "adults" who didn't know how to play anymore.  Once I decided to just have fun with it, we had a blast.  We became our own heroines.  We were princesses escaping from a castle and the evil witch who locked us in there.  We had to be careful, or else her guards would put us back in the dungeon.  There were a few close calls, but luckily, Kinsey had the magic key and I had the magic maps that could get us out of any situation.  And when we finally made it back home, we celebrated by going to Chuck E Cheese's and getting our much deserved prizes!

On the way home, I was wondering, When do we stop using our imaginations?  When do we stop playing?  I remember the last time I saw adults playing "make-believe" and I just made fun of them..They were doing some role play game that was like related to World of Warcraft or something. Needless to say, it was wierd..  Maybe we don't stop using them...maybe we use them in different, more practical ways.  

I am grateful for today, for if nothing else, I was a princess who saved the day ;)

proposal.

Favorite moment of today.

This morning, I babysat for Mom's Network.  

Rachel, a girl of about 4, and Braydon, 4, came up to me.  She informed me that when they got bigger, they were going to get married.  Braydon turned to her and with a mischievous smile asked, "Wanna get married right now?".

"Blessed are the Peacemakers"

This past week in my Sabbath School class, we talked about loving our enemies.  During our Bible Study, we found it mentioned in several places and figured Jesus was serious about this and maybe we should become serious too.  We asked the questions, "Who are our enemies?" and "What does it mean to love our enemies?".  Our group came to the conclusion that our enemy is anyone we are having conflict with.  Enemies could be our best friends who we just aren't seeing eye-to-eye with, our siblings or parents, or the mean kids at school.  In our discussion, we talked about unconditional forgiveness, going the extra mile, being kind when we don't feel like it, treating everyone with respect, just basically living in love.

At the end of our discussion, we dreamed of what the world would look like if everyone loved their enemies.  This world would look NOTHING like how it does now.  I then challenged the girls in my group to try loving their enemies this week & see if there was a small change in their world.  Jessica, one of the sweetest, most sincere girls in my class suggested that we put reminders up on our mirrors.  I told the girls I would take the challenge too.  I made a sticky for my desktop.  It sounded easy enough...

It's only Tuesday afternoon and I can't believe how many times I have failed at this challenge! I don't know how many times I have snapped at my mom and brother. I guess the good thing about this challenge is I realize how much "violence" is in my life. 

Yesterday afternoon I was hanging out with Tyler, and he was channel surfing and landed on "The Ellen Show".  She was interviewing Deepak Chopra, the spiritual guru.  (It was a re-run) He was talking about a goal he has to have 100 million people take a vow of peace.  He wants 100 million people to pledge to have peaceful thoughts, words, and actions.  Because if there are 100 million people working to live at peace with one another, than the world will be just that more peaceful.   

It's kind of interesting how I took that pledge for just this week and realized how difficult it is for me to live in peace & love.  I have always considered myself, "a good person", and I'm starting to realize, I am really just as "violent" as anyone...I might not act on my thoughts at all times, but I definitely have a ways to go.  I'm kind of embarrassed that I call myself a Christian and I lose my cool and act very un-Christian-like all too often.  I definitely need to pray for help on this one.  Hopefully as the week goes on it will become easier.