Lifelong Lessons Part II

Mr. Man is the cub master for our community cub scouts. He does a superb job, and has kids from other packs switching to ours because of all the hard work he puts in to making it amazing. Occasionally I help him, and we recently put together a whole night of "gingerbread service" stations where the cubs learned about, and actually served their families, community, and country. The community station consisted of decorating gingerbread boys with all sorts of icing and candies... then putting them on plates to deliver to the local retirement home. You can just imagine the creativity those boys (ages 6-10) let loose on the cute little gingerbread boys! I wish I'd taken pictures!

The next day we were scheduled to deliver the plates of cookies. In the end it was just my two little cub scouts and myself. But it couldn't have been better. The boys weren't thrilled that they had to stop playing legos to go do this, and as I explained to them to speak loudly since these older people can't hear as well, they looked at me and rolled their eyes, and I figured it was just going to be another chore for them to complete.

I was loving it, and kept thinking about how I hoped somebody was bringing cookies decorated by little boys to my Oma in her retirement home. We met some amazing people: from an old NBA player, to people who couldn't believe they could have a whole plate of cookies to themselves! Some of the elderly were completely lucid, and enjoyed the boys thoroughly, others claimed to not have any money and were thrilled at the gift that was given, others turned us away sadly while we lingered longer, trying to at least get a glimpse of a smile. When we were down to only three plates of cookies, we found two sweet ladies in the foyer, then one plate of cookies left for a woman named "Joy" who was overly grateful and told the boys, "I would hug you, but you're boys!" Little E approached her anyways, and then Mr. T and she hugged both of them. A perfect ending to a perfect experience.

No sooner had we left the retirement home and gotten into the car, than the boys started talking non-stop about the whole event! (They had been pretty quiet inside!)
Mr. T couldn't believe how good he felt inside. He was amazed at how cookies could really cheer somebody up and make their day... and couldn't believe that he had been able to be a part of that! He wanted us to go home and make a LOT more cookies right away to give away. He admitted that he had to wipe tears from his eyes a couple of times, and knew that he was feeling the way he was because he was serving. Little E coined it perfectly when he said, "We went to bring them joy, and in the end Joy came to us!" (That boy LOVES to play with words!) While a few people had offered to pay for the cookies, the boys said that they knew they wouldn't have felt as good as they did if they'd been paid. They said they finally understood why Jesus must have been so happy, since he constantly went around serving others, and never asking for anything in return. It was a special moment, hearing my boys openly express their feelings and knowing that they felt inspired to continue to do good.

THAT is what I hope my children will remember about Christmas.