"These Kids Don't Really Want These Things, Do They?"

     How many of you filling shoe boxes take a stop and look at the pair of socks, the tape measure, the package of pencils with little monkeys on it and wonder, "Will these kids really want these things?", "My own kids/siblings would toss these in the goodwill bin within seconds"? Well, I had thoughts about that recently when I was packing up a shoe box for a two-four year old boy just a few weeks ago. I was putting a small basket ball in the box and gazed at the dinosaur coloring book. It was from the dollar tree, I had picked it out the moment I saw it because at the time I heard, "Yes! That is the one and you need to get that for them" but when I was packing the rest of the stuff I wondered, "Would he really want something like this? It's just a coloring book".
     I believe that we start to wonder if any one really WANTS the things that we give them anymore. We keep tossing around the saying, "It's the thought that counts" but do we really feel it when we are giving these things to people, let alone receiving them? We look at our own kids today and feel that other kids out there, or should I say 99% of the kids of today, are selfish and have grown out of the coloring book and stuffed animal stage by the time they are three. But then I saw something from a blog I follow, it was a picture of a boy no older than about eight and he was squeezing tight a calculator and a flash light: I believe he lives in Tanzania (don't quote me on that).
     It was nothing more than what looked like a dollar tree calculator and a hand crank flashlight but he had a smile I would give everything to see just once in my life time. That smile told me that he was happy at the fact someone out there thought of him and put thought into that calculator when they chose his box to put it in. That smile told me that although it isn't much to us here, it was everything to that boy who might not have had everything in the world but the small things made him happy. I think we as a society have lost sight of that as everything is so materialistic in this world. We are trying harder and harder to give our kids the best that we can but forget that sometimes, the best is to show them that they can't get everything they want and to teach them that they should be thankful for what they have.

     When packing the shoe boxes, let's not compare them to the kids of the US like shown above. There are kids out there that are grateful for a pair of shoes or a notebook to write down things they learned at school and we are hurting our boxes, hurting ourselves by believing that these kids feel the same way as US children do. Believe me, as a two year shoe box packer, I feel like some of these things are just ridiculous in comparison to things I'd buy my best friend or my cousins but I also need to remind myself that the kids receiving gifts aren't our siblings, kids or cousins but children fleeing ISIS on a daily basis, those fighting diseases without proper medical care, children who have makeshift huts for them to live in where their parents work for what seem like pennies and children who might be forced to be adults too early in life to take care of their siblings or own children. 

     My mother and I were talking about Operation Christmas Child on the way home from her first shoe box shopping trip and she sighed for she chose to fill a box for a 10-14 year old boy (because they are the least donated to and we need to get some out there!) and she was disappointed with her trip. "How do we know if they'll even want these things? I mean, what 14 year old wants some dumb pencils with monkeys on them?" She ranted and I smirked as I smiled at my 16 pencil pack that she bought for my boxes. "Mom," I said, "think about it this way. The kids here when they open up their stocking and see a pair of socks, they don't get excited. They'll probably go, 'wow, thanks mom, it's not like I don't have enough pairs already' and toss them aside. But some boy or girl out there, they'll open their box and scream with joy. 'Oh my goodness! God has answered my prayers! I have burnt my feet and so dearly needed socks! Oh my gosh!' and besides mom, you know those pencils of yours, just pray to God and know that God is going to put that box of yours with those pencils in the right hands of some boy whose favorite animal might be the monkey! You don't know but it is guaranteed that those gifts are appreciated."

     

     So, what I'm trying to say is that these boxes are little things to us but big things to them. We have no idea if they'll be the most WANTED things on the planet but we'll know that they are appreciated and loved for people like you thought of them while filling their box.