Character Moments

A few weeks ago, I made a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some needed items for a potluck the next day.  One of the most important was to make sure I had ice!  I was preparing only cold items so that we could make a quick trip from church to the party without stopping at home.

Do you have any idea how much ice is available at the grocery store on a HOT Saturday afternoon?

Not much!

So I tossed three bags underneath my cart that was already loaded!  (A quick trip for a short list with a family of seven can still be long.)  As I guided my cart to the check-out line, I kept telling myself that I needed to remember to tell the clerk about the ice down below.

Sometimes the clerk and sacker conversations can be soooooo interesting.  Sometimes they are just frustrating!  On this day, I got totally entranced by whatever was being discussed.  The sacker filled my cart, the clerk took my money, and I headed to my car.

I made it all the way through the first set of doors and just about out the second when it hit me - THE ICE!  I totally forgot about the ice!  Even the helpful sacker boy didn't notice it!

So in this moment, I had a decision to make.  What to do?

Truthfully, I've had LOTS of the moments.  Somehow I'm forever placing a roll of tape in the seat section or some other item that is only discovered after I've paid the bill.  Even  Especially with all my children in tow, I would turn around, go back into the store, and pay for the hidden item.  Clerks have looked at me totally puzzled as I stand there surrounded by whiny kids asking me why I even bothered for the $2 roll of tape? 

But with the kids around, it was an easy choice for me.  An important life lesson about doing the right thing just because it is the right thing.

Alone with my three bags of ice, what do I do?

Well, it was the same answer!  I turned the cart around, got back into a check-out line, and paid for three bags of ice.  Ugh!

My two little boys have started to play football this year.  Though I love to watch football, I don't really like to see my boys play.  It pains my mama's heart to cheer for them while I peek through my fingers that cover my eyes. 

Part of the league stuff is that each child is issued some equipment - helmet, shoulder pads, WHITE practice pants, and pads for the pants.  Then at the end of the season, it is all returned so next year you aren't BUYING new stuff for your child who grew like crazy.

All last year, I fretted over those WHITE pants.  I soaked and scrubbed them multiple times each week to keep them WHITE.  Yes, it is a total OCD/pride issue for me!  But I want those pants WHITE!

When Christopher and the boys came home with all their equipment this year, I was mortified!  One pair of pants was FILTHY!  It hadn't been washed at all.  Christopher even thought that some of the dirt stains were blood it was so bad.  (Not, but the man doesn't know laundry stains).  I soaked and worked so hard just to get both pairs of pants clean.

Then their helmets!  They both looked like someone had been dancing on their head in the mud.  Even the insides were filthy.  I refused to let the boys wear them or put them back on their heads until I cleaned and sanitized them.  Some scuffs and scrapes don't come off, but dirt does.

Would you believe that both of their helmet didn't fit well after they started practicing this week?

Now we've had to exchange them for better fitting helmets.  You guessed it!  FILTHY, DIRTY, AGAIN!

So my deep thoughts...there are just times in life when you need to do the right thing.  WASH THE PANTS!  PAY FOR ICE!  It's not because anyone will ever know that it was you, other than God. 

The boy who got our white pants will never know the mom who washed them with care last year.  But I know and God knows that I cared for those pants not just for my boy, but for all the other boys who will be wearing them.  Maybe his mom breathed a sigh of relief when she saw them.  Maybe it was one less thing she HAD to do in her busy day.

One of my biggest goals in parenting my kids has always been for them to learn to make the right choice in those quiet, character moments, when only God is looking.  Doing the right thing...just cuz...