Sixth Grade Girls

I've been busy lately with the annual 6th grade girls parent dinner our Wednesday night class plans for their parents. It's amazing what comes out of all that time. We start the second week in January and spend 2 1/2 hours every Sunday afternoon up at the church for 6 or 7 weeks planning, dreaming, scheming, writing, singing, dancing, crafting and bringing to life a theme they've chosen. Well, they're doing all that stuff. Diane, Julie and I sit back and watch mostly and try to keep them on task. It takes a lot of time. It is so fun. Those hours with the girls are some of the best hours of my life. Last Friday they came to my house to try to get some things done because they were running out of time and, let me tell you, it was a blast! Seven of them showed up.

But what I want to write about is this game they were playing called "Would You Rather". They would take turns coming up with things like, "Would you rather have a million dollars or a castle in the clouds?" Of course, the castle in the clouds was overwhelmingly voted yes. Then one of the girls asked, "Would you rather be deaf or blind?" That brought up a lot of great comments about whether or not we could live without music or color at which point one of the girls said, "I'd rather be blind because then I wouldn't judge other people when I see them." Wow. Okay. Blow me away. At that point another one of the girls looked at me and said, "That's why I love her, because she answered that question like that." The next thing we knew they were all hugging each other. Those are the moments I live for.

This is an amazing and intricate group of girls. There are a lot of situations in their lives that they're trying to make sense out of and I'm glad they have each other. I'm so grateful God put me in a room with them once a week (and every Sunday afternoon in January and February!) I learn a lot from each one of them.

The dinner is Saturday night. On Friday night we will meet at the church kitchen to cook. Oh that is always interesting. If you think of us, say a prayer - some of these skits could use a little work!! They always seem to come around and turn out though. It must be a God thing. This whole venture is really not about the dinner or the skits or the dances or the songs. It's about relationships and I would have to say it's been a rousing success on that front already.