“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”– Henry David Thoreau

Yesterday at church Riley really wanted to get a snowflake off the tree to help a child whose family is struggling this Christmas so we picked one and Riley is going to earn money by doing things around the house to buy the present. There have been MANY...years that my family was on that tree because we have struggled financially for so long. Her giving heart melted mine : )) She is really excited about this although she wishes we would have picked a girl but I reminded her SHE picked the snowflake she wanted and that boys are just as good as girls: )) She reluctantly agreed.

Later she had found some change somewhere and asked me if I could open her owl purse so she could put the money in there. As I was opening the purse I asked her if she was going to save this money to buy the present for our snowflake child . She said “ No no Mommy this is found money , I want to use earned money to buy the present for the little boy “ I just smiled wondering where this found money came from and remembering back to when my kids would “find” change on our dresser and "take" it.

Once I called Alexis out on STEALING the money and she looked at me shocked and said “ Mom it’s not stealing when it’s change it’s only stealing if it is paper money !!!” I was dumbfounded on how that moral and value came to be but it was one I had to really work on to discredit: )). Maybe “the it is okay to take change” moral was birthed because Hailey worked at Sonic and had jars of change in her room so it just seemed okay to take change because it was in such abundance. I think Hailey’s change earned an Olive Garden party for one of Sammy’s classes in middle school : )) This made me laugh as I remembered because I can picture the look of indignation on Alexis’ face as I tried to point out that taking ANYTHING that was not yours was stealing : ))

Anyhow Riley’s sweet heart made me think back to Alexis and her sweet and giving heart (although somewhat skewed morals in taking what isn’t yours ) and how she looked at things. When I got out of prison we were living in a small trailer off Parker. At that time we were the poorest we had ever been. I wasn’t working, Warner was working at Albertson’s, we only had one car and didn’t even have cable. There was no extra money to go out to eat, for movies, for anything. It was a tough time although it was a time I remember fondly because we were finally back together as a family after spending about three years apart because of the consequences of our drug problems. That first holiday season the Christian Care Center donated some food to us to help us out. We were very grateful although the kids weren’t aware of the help.

I unpacked the canned goods and put them away . One morning after the kids got on the bus to go to school I went to see what I could “cook” for dinner and was shocked because all the food was gone. I didn’t know what happened, I called Warner at work and he didn’t have a clue either.

Well later that day as Alexis and Sammy got off the bus and came running in I questioned them about the food . Sammy said he didn’t know what had happened but Alexis looked at me with excitement. She then told me she took all our food to her school because they were having a canned food drive to help the poor and she really wanted to help those less fortunate. I just smiled and hugged her.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her we were the poor they were helping because she didn’t see us that way. When she looked at our family she saw we had more than enough so she wanted to share it. My heart melted. I think Riley is a lot like her motherAnyhow Riley’s sweet heart made me think back to Alexis and her sweet and giving heart (although somewhat skewed morals in taking what isn’t yours ) and how she looked at things. When I got out of prison we were living in a small trailer off Parker. At that time we were the poorest we had ever been. I wasn’t working,

Warner was working at Albertson’s, we only had one car and didn’t even have cable. There was no extra money to go out to eat, for movies, for anything. It was a tough time although it was a time I remember fondly because we were finally back together as a family after spending about three years apart because of the consequences of our drug problems.

That first holiday season the Christian Care Center donated some food to us to help us out. We were very grateful although the kids weren’t aware of the help. I unpacked the canned goods and put them away . One morning after the kids got on the bus to go to school I went to see what I could “cook” for dinner and was shocked because all the food was gone.

I didn’t know what happened , I called Warner at work and he didn’t have a clue either. Well later that day as Alexis and Sammy got off the bus and came running in I questioned them about the food . Sammy said he didn’t know what had happened but Alexis looked at me with excitement. She then told me she took all our food to her school because they were having a canned food drive to help the poor and she really wanted to help those less fortunate. I just smiled and hugged her. 

I didn’t have the heart to tell her we were the poor they were helping because she didn’t see us that way. When she looked at our family she saw we had more than enough so she wanted to share it. My heart melted. I think Riley is a lot like her mother