Seeing With New Eyes

The other day my daughter made a new friend. She's a few years younger than my daughter, but they get along great, and played the entire day through. My daughter invited her to church, and this little girl got very, very excited!"I'm tired of babysitting my brother- I wanna go see God!"

I couldn't help but chuckle at her enthusiasm. I know part of it was she was getting out of babysitting duty, but there was a genuine excitement about going to go see God. And here I am, wondering sleepily about what we'll do after service was over.
Where was the excitement? The joy? The happiness that we were all 'going to go see God'? When did going to church stop being fun and more like an obligation? I wanted to see through her eyes!

I know I'm not the only one to feel this way...right?

So my prayer for me (and those like me) would be- 'Lord, please break my heart and let Your joy shine in so much that I am like a kid at Disneyland when Sunday comes around!' 

We told her what time we were leaving, and that we would pick her up- after asking her mother for permission.

Sunday came and we went to her house- but she was still asleep. My daughter was disappointed, but we told her that she can invite her friend again next week- at least until my husband saw her riding her bike past the church an hour later! He told her she could still come, and she raced home to change, and even brought her sleepover guest with her! My daughter was so happy to see them coming through the door I thought she would burst.

They stayed through the entire service and said they wanted to come back next week. Her mother was out the entire day, so we kept an eye on her (and her other friend) and let them play at the house for the rest of the day. They had never experienced a fire-pit cookout, so we broke out the hot dogs and fire-pit forks and had them over for dinner. We had a blast!

It was fun to see these girls experience new things, taking joy in all of it. I want to see more through their eyes- and I wonder if God does the same with us when we take joy in His work!

Take a look around and try to see everything with new eyes- it might just bless you in unexpected ways!