78 Pounds

No, that's not how much Miss Mouse weighs. I think it's around the weight she needs prior to getting out of a car seat or booster for good, but that feat may not be attained until high school at the rate these little Mice grow.

Instead, 78 pounds is the amount of food the Mice collected for the food pantry in town via their birthday celebration. We hauled it all in and weighed it on a super-scale. Miss Mouse was incredibly impressed with the entire operation. The towering skyscrapers of food crates stacked as far as her little eyes could roam; the massive semis parked unloading and loading in the freight garages; the small forklift driving the food crates around the building, arranging them for easy shipping; I thought it might be a bit overwhelming for her since she was clinging tightly to my hand, but she seemed to drink it all in and be quite interested, too. She's talked about it now for several days, so I know the experience is solidifying in her developing little brain.

For me, when we dropped off our 78 pounds, although I was very impressed at that poundage, I also felt a bit insignificant when we looked at our small stack of bags on the giant scale and then turned to look at the stacks upon stacks upon stacks of non-perishable food items waiting to be shipped around the area. I wondered for a moment if our measly little 78 pounds made any difference at all, if it mattered in any way, and if Miss Mouse would feel the same discouragement and insignificance.

Then I looked down at my gap-jawed four-year-old standing in awe and looking so proud as she shook the hand of the man who took down our donation.....and I realized that our 78 pounds do matter. Someone will eat the food we donated, someone who wouldn't have had much food in their house otherwise. Likely that someone will be a child. Miss Mouse knows this. She knows she brought the food there to give to "people who don't have food". She was impressed by the amount of food in the warehouse, but that did not dimish her offering in her eyes. This is just one baby step, but we're on the road to teaching these Mice how we respond to the blessings God has given us. We're on the road to helping them understand the great responsibility that comes with great a privilege such as knowing that we don't have to go to bed hungry for lack of food.

I sent off our bags with 78 pounds of food in them with the hope that God will multiply the 78 pounds from these two little ones as He multiplied another child's loaves and fish to feed thousands of people and with the knowledge that some of that multiplication, some of that blessing, will be felt in our own home as we strive to raise children who appreciate what we have and who give as cheerfully as they play.