Two weekends ago, I had the blessing and privilege to take 2 lovely girls from church for their Chinese New Year shopping. Their daddy hadn't been well, and so i figured they most probably hadn't had time to shop for their new clothes. Yong Yi was supposed to chauffeur us, but decided not to at the last minute, so that we girls "could have a girly-day out".
It was my first time in ages that i had gone shopping with girls apart from my close girl buddies, mum or aunt. The three of us had a fun time walking from one end of Midvalley to the other end of the Gardens, picking out clothes and trying out clothes from the adults racks to the kids racks and back to the adult racks. We also had a great time laughing till we cried over a super-heavy lunch. =) And it *still* brings giggles each time we think about it.. Three girls, one pasta, one pizza. We returned the pizza moments after it arrived, coz we were way too full from the huge spaghetti meatballs.
During the 4 hours we spent together, i gleaned some precious lessons from the two girls.
(i) Simple faith
The two girls have the blessing of very godly parents who have imparted much godly values to them. Even though their dad is unwell, they confidently tell me that "daddy is better already. He is recovering. God is already healing him and will one day completely heal him. "
(ii) Simple joys
The two girls sat buckled in the back seats of my car, and through out our journey back and forth, they chattered about everything under the sun. "Leader Sharon, what's the name of your teddy bears?" they asked me as they got in. I have two teddy bears sitting in my backseats. One was a gift from a colleague when i first joined Cadbury, and another is a gift from YY during one of his trips to Bangkok. "I haven't thought of any names, yet, le. Why don't you help me to name them?" I told them. It was all they needed. They excitedly cracked their heads, throwing interesting, adorable names. Fluffy.. Fiffy.. Rover.. Stories flew of how we named our other soft toy pets.. Our favourite names for dogs, if we ever owned one.. Our first soft toy.. Our favourite soft toys.. Suddenly one of the girls flipped the tag of the purple teddy and said, "Cadbury Cuddlies! But, Leader Sharon, Cuddlies doesn't sound too nice, eh? How about Cuddles?" "Perfect!"I exclaimed, "Cuddles it shall be. What about the other red one?"
We continued to grind our heads to think of bear names - cute, adorable, perfect names. "How about red Rover?" i asked. "That's a name for a dog, Leader Sharon, not a teddy bear!" Red Jack..Teddy-Love.. "What's on it's tag?" I asked. Sighs.. this bear didn't have a tag. "What about Buttons?" I asked, since it had little buttons on the vest. "Yeah! Yeah! Perfect!! Mr Buttons, it's a really cute name." And so it was, Cuddles and Mr Buttons have their names. We were overjoyed.
On the way back, Cuddles and Mr Buttons had fashion revamp. Cuddles' purple scarf became a turban and then a pair of shorts. Mr Buttons got undressed, which was really quite obscene. Haha.. I guess that's what you get, when you put two girls together with a pair of teddy bears. It was really fun!
In the short time that we spent together, i realised that children have very good memory. The girls remembered and recalled vividly wat i had said to them a couple of years back. It was both amazing and also sobering to think that everything we say and do, in some way and measure influences and impacts the children. I pray that through my life, my words and deeds, I will always be a good testimony of faith and positively influence the children in church and in my family.
