A Lily Lesson

On January 28th, I babysat the little kids for Mom and Dad so they could go out on a date.  

The little kids are (from left to right): Megan - 11, Darcy - 10, Lily - 5, Ben - 3.

Little did I know this usual night in front of the TV would turn into a Bible lesson. 

I brought 3 movies for the kids to watch:  Anastasia, The Black Stallion, and Black Beauty.  Lily wanted to watch Anastasia, Ben wanted to watch The Black Stallion (only because of the cool picture on the front), and Megan and Darcy wanted to watch Black Beauty (Megan was reading it for school).  Lily and Ben started fighting over who would watch their movie first, so I tried to help them come to a compromise.  Meanwhile, Megan switched the Black Beauty and The Black Stallion DVDs so Ben wouldn't know the difference. 
After she had them in the opposite cases, she said, "You know Lily, the Bible says 'The last shall be first and the first shall be last.'" 
Lily, confused and indignant, pouted and said, "Those old guys were crazy!  They didn't know what they were talking about!"

I laughed, then got down on my knees and gently pulled Lily over to me.  "You know, Lily, I'm pretty sure Jesus was the one who said that." 
She gave me a skeptical look.  I smiled and continued.  "Do you know what he means?  That 'the first shall be last and the last shall be first'?"

"No."

Thinking about the situation at hand and not really the content surrounding the verse (Matt. 20:16, which had escaped me in that moment), I said, "It means that if you're last, if you're patient and wait and let someone else go first, you'll get rewarded.  Does that make sense?"

She nodded, a smile appearing on her face and a sparkle shining in her eye.  "Yes." 

"So, if you let Ben watch his movie first and you wait patiently and watch your movie last, Jesus will reward you when you get to Heaven."
Her eyes widened a little bit more, so I continued.

"Does that sound good to you?  Will you let Ben watch his movie first?"

"Yes, I'll try to wait patiently."

Happy that that was settled, I stuck The Black Stallion (AKA Black Beauty ;)) into the DVD player and we sat down to eat KFC dinner and watch the movie.  Once the movie was over and the little kids and I had shed some tears, we were ready for something fun!  We got re-comfortable on the couch and I popped in Anastasia. 
As the beginning of the movie was rolling, Lily leaned over and told me, "I'm glad I waited patiently!" 
I smiled.  "Good girl, Lily!" 
5 minutes later, Ben was asleep in my arms.  :)
        

Above:  Lily and Ben. 
Below:  Ben, asleep in my arms while watching Anastasia :)