March 2008

A popular Little Dragon activity is ‘Happy Land’ which consists of a floor mat marked with gardens, streets, bushes and flowers upon which are placed brightly coloured buildings, including a Post Office and a fire station, along with several brightly coloured Happy People and vehicles to stimulate imaginative play. When watching LDs busily occupying themselves thus during sessions it sometimes makes on wonder how they will develop in years to come; what kind of a person he or she will be and what values will be important.

If only all of our lives comprised a Happy Land , with everything laid out in order with circumstances and people being organised as easily as our brightly coloured plastic ones.  However, life isn’t so simple as we increasingly find out as time goes by. 

Frank and I recently visited our son’s church where the Pastor, also a member of the Territorial Army, was talking about his soon-to-be visit to Afghanistan to work with his TA Regiment as they prepare to return to this country following their active service.  He described how, at times, he looks at himself in the mirror and sees in there a person who he is not sure he likes.  Knowing what he thinks and feels about life he sometimes feels that he isn’t a good person as, like the rest of us, he finds it difficult to always get along with others and sometimes finds it hard to accept that others may think and feel differently.

He spoke of jealousies of one for another and the envy we sometimes feel for the lives and circumstances of others.  “Why can’t I be like them?”  “Why can’t I be as fortunate as them?”  “Why can’t I have what they have?” However, he truly believes that God loves us for who we are and as we are, warts and all.  We are our own unique selves and even if we don’t always seem to live in Happy Land we need to be glad for what we have and for the grace which God has given to us; the grace to realise that we are all here for a purpose and equally important in the loving gaze of God.

Val Butterworth

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