You know how I've talked about in addition to Joel's big brain full of ideas is his big heart full of sweet, sweet love. Well, he balanced out his blow torch incident with some sweetness last evening.
First, as Sean and I were outside playing with the Zipps (neighbors), Joel was in here reversing the roles and cleaning up after dinner. No one told him to, he just does that sometimes. And if the dishwasher is full, he goes ahead and washes what doesn't fit. I don't even do that. Bless his big heart.
Next, a little background. I volunteer at my church every Thursday afternoon for about three hours doing the same job each week. Now that it's summer, I give Joel the option of coming with me to help me. Yes, help me. This means that he sits and actually helps me for about 10 minutes and wanders around the church looking for snacks that people have just left sitting out or bothering (I mean, engaging) any of the pastors or staff that he happens to come across for the rest of the time.
Back to last night. As I was sitting in the kitchen, he begins gathering up food products and asking if he can have them. After a few minutes of this, I must have gotten a puzzled look on my face.
As if he's confessing something, he says, "Mom, it's just that, today when I was at the church and I passed the empty cupboard for the food pantry, I just felt so bad. Every week, I feel bad that I forget to bring stuff for it, but then never remember at home. Now I remembered!"
My mama heart swells once again with what I so often see in this boy's heart. I cannot wait to see where it takes him.
It's the big brain full of ideas that might kill us all first.
This boy's heart is absolutely the size of Texas! I see it all the time and I, too, am excited to see how God will use him. One little expression of his tender heart came through when he was staying with me. I was experiencing some pretty severe pain with my wretched knees on Sunday, and had to sit down in church during a song. Joel looked at me with a questioning look and I mouthed the words," It's ok, just my knees." He reached down and very tenderly patted my knees. Now how many 10 yr. old boys would even think to do this? He is very, very nurturing.
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