Full House

This is VBS week for us, and it is two nights down with three to go. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy VBS but it is a very tiring week. We are teaching the children about the Lord's Prayer and my class, the adult class, seems to be enjoying it.

The days are very long as, by the time we have cleaned up, we are leaving the Church at about 9PM, but last night my wife invited 4 girls aged 9 - 14 for a sleepover with my daughter Hope. The problem was, my two boys aged 9 & 5 were equally excited at having 4 pretty girls at the house and soon the attention was taken from my daughter and she became very jealous. She wouldn't let the boys in her room so her 4 guests stayed out of her room as well...leaving Hope alone and feeling very sorry for herself.

At about 11PM I went into Hope's room to talk to her. She was very angry at her brothers, and mad at her friends because they didn't come into her room. As I talked to her she became more upset until she just broke down and began to sob uncontrollably - I had never seen her cry like that before.

I like to discuss problems, so I tried to discuss the situation with Hope but her emotions made her unreasonable, however, reading between the lines, it was now a matter of pride that was keeping her away from having a fun time. I talked to her for another 45 minutes, trying to convince her to go down and bury her pride...and then Taylor walked in. Taylor is a 12 year old girl who Hope loves to play with. Hope had been particularly unkind to Taylor, but Taylor has the ability to get over such silliness. Taylor talked to Hope for 10 minutes, after which Hope went downstairs and ended up having a fantastic time.

Pride is an awful thing. It causes us to blame, it causes us to hate, it causes us to be unreasonable, it causes people to leave Churches, it causes people to leave their families. Pride keeps issues burning, pride keeps people hating, pride keeps people divided. So why is it so hard to admit to being wrong, why is it so hard to say sorry. Am I perfect, is anybody perfect? Of course the answer is no, therefore sorry should be one of the most natural words for us...but for pride.

I'm so glad that Taylor stepped towards Hope yesterday allowing Hope to have a great time, I just wish we had the ability to recognize our own faults allowing us to say sorry and accept our God given right to be forgiven.