Memoirs of a Jehovah's Witness kid.

So, last night, Molly, Katelyn and I were laughing over stories form our separate childhoods. Molly and Kate's mostly consisted of surgeries and gymnastics classes - neither of which I've ever been a part of. My stories were all about my quest to convert my entire elementary class to Jehovah's Witness(ism?) through kindergarden to grade 7.
When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, we had a show-and-tell day in which we showed the present that Santa gave to us and told everyone how awesome it was. I, being a JW, had obviously not recieved any presents, and was getting tired of hearing about everyone's pagan gift stories. So,when my turn on the stool at the front of the class came around, I sat down and said these immortal words:
"Santa is not real. It's only your parents. Neither is the tooth fairy."
The class quickly turned into a heated debate and I was kindly asked to stand in the hallway until sharing time was over.
But that didn't end my Show-and-tell evangelism. When I was in 5th grade, I brought a piece of JW literature about Jesus called "The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived". I then opened the book to a picture of John the Baptist's head on a silver platter and told this story:
"This is Jesus' cousin John. He got his head cut off because a girl danced at a birthday party and then the king gave her John's head as a present even though he was best friends with Jesus. That's why you shouldn't celebrate birthdays."

Also, in grade 4,when all the girls had Spice Girl-inspired platform shoes and I didn't, I told my classmates that "I have a pair, but they are made of mirrors and they are illegal, because a girl in Mexico was wearing the same ones and a person got blinded from the sun shining off of them. So if I wore them, I could goto jail."
That story is not about evangelizing my class, but it was the most ridiculous thing I think a 10 year old could say.

I want the whole world to see we've met.

So let me set the scene:
The Winners Fitting Room; a drab florescent-lit gray and blue area littered with clothes and impatient senior women. This happens to be where I work for 6-8 hours a day, being yelled at by strangers and pounding my feet endlessly on the gray tile flooring. On a recent occasion, a young woman with a big gray bag, aged around 14, and her friends wandered in to try on some pajamas and underwear. As she walked into the maze of blue cubicles with the number card I had issued her, God said to me "tell her about me". I was a little off-guard, I mean, what was I to expect when she walked back out? Should I form a Mercy Seat our of hanger bars or pass her the copy of Salvationist in my bag and let her walk away? Then it hit me, she was trying on underwear. I'm fairly sure that the presence of modern underwear in our society is the most perfect ministry tool possible. As she walked out, I took the discard items from her and the conversation went as follows:
Caitlyn: "You want to know a trick with trying on underwear?"
Girl: "Yeah, sure" (obviously slightly weirded out)
Caitlyn: "If you take a piece of underwear and wrap it around your neck by the waste band and it fits perfectly, the ends meeting on the nape of your neck, it'll fit you."
Girl: "no way, really?" (she takes a few pieces of underwear she's buying and follows my instruction" "hey, wow, that actually works"
Caitlyn: "Yeah, it's neat, because when God designed us, he proportioned us perfectly, you know? The circumference of your neck is always the diametre of your waist, your arm's length together is always your hight. There's no flukes in the way humans were designed"

So she smiled and nodded uncomfortably as she walked to the front of the store with her friends. As I was sorting through her discarded items, I thought about what had just happened. She hadn't fallen on her face and been convicted of her sins, but maybe God had planted a seed in her, and God had TOLD me to say those things, so I believe that without a doubt it was for a reason. I'll probably never see her again, but I know that God's got plans for her and I hope he sends her people to water her seed. When I finished sorting, I realized that some of the things from her pile had gone missing, some tops from some sets of pajamas. I sighed as I picked up the phone and called Customer Service, reporting that a small group of 14ish year old girls with large bags might have stolen some pieces. I don't know what happened next, my job is only to report the missing clothes. I really hope she felt convicted and dropped them somewhere in the store before she left, but I don't know, it never got back to me.
Anyway, I thought that was interesting, and I hadn't posted anything of real substance in a while I guess.

My scripture for meditation recently is:
For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!
-Ezekiel 18:32

Grace, peace, I love you all.
Caitlyn. <3

Take a sad song and make it better

Overall, I'm just really glad. I'm happy, and I'm joyous and I'm really, really glad. It's been a hard summer, but it was necessary. I'm breathing a lot easier now. I've been going to the beach more often at night to have some time with Jesus, been constantly hungry for the Word. I realized one day last week what passion means; and that I'm in this fight for a reason. And if I'm going to talk about life to the full, I better start living that way.
I could use a lot of words to explain how I feel and why, but it's no use.