What 6th Grade Girls Need from God (Could be what you need, too!)

It's the first day of middle school for my daughter. 

In June, a handful of 6th grade girls met in my living room for their first summer prayer group. The practice I had picked out for them was a prayer inviting them to receive God's love through the person who loves them most (I wrote about the practice in an earlier post).

When they closed their eyes, I told them to bring a person who loves them most to mind and consider what special gift that person offers them.  Then after they silently expressed gratitude for that person, I asked them if they could receive that this person is a "face of God."  And the way this person loves them is the very way God was offering them love right that moment!  After a few more moments in silence, they spent some time journaling and then we opened the time for sharing. 

Guess what?  The special gift of the people that came to each of their minds was the same!  
This should offer us some insight.

What was the gift?  How was God wanting to love them?  Through playfulness and humor!

Was this your image of God in middle school?  Is this part of your image of God now?  

Yet it is the very image that God, the Originator of Playfulness and Creator of Humor, wanted to share with them.  It makes sense too, doesn't it?  They (and their parents) will need tons of playfulness and a life-giving sense of humor as they enter and seek to survive middle school!  

And on this morning, God has not disappointed.  The person my daughter brought to mind in June, her little brother, had her giggling with his silliness and the way he accidentally swapped words around when he said, "The mow looks perfectly yarded!" She laughed all the way to the bus stop.  

I could not have asked for a better way to begin her first day of middle school.    
It was the perfect reminder to her nervous parents that the playful, humorous God was near.

• Can you allow God to love you with playfulness and humor today?  
• Is there an area of your life in which you need the playfulness and humor of God?  
• If you find it difficult, you might prayerfully ask to be shown God's humor and playfulness this week.

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