People are always more important than things

A few weeks ago, one of our neighborhood boys was playing at our house.  He has adhd and was being particularly impulsive.  It seemed as if everything he touched either broke or was lost.  It was so bad, that even the kids didn't want to be around him.

He is one of those "good" kids that I have written about.  A person that I feel God has put in my life to fight for.  But this day, it was all I could do not to fight with him and tell him to leave my house.  He wasn't really doing anything bad, just so full of thoughtless energy.

So I left the house to get groceries and put Dick in charge of the kids.  

When I got home I found my kids playing with handmade puppets  with this boy.  He was making puppets for each  of them and they had made props and were having a grand time.

But, these puppets were made out of socks, and not just any socks.  They were our good socks.  The ones that had just come out of the wash, some of them brand new.  

So, I let them have it and of course every one pointed to the boy.  It was his fault.  I proceeded to ask him if he knew how much socks cost.  He said no.   I told him we did not have the money to be wasting the only good socks we have.  I reminded him that I had told him this before and he was not to ever do this again.  He said he was sorry as he handed Libby her freshly made puppet which she was thrilled with.

Later that night, it hit me.  I had put more value in those cheep socks, that maybe added up to $5 than in one of God's prized possessions, the crown of His creation. And really, it was a wholesome way for a 12 year old boy to spend his time.  I mean, I have seen him hanging around some pretty rough people and who knows what they do when no one's watching.

  I went to to boy and told him that I really liked to see them being creative.  So I was going to make a bag of socks for him to use the next time he wanted to make sock puppets and would he please use those socks instead of the first socks he sees.  He said yes and the next day in church, he told the whole children's church that I was going to give him a bag of socks to make puppets out of.  

And I was so glad that I did.