Lollipop Moments

Take 6 minutes and watch this video.....I promise it's not going to sell you any weight loss products, windows or siding.

Just watch.

Something to think about.  Who's that person for you?  And have you taken the time to let them know what they did for you?

One of mine is a good friend who made a comment to me when our kids were very young.  She said, "If you let them do it at home, they'll think they can do it in public."  It was a defining moment in my parenting.  She wasn't criticizing, she wasn't judging, she was simply commenting.  I never forgot those words.  Those words made me a better parent.  I mean, within reason--I still sucked at it most of the time and made terrible decisions--but hey, we all are still alive and we know how to behave in public.

I haven't thanked her, yet.

Another of my lollipop moments came from a close friend of mine.  She told me that she had never believed in herself until she taught with me.  And I believed in her.  I showed her how smart she was.  I stood beside her and I believed in her.  Seriously.  All I did was show up every day and try not to cry because the kids we were teaching were so incredibly awesome--and poor--that sometimes it was too scary to think about sending them home.

Why is it my lollipop moment?  Because her telling me that it was me that made a difference to her made me realize that things don't have to be 'special moments' to make a difference. Every moment can make a difference.  We just never know when we are giving someone something that they take away and use for a lifetime.

Go make a difference.  Just sayin'.



 

 

Friends

Ever read a book that the characters become your family?  That when the book ends you're sad because those characters aren't in your daily life?  That you start to read slower so the book lasts longer?  No?  Really, people.  Just own it.  You know it's true and it's happened to you.  And if it hasn't--then we need to visit.   I got book lists.  And I share.

So this is what happened to me.  I read a book by Lauraine Snelling years ago.  And lucky for me--there were 5 more to go with it.  The book?

Historical fiction is my favorite genre.  And if it includes a trip from overseas and settling in America even better.  It's crazy.  I mean, I will read anything, but historical fiction is definitely my favorite.

So when Lauraine Snelling kept adding to the series with the Bjorklund family, I felt like my family was just getting bigger and bigger.  I love that family.  They probably love me as well.

But then Snelling started another series that takes place in the Dakotas, Wild West Wind, but this time she did something mean--she only wrote 3.  Lucky for me, I didn't discover this until I was almost at the end of the 3rd book.  Now I don't want to finish because that means no more Mavis, Cassie, Ransom or Arnett.

But alas, I did finish.   My take away?  This excerpt from the first book:

"One way is to make plans to do something and ask God 

to block those plans if we are not in tune with Him." 

--p. 223, Whispers in the Wind

Snelling makes reference to this quote in each of the subsequent novels.  It's never direct, it's always in a roundabout way, but it's there.  

Truer words were never written.  Just sayin'.