when God speaks in the shower

I have my best thoughts in the shower.

This is not something I would admit on Facebook. But I figure if you are reading my blog, you know me well enough and you're my friend, so it's not too weird to tell you this. Or maybe you've even heard me say it in person.

So one morning back in November when I was in the shower, I was mentally "flipping through" my school day and found this Thought (from above-AKA-Holy Spirit) invading my less holy thoughts: "Have your students raise money at school for clean water."

And that was it.

"What? Really? That's sort of random, God."

But I got to thinking about it. Here's what I realized: Two of our objectives in kindergarten we teach are identifying pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters and identifying needs and wants.
Hmm. They could bring in all variety of change. We could talk about how most of their daily needs are met (and if not there are resources to help) and how TV is not a need. Water is a need.

So we talked about it. I shared with my 20 "kids" (whom I borrow from their parents each day) that there are boys and girls in the world who can get sick and maybe even die if they do not have clean water. And they looked at me wide-eyed. This was not a concept they'd thought about before. And it almost made me cry when I saw the compassion on their little faces. So I encouraged them to bring in coins, we would sort them, and then after Christmas count it all up and donate the money to www.water.org (where $25 is enough for clean water for one person's entire lifetime). And I thought to myself "Well, we might raise $25 or 30."

And then the other three kindergarten teachers said they wanted to do it too.

And then I thought..."Well, maybe we could possible raise $75 or dare I think $100?"

My students brought in the coins by the ziploc-baggie-full. They were so sweet about it.

"I brought money for the kids who need water!"
"Is this one a quarter or a nickel, Mrs. G?"
"Wow, that's a lot of pennies!"
And I even had one little girl bring in $1 from her allowance.

One of my teacher friends took all of the change to the bank last week. She sent me a text and I totaled the rest of what I had...$175! Wowie wow wow! (as my favorite Junie B. book character says)

So I conclude that it was good that I heard Him in the shower. And that I obeyed. Even though I thought it sort of odd at first. Maybe one day in 10 or 15 or 20 years my kids will remember that when they were five (or six), they made a difference in the lives of at least 7 people. They made their lives better. Maybe even literally saved their lives. And even though I can't say it, maybe they will realize that that sort of thing is what flows out of a relationship with God.

And that TV and the Wii is not a need but a want.