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New Ambition
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By Ashley Ward

Photo: Ashley Ward
During my year as a student missionary I sat grading papers in my favorite coffee spot in Prague. Easily distracted, I couldn't help but notice the adorable little girl with the dazzling grin dancing across the room. She acted shy when I smiled at her, but curiosity and excitement for new people got the better of her. Or maybe her "shy" act was a way of enticing people, like myself, to play peek-a-boo, and make potentially embarrassing and very silly faces at her. She was so full of lively love that she was overflowing with it, bouncing around to different tables, flashing her bright eyes and missing teeth. While this isn't atypical behavior for a child I believe that on that day, God chose for me to be enlightened, inspired, and even a little saddened.

Enlightened, because she made me realize how beautiful uninhibited love really is — this little girl didn’t know me, yet was eager to share her heart. I was inspired because I too want to have eyes that pierce straight to the good of a person, and a desire to give an eager glance of love to a stranger. Yet I was still a little saddened because I know that we were once perfect humans keen to love liberally. But I also know that as we get older, that love is often shadowed by a wall of amassed hate and distrust, preventing us from doing what we so naturally did before.

Although this realization makes me blue, I’m still inspired and encouraged because I see pure love penetrate the wall of sin and pain through little packages of missing teeth and joyful eyes.

I left that place with a new ambition to make silly faces with the rest of the world, and to entice them to do the same — to be as children, and love.

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Ashley Ward writes from eastern Washington. All rights reserved © 2011 StoryHarvest.org. Click here for content usage information.