I painted a pretty picture of a butterfly!

About a month or so ago my mom, my sister, and I were looking through a box of old things that we had written when we were little. I think there were about 482 birthday/Christmas/mothers day/fathers day/valentines day/every-single-flippin-holiday cards that my and my brother and sister had given to my parents. I remember how we used to get so excited about every birthday or holiday that would come so we would gather our supply of crayons, construction paper, scissors, and glue and we would use our imaginations to create a masterpiece. And then when the project was complete we would be so proud of what we had done and run to our parents to show them how good our coloring was. Of course now I look at it and think what a horribly un-talented child I was; but back then we actually thought it was really good. And then there was the poetry. Oh Lord, the poetry. None of it even make sense, but the thing was we thought we were doing something special and somehow our parents actually liked it.

That's the thing that sticks out to me the most about being 6 years old...the excitement that I would feel about the little things. And then now, being 15, life just lacks excitement. And then you have those people who try to do things that make "the important things in life" exciting for teenagers, but it never really works. For example, my Algebra teacher last year, who was a very nice lady, somehow got her hands on a bunch of books titled "How to Make Good Grades and Have Fun with it" so she decided she would give one to each of us for Christmas. Of course, I put that book on my bookshelf and haven't read a word of it. When we were in elementary school it was easy for the teachers to find things that make learning fun, but now that we're older it just doesn't work. I think the older you get, the harder it is to get excited about things.

I think this is kinda what Jesus means when he tells us to be like the little children. He doesn't mean we should go around acting like immature idiots, or crying like little babies. He wants us to feel that enthusiasm for life, that enthusiasm for Him like we did when we were young. And even though most things we do on earth are almost meaningless, they mean something to Him because we did it to the best of our ability and we were actually happy about it. In the same way that my stupid little poems or drawings meant something to my parents, anything we do out of love means something to Him.

I think that's something that's really hit me lately. I know I'm only 15 and I (hopefully) still have a lot of life ahead of me, but sometimes I just feel like I've lost all the good times and I will never be able to really feel excited about life again. I think sometimes I try too hard. I really just need to sit back and realize how wonderful life really is and try not to let it just pass by me.

Ok. Enough rambling for now.

~*Elizabeth