Fruit

In case you are not in the continental United States, I will just let you know, it is bloody hot outside. It's the kind of heat that just "clings" to you the minute you leave the blessed, overworked air conditioning. This is normal in Alabama......in the middle of August.
Ah, but who needs to read one more post about how animals and the elderly are at risk?
I love Summertime (even though it is technically not even here yet). And since I am having to visit the parched vegetation at least once a day to give them a drink, I thought I would share 2 of the things that gave me great joy this evening:

See, it doesn't take much! The truth is, I am ecstatic that they are still alive!
Anyway, today we had an awesome first day of VBS. I have such a sweet group of 5th/6th grade girls that I get to lead around all morning. It only seems like yesterday when I was their age, impressionable, tender and full of hopes and dreams. I quietly watched them today as some of them searched for acceptance and approval of even their smallest actions, and it made me a little sad.
I know that's all normal, but I became freshly reminded about how hard it is to be a young person. I wish that I could just gently grab each one of them by the shoulders and say precisely the thing that would make them understand just how very much they are loved by their Father.
I wish that I could make them grasp that they don't need the approval of man because "man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart"...and that man's approval is fleeting, anyway.
I wish that I could beg them to make all the right choices and to seek to glorify the Lord, no matter what....but that would be weird.
And I would probably get fired from my volunteer position. So I quietly listen, and I trust God to use me somehow. And I pray. I pray that God will bring forth fruit that's incalculable in each of their precious lives. I pray that God will use each one of them mightily and as uniquely as He created them. What an awesome thing to get the privilege of watching these kids grow up.
Hmmmm, I wonder if I will still feel this way by Friday? Just kidding... ;)