As emily said this morning, salt lake city was a really fun different sort of stop. It’s the first time we were able to work with kids, and that was a blast! Kids are just so refreshing… they say things so simply and aren’t afraid to ask blunt questions.
I drew pictures with a little 3 year old girl named alice… she was very sweet and kind of shy and quiet but she liked drawing the stems onto all of the flowers I drew and drawing swirlies around the sunshine… I asked her what love was and she just smiled and kept drawing… and it showed me that just the act of spending time with her was love. I also talked with a 9 year old girl named Yesandra, it was a little bit easier to tell her about our love project. She wanted to know all about my family and my home. She shared that love is helping people who are hurt. Another 9 year old girl, Elizabeth simply drew a heart.
These kids were so interested just in talking and listening to us. One thing I noticed was their attention to family… asking about ours and telling us about theirs. The leader of the playroom was handing out popsicles and all the kids were grabbing at least 2 or 3 extras so they could take them to their mom and dad and little siblings. I know I haven’t always been the best at loving my family. It’s easy to neglect them when there are so many things going on, but they are the ones that are there for me no matter what.
Regardless of your family situation, loving those who are closest to you is the biggest display of compassion, self-sacrifice, and understanding (because its definitely the hardest). Maybe your family isn’t showing love to you or to each other… and that does hurt, but maybe the best way to change that is to be an example of unconditional love yourself. Two ways to do that are; being quick to listen and slow to become angry, and being patient. I’m learning just how important those things are.
Today we drove about 650 – 700 miles…. About 11 hours of driving. Tonight we are in Nebraska. And it is time for sleep!
