Me, Aaron and the kids met up with my sister Berta and her family at Kercher's Orchard for some Fall fun. It started out terrible. As usual I was rushing the kids to get done at WalMart, to get done unpacking groceries, to get in the van, to get there by noon. Which is how long Berta said they'd wait for us. Aaron was working on some plumbing for a family's home from church and I snapped at him to come with the family bc it would be fun. (Ha.) I was in a foul mood by the time we got there. It was just barely sprinkling. It was cold and windy. And I was pissed off that it was basically winter already. Here in Indiana it goes straight from Summer to Winter. Seriously, Fall lasts for like a week. So it usually takes me about a month (or more) to deal with this process. Berta, Scott and their girls were cheery as freakin' normal. This did not help my foul attitude. I did remember Aaron's warm hat and he thanked me which at least made me feel like I was needed for a minute. The hayride was actually kind of fun. It was muddy and we kind of slid around. Kids enjoyed it. Then we get out to pick pumpkins. I found much humor in Aaron throwing the rotten tomatoes at me and I started in on the throwing too. I wanted to take all the pumpkins home with us but finally resorted to 4 pumpkins (and a few cherry tomatoes in my pocket).
As we shopped around Kercher's Farmers Market, Aaron found his beloved Yoder's popcorn. But ended up disappointed because he couldn't find his Yoder's salt and vinegar salt. He resorted to just plain salt. Poor guy. And of course the kids got to pick out something. Emma opted for a caramel apple and Laish wanted candy. We were good parents for about 5 minutes of his whining and finally said, "FINE!". He got a perfectly huge sucker. I began to think that a caramel apple wasn't that good either. I lusted after some stupid healthy cookbook I didn't need and didn't buy it either! PTL, one temptation down. Emma showed me these beautiful sparkly rocks that dazzled and fancied her eye and heart. We loaded up and started getting the kids buckled up when Emma said, "Look, Mommy." In her grubby little hands was one of those sparkly, shiny rocks. My daughter had stolen from Kercher's! OH MY GOSH!
I totally freaked out and hollered for Aaron to come here because I couldn't believe my eldest child just made her first "steal". I never did find out what Aaron made her tell Kercher's or do but I got myself in check and told her later how happy I was that she showed me what she did. For some reason I was still struggling with the fact that she stole. Instead of how innocently she probably took the dang thing.
So then later that day I find this picture on our white wash board and WA-LA, my daughter has yet again taught me a lesson.
In this picture I see Emma and God as friends. See how they are holding hands? Such a perfect picture. Did she not just steal something like 4 hours earlier? How can she be holding Jesus' hand? Shouldn't she be avoiding Him right now bc of her guilt? And then hit me - this is how it's supposed to be. We sin, feel like shit and then we normally slowly avoid God. Emma must've felt perfect grace from Him (or else Aaron did some amazing parenting) and realized we don't need to make such a process out of our sinning. We sin, we make it right and then continue to grow in our relationship with God. Duh, Nita. Why do I have to make everything so dang difficult?
Thank you, God, for my Emma and Your beautiful lesson you taught me today. Help me to always remember that You will never leave me or forsake me, no matter what awful thing I've done to you and the people I love. I love you, Emma, and I love you even more for your imperfection.
