Who's gonna pick that up??

Before I even start this post, I need to let you know that I HATE LITTER!!! I just think it's so unnecessary....

So last week I was driving around the neighborhood around the church for various reasons. The first time I was behind an ice cream truck of all things. The girl driving had her window rolled down, cigarette in hand and all of a sudden, she hucks a plastic water bottle out the passenger side window. I mean it takes all that I have not to get "Tawanda" with her and start honking as I ram her from behind. So just so you know...ice cream drivers in the hood are not a good example for our kids. The next day I'm driving by this group of boys that are walking down the street and one of them finishes his drink and throws the empty bottle down on the sidewalk....oh, so I'm fired up by this point...

Why is it that people have such disregard for their neighborhood that they throw their trash on the ground? I mean who do they think is going to pick that up??? The thing that really gets me going is that both of these events that I witnessed were in low income areas. Just one more indication that our kids don't have any pride in where they live. They don't own it. They don't understand that they could make it a better place. I'm going to have to think about what that means to me as a children's pastor. I want our kids to see this community as THEIR community. If they aren't being taught that at home...then I think church would be a good place to start....

So for all those reading this....if I see you throw your trash on the ground I'm going to go postal...I think it might be my biggest pet peeve....followed of course by people who start writing a check after they've waited in line forever and the cashier is all done ringing up their order....I'll save that for another post...

Slow and steady...

Referrals just came out from China for this month and they got through another week...so they have referred through 11/21/05....There are only 35 days worth of people ahead of us now!!!! I'm seeing the light. I'm actually letting myself get a little excited. I'm believing we'll get an early December referral. Only four more months. We can do it. Even Josh was looking at the pictures on other people's blogs who just got a referral. He's been angry about this whole wait....But once we get the picture and know that a child is ours, the anger will quickly turn to joy and excitement. I might actually think about starting to paint the nursery. Thank God we didn't get it all decorated when we started all of this two years ago. I know I couldn't have walked past it everyday. Soon it will be Lazy Daisy Yellow....