(Something I am working through is reading my kids stories of the behaviors I hope they will model someday. When I can’t find a good story book, I’ve started writing my own. This one is for and about my middle daughter, and although the details are fake–and there is never a gun in my home that the kids could reach–I wrote it in hopes that if a kid ever finds one at a friends house, they do the right thing)

Lizzy is the kind of girl who’s often very sweet and kind toward others. She will readily share just about any toy, aside from her pillow. She stops what she is doing and immediately seeks to comfort someone around her who is hurting or crying. And although her red hair always draws the attention of strangers everywhere she goes, she is content without a lot of special attention.

Lizzy also loves to have something nice to wear. She will gladly change clothes twice or even three times in a day, to ensure she has one of her favorite outfits on, one that fits the occasion. She loves to play her own games, in her own way. She can role play with animals or simply dig in the dirt contently for hours.

She has a lot of her dad in her heart and mind, and he cherishes the way God gave her such great qualities.

But…

On this day, Elizabeth Grace Fowler showed something fierce and strong that God put in her for special occasions.

On this day, Lizzy was at a special party, and she was playing there with her favorite cousins: Levi, Joel, and her most favorite of all, Lilly. Lilly and Lizzy were just finishing the best tea party ever, when a bunch of boys burst into the room and broke up the party with their guns. Lizzy and her siblings didn’t have many toy guns at home, so everyone was excited to get to do a battle with new toys, and Lilly and her quickly forgot about their tea party and joined the battle.

They ducked behind a nearby table and began to shoot the soft darts across the room at the boys. Lilly was an especially good shot and had all the boys hiding low behind their chair. Lizzy ran around the chair with her gun and chased the boys from the room. The girls won! They high-fived and began to reset their tea party in victory.

But their victory was only temporary, it wasn’t long before the boys regrouped and came up with a new plan. Cutting shields from an old box, the boys gathered up their guns and charged back into the room with extra protection. But just as the battle began again, Lizzy noticed that the new boy in the group had a gun that looked different than the rest. It only took a moment for her to realize, it wasn’t a toy gun, it was a real gun!

With shouts of “No, no no” that stopped everyone in the room, Lizzy ran to the little boy and confronted him. She told him to put the gun down on the ground. When he did, everyone gathered around and marveled at the sight. None of them had ever seen a gun up close before! One little boy asked if he could hold it, and another said that he had shot a gun before–and he was the only one who should be allowed to hold it.

Lizzy bravely chose to do what she knew was right. To stop anyone from playing with it, she crossed her arms and sat over top if it. When someone threatened to move her, she cried at the top of her lungs, “Mom, Dad, come quick!” The urgency of her voice got a lot of adults in the room quickly. Only when her parents were standing over her, did she move and tell them that someone had found a real gun.

Dad quickly picked up the gun from the floor, and Mom picked Lizzy up to give her the biggest hug ever! Dad told her that the gun was loaded and would have shot someone if one of the kids had pulled the trigger. They took the bullets out and put it where no kids could get it again. Then they treated her to a big bowl of Unicorn Sparkle Ice Cream to celebrate her boldness!