A few things are on fire and YOU have a choice to make

 

When this child asked if I had a lighter, I saw no harm.

When she lit the firecracker, I questioned if it was the right decision.

Turns out it was a smoke bomb that didn't go off on a prior day.

 She had stuck dried grass in it to make a fuse. It was harmless & fun.

Today some of the kids were able to pick through some donations of some used toys.

There was such an excitement in the air as each waited their turn to choose.

Instead of playing with the new puppy...

The kids headed to school

There was a HUGE bees nest in a tree that was not very happy about the buzzing of the sander as another volunteer prepared some wood to make a new shelf.

One of the young men climbed the tree and lit the bee hive on fire.

It burned for hours. 

We saw some National Guard (use to be called “Federal Police” until they were disbanded in 2019 due to corruption). It use to bother me to see the Police in their trucks, with bulletproof vests on and machine guns. But I’ve learned to be comforted by them, they aren’t here because of me, they are here to keep me safe and keep the peace and I like people that keep the peace.

At church I saw one of my favorite boys, as he sat in the row in front of me. Within the last year, he was moved up to an older home with older boys. I've see this many times and with there being months between the time that I see these kids, I will come back and see them changed. It’s hard to see them change and to see them hold back their childlike joy.

In the years that I’ve been coming here, I’m always amazed to see the kids get older. 

They will move from the baby house 0-5 years old, to the middle house 6-11 years old, then to the older young adults house where they will be separated, boys from girls.

They go from laughter and child's play to teenagers and somewhere in the process, they change. They begin to own their lives, which is good, but I notice that the child like laughter fades and can disappear. It doesn’t have to, some will maintain their light heartedness and keep their smile, most will fear what others think and will hide their emotions. They will bottle it up and try to be proper and strong.

This is a sad thing for me to see. It’s a product of what society makes of us. If we aren’t careful, we will loose our internal joy and conform.

I think it’s a constant decision to have joy, laughter and light heartedness. I would go even further and say that without God in your life, those things may not be possible to find or maintain.

Here are a few quotes to ponder:

“It is impossible to be both selfish and happy.” —Joyce Meyer

“Happiness happens when we give it away.” —Max Lucado

“Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.” —Steve Maraboli

“A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love” — Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Today, let’s purposefully choose to be quick to laughter and slow to worry about what others think of us.