Four of those were my own little buggers, and two were from the neighborhood. As I laid out the extra dishes and served the extra food, I thought about how this picture would be multiplied on the farm. I imagine 20 kids sitting around the family table sharing about their day at school and enjoying food they helped prepare...and feeling a sense of belonging.
I want to use cooking and baking and canning to teach kids about life, faith, and family. I want to show them how they can make delicious, healthy foods with the things they grow themselves. I imagine the smiles on kids' faces when I send them home with a pie they helped make, or a jar of jam they helped can, or a bag of apples they helped pick...and feeling a sense of pride.
I think about the conversations we will have. How, when you have a child busy doing something in the kitchen, they have a tendency to open up and share from their heart. I think about the words I can say to encourage and exhort. And I imagine them going home again...and feeling loved.
Every kid should have those...a sense of belonging, and of pride, and of being loved. I pray that God uses the farm for all those things. I pray He works through me...and uses my hands and my heart.
"We love because he first loved us."
1 John 4:19
