Hidden smiles

Teen MOPS is such a unique group of girls...I really have all sorts of different emotions for these girls and their kids. You have the cheerleader type of teen, the loner, stoner, the wanna be, goth, prep, all natural and all American...yet they are all teens that need someone to show that they care.

Last week was our Teen MOPS meeting right before Christmas. This is a special meeting because our store is open and usually this is a chance for the teens to "buy" items from the store for their kids so they have something special to open at Christmas. I know some of these girls have a great family support system and they work so they have a little bit of money or have family members to buy things for their little ones. There are some teens though that have no one...and their cash situation is pretty bleak.

We have a fundraiser called the Teen MOPS Drive and through this we usually get quite a bit of items for the MOPShop...our store for the teens. However, this year was a little bit different story. Looking at our supply I could tell that there wasn't much for the teens to "buy"...actually, it was looking like everything was sold out and we were left with those toys and items that no one really wants to buy.

Our family has lots and way too much stuff so I went through our items to see what I could find for these teens and their kids. I have a habit of buying things that are on clearance and keeping them until they are needed. We probably had about 2 tubs of items that we had that were perfect for this group of kids and stuff we weren't ever going to use so off to Teen MOPS it went.

At Teen MOPS I get to be in the sound booth and play the music and do a few technical things during the meeting. Being in this area of the room also gives me a chance to observe the entire group from a different perspective.

I can't begin to explain the change in the teens' eyes when they saw a toy that their child would like so here is a brief story of one teen at Teen MOPS last week...

We had a reindeer that was a stuffed animal with a shiny red nose that lit up. This toy was in a box and was a gift our kids had received from someone awhile ago. This wasn't something that we needed and the kids didn't miss it at all so I brought it to Teen MOPS this past week. I set it on a table and thought that maybe it would still be there at the end of the night and I may have to take it back home but hopefully some child will enjoy it this Christmas. Our kids have too much stuff as it is and this isn't a toy that they would treasure and is a toy that they just don't want or need. As the teens were shopping one of the girls saw it and said, "My daughter just told me today that she wanted Rudolf! This would be perfect for her."

I know that not everyone believes in helping others and some people only want to help certain types of people or if their status in society is at a certain level but unfortunately when someone has this thinking they don't get to see the result of true joy. This is joy that you can see on a persons face as it glows from knowing that someone else cares about them...this isn't a fake "I have to help this person" type of care but a genuine "I will help everyone and anyone" type of attitude.

Experience true joy this season and don't discriminate on how this joy will be shared with others. There is one person that never discriminated against others and we are celebrating his birth in 5 days.