Last night my daughter told me "I prayed in front of the whole VBS today dad, it was kind of weird to pray in front of that many people."
"what language kiddo?"
"Tok Pisin." she replied confused as to why it might be something else.
My kids have recently been encouraged by me to take their faith more seriously, to talk to people about what they believe, to pray for their friends, to "show off Jesus" more than showing off themselves.
I was proud of her.
Today I came home from work for lunch and saw my daughter sitting in a chair putting on "play makeup" that she got for Christmas.
She was playing with her friend Natalie, who is a Papua New Guinea girl from down the road.
She faced Natalie holding a glitter glue pen and said "Natalie, close your eyes"
to which Natalie quickly replied, "no", very matter of factly. It was the kind of "no" that said "I know you too well you're going to do something you shouldn't".
I laughed pretty hard. You know their good friends when the girl knows my daughter so well that she knows, closing your eyes in front of Syd while she's holding pen, glue or both of the above is a very UNWISE thing to do.
I think Natalie knew Sydney was plotting "new sparkly eyebrows" or something.
a lot of her friendships with the PNG boys and girls revolve around her being the ring leader. She says "let's do this" and they comply, usually watching to see what the crazy white girl is going to propose. Add to that, that our children (or should I say "my" honey?) have exceptional imaginations and are often doing very odd things.
So to have this little girl say "no" was not only humorous, it showed me a healthy friendship that was beyond the ... do-as-I-say-or-I-won't-be-your-friend-anymore stage.
The thought occurred to me that my kids are and will be making lifetime friendships with people it'll be hard to stay in touch with during adulthood.
