A blessed day of both work and play!

Monday started out with the norm-schoolwork, of course!  But today the kiddos had an extra incentive-they were dying to go play at the park, so the sooner we got things done, the sooner we'd be out the door.  Well, it worked and they got done in record time! We packed up our lunches to take with us and made a quick stop at the store to get a few groceries we needed before heading to play.  Amazingly, this is where the biggest blessing happened! While going into the store, my 7 year old noticed  a man sitting far down the wall, with a small backpack, wearing very worn clothes.  He didn't have a sign, but my daughter immediately assumed he was homeless.  I told her if he was still there when we got done with our shopping then we'd go talk to him and find out more about him.  Sure enough, when we came out, he was still there, sitting against the wall, reading a small pocket bible.  I think we startled him a bit when we approached him and asked him where he was headed, given the backpack. He answered our question-he was homeless-sleeping on the streets and under a local bridge since August, unable to secure a job.  We sat and chatted with him for about 15 minutes, trying to point him toward any resources we knew about. We were able to give him one of the food bags we keep in our car for this purpose and told him we would be praying for him.  He said he knew God had a purpose in allowing this to happen and that he is blessed in so many ways.  Wow...what an amazing attitude, one that most of us would not have, given the circumstances.  He is not the first homeless person we have talked to like this.  God has given us many such encounters over the years and though I used to think I was the one helping them, maybe I have that backward....they are helping me....and my kids to see that circumstances do not have to shape your relationship with the Lord-he is there in every circumstance, good or bad, and we can rejoice in that everyday!  I have a long way to go, but I'm thankful He is teaching me this...

 

After our fun encounter, we ventured out to a park nearby our house we had driven by several times,except when we got there, it wasnt actually a playground, but a big slide for the neighborhood pool. Bummer!  Welll, I wasn't giving up. With a subdivision this size, there was bound to be a playground somewhere!  Aftnr about 5 minutes of driving, we found one!  Small, but perfect for us-the kids had the whole thing to themselves!

 

Pretty big play area!

 

 

Fun swinging!

And of course, the slides..

 Don't know whatt my little guy's fascination is with climbing UP the slide...

 

Mom even got in on the fun, too, going down the slide several times.  Oh...to be little again!  I had a great time.  We came home worn out, but happy!  A fun and blessed day!!