The generous heart of my 3-year-old

Last night was Awards Night at AWANA. AWANA is a church program for kids that meets once a week. They break into separate age groups and they have different activities based on their group. Lyla is a "Cubbie" which is for the preschoolers. She has a short bible verse to memorize each week and she usually does a great job with memorizing and reciting. I invited my parents along for the awards ceremony because Lyla was going to be rewarded for preparedness and knowing her bible verses. What they do is give kids tickets whenever they get special recognition throughout the quarter. The tickets go into a can and names are drawn out at awards night. So, Lyla had two tickets in the can.

The night started with fun worship music for the kids (the pic above shows Lyla clapping along to one of the songs in her cute little Cubbies vest). Then they taught a message about transformation and how we are changed when we accept Jesus into our hearts. They wrapped it up with the big drawing and handing out the prizes. Lyla's name was called and she got a princess wand with inter-changeable jewels. She was pretty excited about it and waved it around proudly. This was not the type of event where every kid in the room walked out with a prize. A handful of kids didn't get anything. It was so sad! One little girl was crying and pointing at Lyla's wand. She said, "I always wanted that!" with tears rolling down her red cheeks. I was holding Lyla in my arms outside and explained to her that sometimes it's better to give than to receive and that sometimes God will bless us even more when we choose to bless others. Now, Lyla is a typical 3 year old...what I mean is that she is supremely selfish. I expected her to clutch her new toy to her chest and guard it fiercely. But, to my surprise, she said, "I am going to give my prize to that poor little girl". So I put her down and she walked over to the girl and gave her the wand! That little girl could not have had a bigger smile on her face! She sprinted toward her mom, exclaiming, "MOM, that little girl BLESSED me with this gift!". I was so proud of Lyla for giving up her toy to make someone else happy. It is so sweet to see God working in the hearts of little ones.