Maryn's Birthday

Leah, Dylan, Maryn

Well, my brother's little girl, Maryn, turned 6 yesterday, and I thought it would be fun to take the kids to a movie. I got Kade and Elise out early from school, and went to pick up Maryn and her sister, Leah. ( For some reason the Tempe school district has the students get out of school early on Wednesday's, which worked out good because 1. it was Maryn's birthday and 2. we could go to a matinee at the theatre.) So I picked up the kids and headed for Wal-Mart so the kids could pick out a treat for the movie...a treat at a reasonable price, that is...not movie prices. And then we headed over to the theatre to see Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who. We got settled and we were a bit early so the kids were running around chasing each other for about 45 min...luckily no one else was in the theatre yet. (I wouldn't have let them run around if there were people in there.)

So the movie starts and all is well, only a couple trips to the bathroom and drinking fountain, by MY children. As the movie continues to progress, I am thrilled with what I am hearing,( and its not just a Who), Horton is telling his little mouse friend that once he commits to something he does it 100 percent, even if the whole jungle is mad at him for something that seems unexplainable and completely ludicrous, a whole world on a spec, but Horton just continued to say... "I said what I meant and I meant what I said, An elephant is faithful 100%."

So Horton continues to follow through with what he promised to do, and the Kangaroo is so angry, she says that if you can't see it or hear it , then it is not true, (something to that effect). As the story goes, the whole jungle ends up finding Horton before he can finish what he wants to do and they stop him and ridicule him. They are going to cage him and hurt him. But to stop all this, all he has to do is tell everyone that what he said is NOT TRUE, that what he KNOWS to be TRUTH, is not true and then they will leave him alone...

So...you know how it ends, Horton is being tormented and caged, but he stood by what he knew to be truth and the Jungle Animals finally heard the WHO's, they heard the truth...and all is well because... "An elephant is faithful 100%."

As I thought about this little children's story...how much can I learn from the Elephant...Am I willing to be Faithful to the truth that I KNOW, even if it may sound incredulous to some, Am I willing to be faithful 100%, at the cost of ALL? Do I mean what I say and say what I mean...Am I Faithful 100%? The lessons of life that I have been taught in recent months has helped me to know that I AM willing to give ALL that is required to stand for the Truth that I KNOW. How great is it that we can teach our little ones that they can stand for the truth that they KNOW, even if it means that they might have to be "caged" and "poked with sticks".