We were blessed to have 7 6th grade girls in our home, as well as a super sweet leader. I must confess, I was in shock for a good hour or so after the girls had gotten to our house... their energy, ability to talk about literally anything/everything, and no shy bone in any of their bodies was AMAZING and SCARY all at the same time. The following thoughts ran through my head as I stood there for the first 30 to 45 minutes stunned in silence:
- "I, and a lot of other mommies I know, would pay A LOT of money to have that kind of energy."
- "She just told me her name, nickname, and how to spell both all before I could say hello."
- "Maybe we shouldn't give them any sugar or caffeine tonight or the rest of the weekend for that matter. Should I hide the soda and homemade cookies?"
- "Oh Lordy, I have baby dolls, toddler toys, and teethers for entertainment in this house... I need to pull together stuff for these girls to do. What do 6th grade girls do for fun?"
- "I want to talk to these girls... but I don't know how to speak their language... Backstreet Boys? No! Britney Spears? No! Dawson's Creek? No!... No Kati, just don't talk... just smile... and give them the cookies you made."
But I quickly learned, 6th grade girls can talk about anything! I heard a variety of subjects. Everything from family life to who has an innie and who has an outie. No worries about needing to entertain them with fun board games and brain teasers. These girls LOVED entertaining themselves, and wore themselves out doing so.
And then I got to see another side of these girls. Throughout the weekend there was specific curriculum and time used for the leader to teach these girls about Jesus Christ. There were girls seasoned in their faith and others who appeared to have only heard the gospel a handful of times. These sweet girls asked questions, helped each other find the answers, and applied what they were learning to their daily lives. I loved watching the fellowship going on in front of me! I was excited. Excited for these girls, for all the other kiddos experiencing DNOW, and excited to watch my girls grow in their faith one day.
After their last session Friday night, it was time for bed... which meant I couldn't be these girls friends, but instead their momma. But like I said, these girls were pretty tired from all the excitement that went on prior to laying their heads on their pillows. I had a few gigglers, whisperers, and ticklers but little did they know I could stay up all night waiting for them to go to bed. Pulling all-nighters waiting for kids to go to sleep is easy-peasy now. And before long, all was silent and asleep in the Matthews' household!
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| This is what VICTORY looks like! |
The first night, our goal was to survive the mad chaos. Day two and three I wanted to get my family in the mix to show Paysli what fellowship looks like, and also show these girls what a family of faith looks like in case they weren't apart of one.
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| Paysli sat in silence watching all the crazy middle schoolers... just being middle schoolers! |
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| Paysli praying with mommy. We need to work on the whole "keep your eyes closed" thing. |
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| These girls were so good to Paysli. Do 6th graders still do play-dates? |
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| Paysli loved these girls imaginations! A Tea Party with 6 girls who called her "Princess Paysli" and served her tea... Yes please! Side note: the play knife (it's plastic people!) you see on the table, later became the "talking knife". Couldn't talk unless you had the knife... these girls LOVED to talk... all 6 of them... all at the same time. Love them! |
And then the fun, crazy, thought provoking, faith strengthening weekend was over! On Sunday before driving the girls back to the church to end the weekend, I told Tim that I was shocked. I thought I would be ready for the weekend to be over just to regain my sanity back, but I was SO SAD! I compared the way I was feeling to how a little child feels when their parents let them play with the cutest puppy ever... and then makes them give it back. I was going to miss these girls. They kept me on my toes. They got me excited about sharing Christ with a younger generation. They got me excited for the next generation of Christ followers. And then when I got home I found this on the refrigerator:
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| I shed a few tears... Tim laughed at me... and then went to bed :) |
The students I saw at DNOW 2013 continually reminded me of 1 Timothy 4:12:
Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.
These girls became confident in their faith and walk with Jesus Christ. I wanted Paysli and Molli to be like them one day; speaking with kind words, loving on all those around them, and pure hearts in love with their Savior. And to their momma's and daddy's... way to go! Tell me your words of wisdom of how you raised such amazing kiddos! You did it!
And that was it people. DNOW 2013 is in the books... and we are looking forward to DNOW 2014!
And that was it people. DNOW 2013 is in the books... and we are looking forward to DNOW 2014!
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