Our Awesome Thing 1

Thing 1 is a pretty awesome kid. He is curious, has a remarkable memory and just soaks in so much.

Last year he watched an Arthur show in which they did a bicycle race to help their lunch lady who had cancer. It inspired him to do something for his dad. We talked about how cool it would be to help a lot of people with cancer in addition to daddy. Thing 1 went to his principal and asked to do a bear drive for Victory in the Valley. They went all out. Every class made posters to put up throughout the school and town. 267 Victory bears were collected to be given to cancer patients in Wichita on their first day of treatment. That was a whole lot of bears for our little town and it was amazing to watch him learn how easily he can make a difference and realize the satisfaction of it.

I worried about leaving that support and encouragement of their school in Douglass. But Gabe really is pretty awesome and has already started collecting bears with his new school.

Over the last few months Thing 1 has determined that he really likes to attend our contemporary church service in lieu of the Sunday school class with his age group. He's too cool to sit with me and prefers to sit with the teenagers in the praise band. He actually pays pretty close attention to the sermon and will talk about it with us throughout the week, so I let him (sorry, teenagers). He asked to be baptized and join the church. Note that he not only asked me, but he went right up to the pastor last week and asked him. He's eight years old. He is eight years old and already making this decision for himself.

This morning, he went up on stage and stated the church vision statement: Inviting all to experience the life transforming love of Jesus Christ. It's been the focus of sermons in recent weeks and we've been challenged to memorize it. (He had to tell it to me twice as I typed it just now, and was a bit annoyed that I needed the second reiteration.) He walked up on stage with his messy hair, recited it perfectly into our pastor's microphone and I thought, Dear Lord. Please don't let me ruin him.

Later in the service, there was the opportunity to go forward for prayer at the alter. He did it. I risked his cool reputation and sat beside him afterwards. I put my arm around him, put my head to his and prayed. and cried. Lord, Thank you for trusting me with this awesome kid. Help me to raise him to be the man you want him to be. Please don't let us screw this up.

As I wrap this up, Thing 1 and Thing 2 are in trouble with Mr. 1inamillion for playing with the garage opener. Now they are fighting and blaming one another for ruining Halloween. At least this time no one was riding the garage door. That's improvement. He is just eight years old. Providing his younger sister doesn't kill him today, he's got a lot of years ahead to learn from his choices and still be awesome. (As long as we don't ruin him.)