The Evangelizer.

That'd be my daughter.

Today I decided that it was high time for a long walk. A neighbor girl, about whom I know little more than her age and what house she lives in, was playing with Ella in our front yard. She is six years old and lives on the street behind us. She rides on her bike with her older sister and stops regularly if she sees us outside. I get the feeling that she is just craving attention and a playmate. Most of the time I'm not even sure if their mother knows where they are. Her name is Miranda.

Miranda has asked to come into our house many times but I always say, "Not until your mommy meets me". It just makes me uncomfortable to have someone else's child in my home if they don't know about it and to be quite honest, I get a little irritated as well. The poor thing just wants to play but I know that if one of my children is playing with a child I don't know, I am watching like a hawk. That makes more work for me. That makes nursing an infant and wrangling a tantruming toddler difficult and more stressful. I just don't want to do the work.

So....back to the walk. I decided that the baby was fed and changed, Shepherd was in good enough spirits and Ella and Mommy needed some girl talk. I decided we should walk. But there was this problem. Miranda was begging to go along as well instead of going home. I told her that we would walk her home and she could run into her house and ask her mom (secretly hoping her mom would peer out the window and feel comfortable to come out and meet me). She agreed and we walked to Miranda's house. She threw her bike in the front yard and ran inside. She came out within seconds. Her mom had said it was okay. Her mom was in her bedroom watching t.v. I never met her and here I was, about to take her daughter on an hour long walk. I was irritated. 

We began walking and the girls were talking, rather sweetly about bikes and who runs fastest; boys or girls. They talked about preschool and kindergarden, about who can read and who can't and about princesses. My irritation began to fade and I started to enjoy this new, sweet friendship I saw forming. But something was eating at me.... what kind of family does this girl come from? Why is her mother so absent? I always see her riding her bike without shoes. I thought I should start getting nosey. I began asking Miranda questions, benign at first but getting increasingly more personal as I went on. 

I learned these things: Miranda has two sisters, one 10 and the other 14. The 14 year old babysits a lot because their mom goes to work at 2 am in a town an hour away and she sleeps when she gets home. Her dad works in a town a half hour away and gets home at 2 am. If you hit someone hard enough to "make a mark" you could go to jail. She has her own room. Her big sister is mean. And the bigger sister is meaner. Sometime she get a time-out and other times she gets a spanking first and then a time-out.

As we were nearing the end of our walk, Miranda asked Ella if she liked the two girls that live next door to us, who Ella only talks to through the fence. Ella said, "Yeah!" Miranda replied, " Well, I don't. They don't like me, so I don't like them." My beautiful daughter turned and gently said, "But Jesus told us we should love everybody. That was what Jesus said." Miranda said, "Oh, I love Jesus!"

Here I was, being irritated with a six year old. A six year old who wanted to go on a walk with a family. A family that she could feel love from. People with whom she would be accepted. She could just be comfortable to be herself and relax. She could just be six.

I don't know what Miranda's home life is like but I do know this; I better start listening to Jesus. He placed His message for me right on my daughter's lips.