My son is a better person than me, and I’m not afraid to admit it.
How many kids beg their parents to let them get up at 5:30am to go and volunteer at the local Food Pantry (food bank) during summer break?
Initially, I told Jonny he didn’t have to go this week if he didn’t want to (He volunteers to go every week), but Jonny had invited his best friend and his sister who said they were coming.
Jonny wanted to serve along side them at the Food Pantry.
At first I said “no,” because Jonny had already volunteered to be a helper for Vacation Bible School (VBS) which started at 9:15 that day and the Food Pantry ministry didn’t end until 10:30.
Jonny begged me to let him volunteer for both things.
Last year, Jonah got through exactly one day of VBS and did not want to go back. Jonny was hoping to get Jonah excited enough to finish the week this year.
He had volunteered to be a 1:1 with Jonah for all of VBS.
But he also wanted to get up to serve with his friends at the Food Pantry.
So what a dilemma, right?
Most kids would beg to SLEEP IN and not want to do EITHER activity during the early morning hours of their precious summer months.
But not this boy.
So I told Jonny we would figure something out, and we did.
I mean, how can you honestly say “no” to a request like that as a parent?
That’s the exact behavior we want to NURTURE, right?
It DID help that BOTH events were at the exact same location at our local church.
Papa picked up Jonny and his friends early that morning and took them all to church.
Jonny helped out for as long as he could at the Food Pantry and then walked over to the sanctuary to be a classroom helper for Jojo when we arrived for VBS.
And guess what?
With Jonny’s help, Jojo finished all of VBS this year!
Jonny would come home each day and tell me what they did, what they learned about, who they saw, and all the fun things that happened at VBS.
I love that kid’s heart.
I love that he’s so excited to share all the things God is doing in their lives.
I love that Jonny invited his friends to join him at the Food Pantry at, and they actually came and got involved.
I love that Jonah made it through VBS and was actually excited to go each day.
And I love that our church provides these opportunities for our children to develop a heart to serve others.
#ausome