My cousin, Isaiah. =)

Hey everyone,

  Wednesday night at church I was frantically looking for some lesson sheets that me mom sent me to look for in our van, because she had to give them to my youth group leader, and I couldn't one of them, so I was a bit frustrated. My 6 year old cousin, Isaiah, came up to me with my back turned, "Livvy, Livvy...Livvy, you have to see this!" In my frustration, and to my shame, I replied, "Isaiah, I'm busy right now. Wait a minute."

  When I finally found the lessons, I turned around to see that Isaiah was still standing there with hands over his baseball cap that he was wearing. Smiling from ear to ear he took his hands away from his cap. Surprised, I saw his new New York Giants hat. "Oh Isaiah, I love your hat!!" I told him. He gave me a hug, and said, "I'm ready for the Super Bowl now!!" His mother told me later that night that the first thing that he said when she showed it to him was "I have to show Livvy! I can't wait to show her!"

  When I got home from church, I was thinking about it, and what I said before I saw his hat. He was so excited to show me his hat, and there I was in my frustration, snapping at him because I couldn't find some papers. It also made me think about the fact that, although they might not say anything, little ones do watch me, and observe my interests, and see what makes me excited. Isaiah knew that I would get excited to see that he had a Giants hat on because he knows that I love the Giants, and the New York Mets, and I love sports in general!!

  My point is that kids watch their older sibling, cousins, or friends, and you can't control how they will take the influence, or what they will do in the future because of the influence. But you can control what kind of influence you have on them. I don't know about you, but the fact that I have all my sibling, and cousins (I am the oldest kid in our family) it make me want to follow God more, and do better in my walk because I don't want to lead them astray. And it won't always be easy, and there will be times that I mess up, and fail, but they will always be watching the way you handle your failures. I want to be able to say to my 6 year old cousin, Isaiah, "Follow me, because I follow Christ."

~Olivia~

1Corinthians 11:1

"Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ." 

P.S.-- GO GIANTS!!!!! =)