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Three year old Charly was watching out her bedroom window at the neighborhood boys playing ball across the street.
"Mom, can I please go
play with them?" She pleaded almost daily to replace the companionship
of her one year old brother with the eight and nine year old boys of the neighborhood.
"Please. I will stay
where you can see me."
She was the only little girl,
but she did not mind at all. The few times her mother had agreed to let her
go outside to play Charly ran along and laughed right along side them. She always
had such fun, so her mother reluctantly agreed that she could go play outside
with them.
The boys were not the ideal playmates Charly's mother desired for Charly. It did not concern her that none of them were members of the church, but that a few of them came from broken homes and it showed in their rough manners and speech.
Mother did not want Charly
picking up any bad language or unkind phrases that she had heard the boys use
on occasion.
While she was putting on Charly's
shoes she reiterated what had been told Charly many times,
"Charly, while you are
playing always remember what a kind girl you are and how important it is to
let that show at all times, ok?"
"Yes, mom." She
yelled over her shoulder as she ran to her friends as fast as her little legs
could.
Mother sat down in the sun with one year old Deven and listened to the talking and laughter coming from Charly and the boys. One of the boys was singing a popular pop song that caused Mother to begin to walk over to bring Charly home when she heard a different voice. It was Charly singing "Families Can Be Together Forever." She had been singing it all the time ever since she learned it for the primary sacrament program. Her mother stopped to listen, holding her breath in anticipation of the boys' laughter at her innocent daughter, but when Charly finished singing they were quiet.
One of the older boys asked
her to sing the song again. She did.
A few minutes later Charly
came running back over to her mother to show her a feather she had found and
mother asked her,
"Did your friends like
your song?"
Charly's face lit up with
her wide smile,
"Did you hear me mom?
I sang to my friends, and they liked it. They asked me to sing it again."
Her mother smiled at her and
kissed her warm cheek,
"Yes, I heard you and
it was beautiful singing. Thank you for singing that for your friends."
But Charly was already off
to play. Her mother did not know if those boys had ever heard a primary song,
or ever did again, but she was glad that she had allowed Charly to play that
day and share the blessing of light and song.