Nice Things Matter

My last blog posting was March 9th and at that time we were getting ready to head back to our home in Colorado after spending time with our family in Florida.  Since we returned home we have been involved in a whirlwind of activities for Soaring Wings Ministries.  My daughter, Meredith and I, prepared and hosted our annual Ladies Afternoon Tea as a fundraiser for Soaring Wings Ministries on Sunday, April 8th.  We had a lot of fun planning the menu, shopping in thrift stores for little tea cups, preparing the cookies and tea sandwiches to serve and setting the table with all things tea.  It was a lovely time, as always, to spend the afternoon with friends over cups of hot tea and goodies.  This year we had the pleasure of having 8 little girls at our Ladies Afternoon Tea.  They were daughters and granddaughters of the ladies who attended the tea.  I have to honestly say that at first I was apprehensive about having  little girls, ages 3 to 8 at the tea.  Would they enjoy the tea?  Would 8 young girls be too active and not let the ladies enjoy a leisurely afternoon?  I have to say that any apprehension that I had about the young girls attending the tea was gone in about 5 minutes after the girls arrived and sat down at their table for tea.  They were absolute young ladies.  They sat nicely at their little table, which Meredith and I set with real glass tea cups, little spoons and plates for of goodies.  It was so sweet to see them in their dress up clothes, sitting nicely at the table and enjoying each other's company.  The older girls helped the younger girls prepare their tea in their tea cups with cream and sugar.  There was not one spill of cream or tea as each one of them was a perfect young lady with impeccable table manners.  Each one of the girls was a testament to the wonderful job their mothers and grandmothers are doing in raising them.  I have to share that the biggest hit at the little girls tea table was the sugar cubes.  Each small tea cup received about 4 sugar cubes per serving of tea!  When the tea party was over and I was washing the tea cups I had to laugh when each little girls tea cup had sugar caked in the bottom of the cup! I literally watched sugar dissolve  in the bottom of each cup with the dish water!  

One of the things that I realized from this Ladies Afternoon Tea is that nice things matter and that taking the time to make things nice is important.  Meredith and I spent hours combing through thrift stores looking for just the right size tea cups, the right size and the right color for little plates.  We also searched for little children's chairs that weren't too big or too small and looked through fabric stores searching for just the right material that would be sewn into a tablecloth for their table.   We could have given the little girls paper plates and plastic silverware to use along with a plastic table cloth but we knew that just as the adults were having nice things the little girls had to have nice things too and so we put in the time and effort to make things just as nice for the children as for the adults.  I do believe that our efforts paid off as there is just something about drinking tea out of real tea cup that causes children to slow down, to take their time and to act gently.   

Nice things and taking the time to make things nice tells children and adults too that they matter.  It tells them that they are important and that they are valued.  Since we returned home from Florida we have also been busy with Work Days on the addition and we also served about 350 homeless people at Project Connect in Fort Collins where the community comes together to offer goods and services the the homeless in Larimer County.  Soaring Wings Ministries gave out school supplies to the children and socks to the children and adults as well.  We did our best to make sure that our table at Project Connect looked bright and welcoming to the homeless and that the school supplies that we gave to the children were bright and brand new.   Why?  Because nice things matter and taking the time to make things nice is important.  The homeless people, in seeing our table,  knew that we cared about them and that they mattered to us by the effort we put into making things nice for them.  There is just something about making things nice for people that brings out the best in people along with taking the time to talk together and to interact with one another.  

Don't get me wrong. Making things nice for people does not mean that you have to spend a ton of money.  You can make things nice for people with just a little bit of care, thought and effort.  This care, thought and effort goes a long way and it tells people that they matter and that they are important.  

Our goal here at Soaring Wings Ministries is to create an environment that tells people that we care about them and that they matter.  This summer we will once again be partnering with Week of Hope as a host site for the teen volunteers that will be coming from all over the country to serve in Larimer County.  Each week, for 7 weeks this summer, we will have 6 to 8 teens and an adult leader serve here at Soaring Wings Ministries.  They will be helping us with  landscaping, painting and outdoor projects to help with the maintenance and improvement on the grounds of Soaring Wings Ministries.  Why?  Because nice things matter and taking the time to make things nice for others is important.  We look forward each year to Week of Hope and look forward to meeting the teens who will be serving here this summer.  We are so grateful for their help, their hard work and their enthusiasm that they bring to the projects they will be working on..

Our days since we returned from Florida have been busy and full but oh so very good and we have delighted in making sure that the effort that we put forward in all of our work here is our best.  All that we do is done for God's glory and we pray that our work and our efforts are pleasing to him.  In closing, I want to invite you to come and visit us here at Soaring Wings Ministries.  We also have our tea cups and tea pot ready to serve  you some afternoon tea or if you prefer we would love to serve you some coffee.  Either way it would give us great joy to sit down and visit with you and to show you and tell you about all that God has accomplished here at Soaring Wings Ministries.  We look forward to seeing you!  

In all that we do for His glory,
Anita Rennells
Soaring Wings Ministries
Wellington, Colorado 

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