A Little Something Sweet

I know that, for a lot of people, it's traditional to have a nice, big, family dinner following church. Not so much for us. Our Sunday lunch usually consists of what is leftover (and still edible) in the frig from the previous week. Not very exciting.



Today was leftover london broil, brown rice and gravy. There may have been a vegetable...wait...no, there was no vegetable. Molly looked at the meat neatly cut up on her plate and said to us, "Mom, Dad...if I finish my lunch can I have two pieces of candy?"



"No, Molly. No candy today."



A minute or so later Molly asked, "Mom, Dad...can I have one piece of candy?"



"No, Molly. We aren't going to eat any candy this afternoon."



"If I finish all my meat can I have some?"



"No, Molly."



We finished up lunch and dispersed.



I was making a pot of coffee and talking to Michael when Molly walked in holding a bag of candy.



And let me just interject here: this candy came from the MLK parade last week. Any parade in M'ville loads us down with candy from whatever holiday has just passed. For example, at the Christmas parade, we get leftover Halloween stuff. Also, the candy is usually stuff you could ONLY get rid of if you were fortunate enough to be in the parade and needed something to throw at people. It's basically dum-dums and hard candy that's starting to get sticky around the edges. To be fair, however, we did actually get some pretty good candy at the MLK parade compared to some others we've been to...but the good stuff was long gone before we even left the square.



Anyway, like I said, Molly walked in holding this bag of candy. Michael saw her and said, "Molly, let me see your tongue."



She stuck out her tongue, which happened to be a very vivid blue.



"Molly, have you been eating candy?"



"No."



"Well, how did your tongue get blue?"



"Ummm...I just brushed my teeth with blue toothpaste."



"Molly, are you telling the truth?"



Thus the crying began.



It was hard for me NOT to laugh. Molly thought she was so smart, hiding her sin. Little did she know that the Father saw her eat that candy and in His grace, he allowed her to be caught so that she would not miss out on the opportunity to see (and feel) the consequences of her sin. If she had gotten away with that, her heart - even if just a very little corner of it, I think - would begin to harden. It's easy for me to look at this whole story, chuckle to myself, and think, "awww," but it's not sweet, or really even cute. Why would I think that just because it's a child - my child - that her sin is cute? I'm reminded again how much the Father hates sin and what an affront to him it is. I'm also reminded of God's love. he obviously loves Molly enough to see her, lead her to us with guilt on her hands (or tongue in this case) and let her be caught in her sin. And that's how he loves me, too...even though my tongue is sometimes blue.



Bless ya!