Play Pretend

I went to my women’s bible study the other morning,

got my cup of coffee,

sat down,

opened my workbook and bible.

I noticed out of the corner of my eye,

someone waving through the small glass window in the closed door to the classroom.

It was the church’s preschool director.

She was waving me out into the hallway.

She explained that she needed to give a new family a school tour but had already promised to video one of the teachers interacting with the students for her student teaching.

That’s where I came in.

I got to video a classroom of 4-year-olds interacting with their teacher.

I wasn’t to speak.

Ahem.

Just keep the camera on the teacher as she explained and observed students

at the pendulum station,

building and knocking down a cardboard brick tower,

playing with a large toy dog,

and then a painfully long 3 minutes of trying to get the CD player to work at the listening station.

“Can you hear it now?”

“Now can you hear it?”

“How about now? Can you hear it?”

I have to admit,

I forgot how mind-numbingly loud a classroom of 4-year-olds could be.

There was so much to look at and observe myself that I had to keep reminding myself to video what the teacher was doing and not what I was looking at.

Which was so many things!

There was a boy constantly asking when it was his turn

FOR EVERYTHING!

They had this great system of clipboards they called “Waiting Lists” and the kids could write their name down when they wanted to be next.

The boy could easily look to see WHEN it was going to be his turn,

but he must’ve liked asking

over

and over

and OVER again.

For fun.

I saw him refer to the list.

Saw him point to his name. 

He KNEW EXACTLY WHEN 

it was going to be his turn.

Then there was the boy that hummed his own little ditty

that was remarkably catchy,

(I caught myself humming it later in the day)

over 

and over 

and OVER again

while he walked back and forth across the room 

tossing up and down the blood pressure cuff 

from a pretend medical kit.

But the greatest pull of my attention was the little boy that I noticed taking all the plastic lids from the pots and pans from the play kitchen,

just the lids,

and shoving them down his pants.

Some lids he shoved UP his pant legs

and some he shoved DOWN his pant legs.

He tried to shove one lid into the pocket of his cargo pants

but it just wasn’t to be.

When he shoved the plastic pot with the handle right into the front area of his pants,

I felt like I needed to alert someone.

Before I could do so, the boy whipped out the pot quickly by the handle and pretended it was a sword

and he was challenging an opponent.

OHHHHHH! 

He was putting on his armor!

For battle.

This little boy that I was ready to rat out to the teacher

as a weird little possible thief 

or possible WHO KNOWS WHAT,

was deep in the pretend.

Which is really just the child word for practice.

All the kids in the room were practicing.

The boy on the waiting list was practicing (not perfectly) patience.

The boy humming was practicing creativity.

And the boy with the pot lids was practicing protecting himself.

Even the teacher was, 

with me recording it,

 practicing her craft of educating these children.

I remember when my girls were little and they always wanted to

“play pretend”.

Being a mommy

or a waitress

or a hair stylist

or doctor

or (ugh) make up artist

or teacher

or chef.

They were always practicing to be something.

What am I practicing?

He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”

Luke 8:21

Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 

Romans 12:13

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

Ephesians 6:10-11

I heard a great quote from our senior pastor at church on Sunday,

“God never wastes an experience in a believer’s life."

And so I don’t want the 

lice,

the one missing basketball shoe,

the pants with no one inside them,

the poetry,

the bitter cold snow,

lice AGAIN

or the room full of 4-year-olds,

to be wasted.

My word for the year is SEEK, after all.

And there has been SO MUCH to see.

What are you practicing?