“Mine, mine, mine! Mama, mine!”
Yes, Addie was 2 — full strength and adamant!
When Gracie started to touch or use something Addie considered hers, she would loudly assert her ownership.
That’s just the way most two-year-olds are. Part of the maturing and growing up process is the realization of property and possession. Sometimes it seems that even adults have a hard time outgrowing this idea of “mine!”
Addie is now 3. She increasingly is aware of others, and if they have what she has or if they need anything. We were playing with some building Legos and her mama brought her a snack of a bowl of Cheerios. She brought a plate, too. Gracie said, “For Nonnie?” asking where my Cheerios were.
Then she took the plate and her bowl, put three or four Cheerios in the big compartment of her plate and one in each of the smaller portions of their plate, then she presented me the plate. “Here, Nonnie, Cheerios!” She said.
The girls have a favorite little oriental restaurant near Gracie’s school, and they like to go to it. Addie says she wants, “two rolls and beans,” or two spring rolls and edamame (boiled and salted soybeans).
We were enjoying chatting and eating the delicious hot food when I noticed Addie was offering me a piece of her spring roll she had already dipped in the sweet and sour sauce. “Here, Nonnie, rolls!” she said as she shared.
Small steps, growing up, changing to care for others and about others.
Have you thought about sharing lately? As adults, maybe we don’t see opportunities like we used to. Who do you remember sharing in the Bible?
Sure, the little boy with the loaves and fish who was with Jesus and the crowd when He preached and taught shared. The boy had five loaves and two fish which his mother must have packed, or someone packed, for his lunch.
The Bible says there were about “five thousand men, besides women and children,” according to Matthew 14:21, who needed to be fed!
The little boy must have given his food to the disciples, because when Jesus asked them what they had to use to feed the people, they answered the five loaves and two fish they “had here,” verse 17.
Jesus said, “Bring them to me.” Now that’s a very significant request. If Jesus asked you to give all of what you had, even though it was only a little, would you choose to give it to Him?
Today, Jesus is still asking us to bring what we have, what we are, what we can do, to Him as He continues His work through us.
What if the little boy had quickly stuffed his lunch into his mouth and eaten every bit? What if he had hidden his small store of food away, pretending he didn’t have it? What if he had said, “No, you can’t have it; my mama said for me to eat it.”
In Jesus’ hands, our little is enough. Enough for what Jesus intends it to do, to be used for, to accomplish.
Will you bring it to Him?
