Don’t turn them away

We have a little boy who’s Lydia’s age that lives in a broken down shack, a couple of streets over from us. I normally don’t let the kids play with him because his favorite word is the F word and his life experiences are much different than my own children so the things he talks about are shocking and quite inappropriate to say the least. But today my husband was outside with them while I cooked lunch, so I thought it would be fine. They played and rode bikes for about an hour and when I went out to let my crew know that lunch was ready, I said ok buddy we’re going to eat so run along and we’ll see you later. He said, Can I please be invited? For a split second I almost said, no you run home and eat and then you can come back to play. But a still small voice said, Why can’t he come? You have the room and plenty of food. So instead I heard myself say, of course you can, wash up and pull up a chair!
As we ate I couldn’t help but notice how dirty he was. His fingernails were super long and dirty. His shoes had holes all through them and the soles flapped as he walked. His pants were way to small and his shirt was way too big. I asked him if he was excited for school to start and he said, NO WAY!! School is a scary place for a guy like me! That broke my heart because I know what his home life is like and it’s a scary place to be too. I couldn’t help but think if both school and home are scary, where is his soft place to fall? I tried to lighten the mood as we ate to show him what a healthy, loving family looks like. We laughed and joked around with each other like we always do, with our fun 70’s music playing in the background.
As I was cleaning up and they were getting ready to go back outside he said, can that be my place at the table? I said, sweetheart that will always be your place. When he ran out the door I stood at our sink doing our lunch dishes with tears running down my face. The fact that I almost didn’t invite him in, made me feel so incredibly ashamed of myself. I’m so thankful I listened to that small voice. We all have a need to feel wanted and loved. We all just want a place at the table. That precious little boy has no idea how he made my day.
Posted by: Amber Barrett