Once upon a snowglobe...

It always amazes me how some of life’s most important lessons are taught to us through our kids. Funny thing how that works. I learned something big this week and it all started with a little snow globe …

You see, Bella wanted a snow globe. She'd wanted one for months and had an uncanny sixth sense in finding them everywhere we were - at Kroger, the Disney Store, Target - you name it and if we'd been there, she'd found a snow globe there. With every discovery came the renewed petition of "Mommy, please can I get one? Please?" Her desire only intensified during Christmas at my mom’s house where the girls found the mother of all snow globes – it was BIG, it played music, and their were twinkle lights. Amazing! So as Valentine's Day came along and I found these cute little Valentine's snow globes, I knew she'd be over the top excited about them.

Upon finding her snow globe on Valentine's morning placed atop her plate, she reacted as only Bella can – she sang, she danced, she twirled – it was quite a sight to see. She couldn't stop touching it, shaking it, and just playing with it. Those months of wanting were finally over and she finally had a snow globe of her very own! As can be the case with kids (we all know playing gently can only last so long), she became a little overzealous the more she played with the globe, which of course I then asked her to put the snowglobe back on her plate.

Well, being an overly excited 4 year-old, she didn’t quite jump to put the globe back right away. Instead she continued dancing around with it, ultimately grabbing Sophie's as well and then banging (yes I said banging) them together. In an instant, her globe's glass was broken, the water and glitter were all over the floor, and there was one mortified little girl standing in our kitchen.
She was despondent. Gut. Wrenching. Sobs.

To help calm her down, Nate scooped her up off the couch and carried her into another room to talk about what had happened. She told him that she was sad it was broken, but that the worst part was that it broke because she hadn’t listened (in fact, while she was talking to Nate, through sobs she told him "I didn't choose the right!" - sad to hear her say that, but at least she's listening to FHE lessons).

After she calmed down we continued with our Valentine’s festivities, but after putting the kids to bed that night I just couldn't stop thinking about what had happened. Nate and I spent some time discussing what we should do about it – should we get a new snow globe or should we let this be a learning experience about the consequences that follow certain behaviors? Nate was pretty convinced that it would be best not to get a new snow globe that this would be a good teaching moment, but as much as I tried to agree I just felt too bad for her – especially because she felt so terrible about the way it happened.

I saw my sweet little girl who always makes good choices, who always listens, who always does the right thing (no kidding...she is such an angel) make one poor choice and all the cards came tumbling down. It made me stop and think about the meat and potatoes of the whole concept.

We are given rules to live by...to make us happy...and we do everything we can to follow these rules but sometimes we just come up short. Without mercy, justice precludes us from many eternal blessings. But thankfully Heavenly Father sent His son to pay the price for our shortcomings. This allows mercy to take effect and allows us forgiveness and happiness which otherwise would not be possible.

These thoughts stayed with me through the night and the next morning I described to Nate how I was feeling. We couldn’t pass up this opportunity with the girls to demonstrate such great eternal truths and hopefully make an impact in their minds on the importance of Jesus Christ. Together we began planning an FHE that would revolve around the broken snow globe.

That night when we told the girls it was time for FHE, they were excited - what they didn’t realize was how excited mommy and daddy were about it as well. Ha ha.

We began the lesson with a general discussion about choosing the right and consequences. It actually led perfectly into the events of the day before, and we asked Bella about the snow globe. As she talked about it she started to cry (but she didn’t want us to know she was crying so wiped her eyes and told us “my eyes are kind of tired” – so cute!), she got especially emotional when she said she felt sad she didn’t listen. While all I wanted to do was grab her and hug her, we let the emotion of the moment hang there before we started talking about Jesus.

We talked about His mission, His death and resurrection, and how we can obtain forgiveness. Both girls were engrossed in the conversation and were contributing – even little Sophie – as we talked about receiving God’s Mercy by repenting, thanks to Jesus Christ (of course all of this was in 2 and 4 year-old speak).

Finally, we got back to the snow globe – the spark that ignited this whole discussion. We acknowledged that what Bella did was wrong, that she should have listened and been more careful, but then we acknowledged how she felt – that she was very sorry and that she was seeking forgiveness.

With that I pulled out the new snow globe.

When she saw the new little orb her eyes lit up like two little bright stars! And all I can say was that we all felt a little bit of the joy. Who knew such a seemingly small event could become such a big moment spiritually for our family.

Thank you little snow globe. Thank you Jesus.