Pinky promise

Today my heart is so happy. I spent the morning with my mom, the afternoon with my man and the evening with my mini-me. I have absolutely no complaints. I babysit for the most darling little girl - I mean absolutely adorable. When talking to her I see her sassiness, spunk and kindness overflow. I think that if I were 4 years old, we would be best friends and play all the time. Every time you babysit for a child that can talk, you learn about the things their parents tell them or their perspective of various situations. Note to parents: watch what you say, babysitters know all. Tonight we went on a girl date - we ate pizza in a dimly lit room and talked about our day. We talked about Barbies, books and what it would be like to live in CandyLand - the real deep stuff. As a babysitter, I've learned that kids talk a mile a minute and feel the need to tell you everything they possibly can as fast as they can. This presents a problem when you're asking them to eat dinner with you...especially when on a girl date. Several times I had to ask her to continue eating. Finally I broke out the pinky promise. She had never made a pinky promise before so I gave it to her straight. I explained that pinky promises were real serious things and can never be broken. She stuck out her pinky and twisted it around mine. We kissed our thumbs and then laughed cause it's silly. But she ate her food immediately and we moved on to the next activity.

Later in the evening I was tucking her into bed and reading her a story about two mice. One was named longtail and the other was littletail (which she explained were really her and me - only slightly offensive). The book talks about the games played between a big (adult) mouse and a little (baby) mouse; it explains that over time the baby mouse will grow up and they won't be able to play the same games forever. The book ends with the big mouse telling the baby mouse he'll love him forever and that will never change. I closed the book, turned out the light and made it halfway down the stairs before I heard "Ms. Katie". I turned around, switched on the light and asked what she needed. She said "I will love you for 100 years". In that moment, my heart melted. It's moments like that you remember forever and tuck away for a sad day. It makes me think about words and how much power they hold over us.

The devotion today is from Genesis 6:11-14; 9:11, 16. It talks about why God flooded the Earth. It discusses God's instructions to Noah and his promise to every living creature. The rainbow is a symbol of God's promise to never again flood the earth and destroy life. This is a pretty hefty promise from our maker. He has all the power in the world and can wipe us out whenever he wants. My mom's signature sarcastic phrase holds true for God too, "I brought you into this world and I can take you out". Why do we trust God's promises? Let me rephrase my question. Why can we not trust people at face value? If we are all created in God's image, why do we question motives and words and resort to pinky promises? I'm guilty of putting up walls against everyone and everything. I don't think that's uncommon though.

I'm pretty sure nobody asked God to pinky promise that he wouldn't flood the earth again. I think they just believed him and moved on. That's quite a concept...moving on. Makes me think about all the things I've done and said without moving on. I am learning to believe others and trust those around me simply because I'm tired of feeling so alone; not everyone is going to hurt me. This devotion extends far beyond floodwaters and the preservation of animals you can now visit at the zoo. Pinky promises are silly and great bonding activities for little girls (or women of all ages). I maintain that they have a place in the 21st century. However, I do think it's time to believe what others tell me - to trust their words and not go to great lengths researching on whether it was the truth or not. If we were truly created in God's image - we should be able to trust, love and make promises to keep with each other. It's easy to believe the things we want to hear - like being loved for 100 years. It's the words like "terminal, cancer, persevere, faith" that I have a hard time processing and finding promise in; it's sad, but true. We use a lot of different words every day in many different ways. I search daily to find words that explain insight into my life and my faith for the world to read in this blog. All I'm saying is that if God can promise to never flood the earth again and destroy living creatures, I can believe when others say "I'm sorry", "You're forgiven" and "I love you".