Hide and Seek

This is Olivia Jordan...isn't she beautiful!  She is the incredible big sister of Abigail and has one of the best personalities of any kid I have ever met.  She is funny, she is strong, she is smart, and one of my favorite things about her is that she sleeps with her bible.  Did you hear me people...THIS INCREDIBLE 4 YEAR OLD SLEEPS WITH HER BIBLE!  Here is a picture her daddy took one night when he found her sleeping with her bible...precious!

The top 3 things I have learned and love about Olivia:

1. She sleeps with her bible.  A question that comes to my mind is...what if we were all that close to the word of the living God, that we all love our bible that much that we can't put it down...even for the night.  Olivia doesn't take her bible for granted, she doesn't take what our God has written to us and let it sit on a shelf and collect dust.

How many of our bibles are collecting dust?  Do you think it's time for us to dust it off?  Do we read our bible as if it gives us the breath of life or do we let the teachings of God's word go in one ear and out the other?

(Let's take a break for a minute)...I lived with this family so Olivia and I had our share of sibling rivalry and we know exactly how to push each other's buttons to make one another mad.  We even got put in time-out plenty of times and let me tell you...it is hard to sit in a kitchen chair and stair at a wall for 5 minutes...it seemed like a lifetime!  Ok ok, I know what you are thinking, "Brooke, you are 25 and Olivia is 4, how in the world did ya'll manage to have sibling rivalry?" but I am an only child and Olivia and Abigail are the closest things I have to little sisters so give me a break here people...the sibling rivalry was fun!  There were many days were she starred at me like this...

And asked me or more like yelled, "Brookie, WHY ARE YOU STARRING AT ME!" Or "Brookie, STOP LAUGHING AT ME" Or "Brookie, DON'T SIT BY ME AT DINNER"...HA!

But we also had our sweet moment...such as this picture above and comments such as..."I want Brookie to read me a bedtime story?" or "Brookie, will you please take me bowling?" or "Brookie, can I pretend like you are a jungle gym and jump all over you?"...and if you know me, then you know I said yes everytime.

Cont'd The top 3 things I have learned and love about Olivia:

2.  The second thing I love about Olivia is her energy and that she loves to be on the go.  She never wants to go to sleep at night because she is scared she is going to miss something fun...now that's my kinda kid!  One of her favorite games to play is hide-and-go-seek.  Her parents, Matt and Gentry, have a perfect house for this game so we played it a lot.  However, Olivia and I always seemed to get frustrated when we couldn't find the other person...we would NOT look hard enough and we both relied on Gentry or Matt to point us in the direction that the other person was hiding so we didn't have to look as hard but I remember this one time that stands out in my mind.  I was hiding in the shower and Olivia never asked for help or got frustrated during her time being "it"...she just kept searching...she kept searching like finding me was the only thing that would keep her alive and she finally found me.  She was so excited that she found me on her own that she treated herself with a popsicle...one of her favorite snacks.  

This day of hide-and-go-seek reminded me of the verse in Proverbs 8:17...

"I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. 

Do we truly seek God?  Do we give up easily or get frustrated if we can't find God or if God doesn't show up in our lives in the exact place we want Him too?  He has hidden His living word in a book for us...do we seek through His word as though finding Him is the only thing that will keep us alive?  Are we tuned into the realization that seeking and finding Him is the only thing that will keep us alive eternally?  As we seek God and not give up...we find His will for our lives, we find our passions, we find direction, and we find love!  SEEK OUT GOD IN YOUR LIVES!

3.  The third lesson that I have learned from Olivia is my favorite lessons of all and that is...How to love her little sister Abigail.  One way that I learned how to interact with Abigail is watching Olivia interact with Abigail.  You want to know what I learned...TREAT ABIGAIL JUST LIKE ANY OTHER KID!  Olivia is an amazing big sister and truly loves and protects her little sister.  Olivia treats Abigail just like any other person and that is how she should be treated.  Gentry texted me not to long ago and the text said..."Olivia is trying to feed her baby doll through a tube in her baby's tummy because that's how Abigail eats and it's just normal to her."  I pray for the day that people love and accept everyone for who they are and I pray that the more people interact with these amazing children with special needs, that the interaction will become more and more normal, sincere, meaningful, and life-changing.  One of Olivia's favorite quotes is..."Abigail's so cute, I just want to pinch her."