Strangers

I am a Sparks AWANA leader at our church, and Deacon is a K Spark.

Last night during our council time the teacher was talking about friends and why they are important. She asked the kids why they thought friends were important.

Deacon raised his hand and said, "Friends help you solve problems".

Noah and I thought this response from him was somewhat funny. The biggest problem Deke and his friends solve is which of them gets to be Spiderman 1 and which one is going to be Spiderman II.

But I guess in a Kindergartners world that is a big problem.

I would like to think that he has observed Noah and I interact with our friends over the years and has seen us help each other solve problems.

I can hope, right?

So the teacher goes on and somehow the "Stranger" issue came up, and the kids were cautioned that although we should be nice to everyone, we do need to be be careful of Strangers etc. etc.

Deacon loudly whispers to his teacher, "Sometimes you need to meet Strangers in order to get friends."

How true is that?

Now, I know that his definition of "strangers" is different from ours. When he goes to a new swimming class, he considers his new classmates strangers. And they become friends.

We from the beginning would probably classify those people as "classmates" or "acquaintancess"and never really think of them as strangers. Strangers to us are people that we don't know that we encounter in an uncontrolled situation, or maybe even a scary one.

But he is right.

I started thinking last night about the friends that I have that were once "strangers", and by putting aside my fears and insecurities, those people have become friends.

Now, I am not saying that I am going to start striking up random conversations with people in the parking ramp in the middle of the night, but maybe I will think about being friendlier in the neighborhood, or the Y (my Y mantra right now is "no eye contact". "no eye contact".)

And maybe I will gain more friends.