So what exactly do you do...
when you look out your window and see people walking away with your stuff???
Okay, while that's a true statement, it needs explaining. Yesterday, I was walking in my house from the kitchen to the living room, and as you do that, you are facing the window, so I happened to be looking outside. And as I did, I saw a man walking with his 3 small children. Well, actually he and two of the children were walking...the other one was riding one of our ride on toys. And they weren't stopping. In fact, they had ridden it from our back driveway all the way around the corner to our our front driveway.
Isn't it amazing how many thoughts can pass through your head in a split second? Never was my thought, "These awful people are stealing from us" because I knew that that toy had been down by the road and as we had left the house earlier that day, I had made the kids get out of the car and move it up higher on the drive telling them that someone would take it if they left it there. I am not sure where exactly it was when the man and his children found it, but I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. My thought did include, in no particular order, see I told them this would happen, should I just let him go with it?, but Sari still rides it, but she has another ride-on, oh, yeah, the wheel is broken on the other one, did someone tell them they could have it, well if I am going to stop him, I better do it now. So I turn to my family, ask them if they knew someone was riding off on the toy, and when they all had no idea, I went outside to head him off
AND
found his arms full of a super soaker and a LARGE, heavy duty bubble wand-both also from my yard...
Now we had moved from understandable confusion to blatantly taking anything he saw in my yard as I KNOW both of those things were no where near the curb.
And of course he did not speak english.
I HATED to make the young child get off the toy, but it was on the driveway because it DOES get played with, and I don't want to replace it when Sari is so close to outgrowing it. The dad kept asking "garbage, yes?" and I kept saying "NO, and neither is the water gun or the bubble wand" but it took a few times before he turned it all over.
So today, the wife, holding another baby in arms, and the three small kids (they must have had a kid a year) went walking by, and I wish there was not a language barrier. I probably DO have things I'd happily part with if they needed them, it just so happens that THOSE things were not them. But then, if they really NEEDED those things I probably would give them up too, but them being in my yard does not constitute them being garbage. It's like the time I found a neighbor in our yard picking our orange tree. If they had but ASKED, I would have gotten a ladder for them to pick with, but to walk up to the tree and just take...well, let me just confess that God still has a lot of work to do in me about my ideas about what is JUST.
I will say though, that if I can find the broken wheel to Sari's other ride on, and I can fix it, I will give them the one they wanted to take, the very next time we see them.
For now, I have no higher thought or greater insight to share...just that clearly I still have "possession" related issues :-). I will have a far greater problem if I don't sign off now and make dinner though!
Okay, while that's a true statement, it needs explaining. Yesterday, I was walking in my house from the kitchen to the living room, and as you do that, you are facing the window, so I happened to be looking outside. And as I did, I saw a man walking with his 3 small children. Well, actually he and two of the children were walking...the other one was riding one of our ride on toys. And they weren't stopping. In fact, they had ridden it from our back driveway all the way around the corner to our our front driveway.
Isn't it amazing how many thoughts can pass through your head in a split second? Never was my thought, "These awful people are stealing from us" because I knew that that toy had been down by the road and as we had left the house earlier that day, I had made the kids get out of the car and move it up higher on the drive telling them that someone would take it if they left it there. I am not sure where exactly it was when the man and his children found it, but I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. My thought did include, in no particular order, see I told them this would happen, should I just let him go with it?, but Sari still rides it, but she has another ride-on, oh, yeah, the wheel is broken on the other one, did someone tell them they could have it, well if I am going to stop him, I better do it now. So I turn to my family, ask them if they knew someone was riding off on the toy, and when they all had no idea, I went outside to head him off
AND
found his arms full of a super soaker and a LARGE, heavy duty bubble wand-both also from my yard...
Now we had moved from understandable confusion to blatantly taking anything he saw in my yard as I KNOW both of those things were no where near the curb.
And of course he did not speak english.
I HATED to make the young child get off the toy, but it was on the driveway because it DOES get played with, and I don't want to replace it when Sari is so close to outgrowing it. The dad kept asking "garbage, yes?" and I kept saying "NO, and neither is the water gun or the bubble wand" but it took a few times before he turned it all over.
So today, the wife, holding another baby in arms, and the three small kids (they must have had a kid a year) went walking by, and I wish there was not a language barrier. I probably DO have things I'd happily part with if they needed them, it just so happens that THOSE things were not them. But then, if they really NEEDED those things I probably would give them up too, but them being in my yard does not constitute them being garbage. It's like the time I found a neighbor in our yard picking our orange tree. If they had but ASKED, I would have gotten a ladder for them to pick with, but to walk up to the tree and just take...well, let me just confess that God still has a lot of work to do in me about my ideas about what is JUST.
I will say though, that if I can find the broken wheel to Sari's other ride on, and I can fix it, I will give them the one they wanted to take, the very next time we see them.
For now, I have no higher thought or greater insight to share...just that clearly I still have "possession" related issues :-). I will have a far greater problem if I don't sign off now and make dinner though!
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