Raising World Changers

It was Gandhi that said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

Ah, how very, very true.

While strolling the pen, paper, and notebook aisle at Target today, I “happened” upon a darling little girl, probably around 4 or 5, and her sweet Southern mom. They had stopped to fix this adorable, yet very big, bow sitting atop her blonde locks.

“Oh, I remember those days,” I smiled. “We had quite the collection.”

“Well, we’re from Alabama,” the mom proudly stated. “They are just par for the course there. Not so much here.”

“They used to be, trust me,” I said.

“Now my girls look at their pictures and say, ‘Mom, what were you thinking?” I laughed.

Probably shouldn’t have said that, but then, you know me.

What happened next was sheer magic.

The sweet little girl was mesmerized by something. I couldn’t see it at the moment, because she was blocking it. Mom kept urging her to come on.

Suddenly, she moved to the right, so I could see the object of her affections.

It was a globe.

Be still my heart.

We Have to Have the Big World in Our House.

“But, Momma, it is the world. We need this in our house. We need to get it. We need to have the big world in our house,” she said, persistently.

“We’re good, sweetie,” Momma said. “C’mon, we’ve gotta get going.” (Momma was mesmerized by a beautiful wooden clipboard. I watched her wipe her hand across its smooth surface, saying under her breath how she loved it but had no earthly reason to have it.)

“But Momma, we need to know about the big world,” she insisted.

My heart melted. That could be my granddaughter one day. I expect my Candace Rose would have a daughter with a heart for the big, big world.

Not that my other two children don’t have a heart for the big, big world, but it brought back specific memories of Candace and that world puzzle I put in front of her in Princess Snowflake Preschool.

 (Excuse the blurriness, it was 1991…and can you see that bow?
Today, she has trekked across a good deal of that big, big world she loves so much.)

I resisted the very dominant urge to chase after that momma and tell her to buy that globe.

I resisted telling her that her little girl’s urging just might be a calling in the making.

I resisted…I really did. But, I prayed.

I prayed for that sweet little Southern girl with the big bow in her hair.

Who knows why she felt so compelled by that globe.

Today, on Earth Day, I can’t help myself. I must urge all you young mommas to tell your children about the big, big world out there. It needs us.

And for those of us who have raised our world changers, we need to pray for them. They are out in the parts of the world God has led them to. They need us to pray that they will be strong, stable, and secure in HIS love and care for them.

After all, Jesus’s last words to his disciples were all about the big, big world.

He said, “I am here speaking with all the authority of God, who has commanded Me to give you this commission: Go out and make disciples in all the nations. Ceremonially wash them through baptism in the name of the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then disciple them. Form them in the practices and postures that I have taught you, and show them how to follow the commands I have laid down for you. And I will be with you, day after day, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20, The Voice).