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Storytelling

At some point most children ask their parents the question, “Why do we go to church?” In the Old Testament Moses gave the children a paradigm for dealing with such questions. In Deuteronomy 6:20-21 it reads, “When your children come to you saying, ‘What is the meaning of the commandments, laws, and rules which the Lord God has commanded you?’ then tell them, ‘We were slaves in Egypt, and God delivered us with a mighty hand.’”

Growing Up With You

Today on my hour and a half drive back from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, I was traveling through the radio stations when I heard a James Taylor song. I paused…and then transported momentarily to his concert we attended about six years ago.

Today We Fight

Learning to fight is just as important for girls as it is boys, but I suspect this issue is particularly important for men at this point in our culture. I am part of a generation of men who have turned out to be passive in many ways. Some of us would rather play video games about war than actually leave the house and battle in life. I am not sure what all contributed to this trend. I am not sure that answering that question is the priority at this point. However, what is important is that we, men and women of every age, are awakened to the fact that they were created to actively pursue the path before us and overcome the obstacles that it brings. We learn to fight from God, who is a father that wars. In turn, we learn to fight for our children, who learn from us how to war.

Occupy Uterus

The so-called Occupy Movement eventually shifted its strategy from occupying public spaces to occupying foreclosed homes and abandoned buildings. If you listen to the voices of the Occupy Movement this shift represents a change in focus from protesting Wall Street fraud to protecting real people affected in real ways. However, one has to wonder if the true motivation has more to do with recent problems encountered when trying to occupy public spaces. It was natural to start in public spaces, given that the ownership and property rights regarding such spaces is open to debate. But eventually public officials felt they had to evict occupiers from public spaces in order to maintain its use by the non-occupying public. Likewise, there are some debatable questions pertaining to ownership and property rights during certain stages in a foreclosure, and it will be interesting to see what becomes of this new strategy.

Why I Let My Children Play With Elves

One of the great debates around Christmas time for Christians is whether or not to encourage or allow the belief in Santa Clause.  I have friends and family on both sides of this debate so I want to be careful here.  I have a great deal of respect for the desire to keep the focus on Jesus and His birth at this time of year.  I want to encourage that focus, too.

Nana’s Art

When I was in second grade my grandmother, Anne, Nana to me, went on a trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Although she traveled a lot at this time in her life I remember her trip to Brazil because she brought back a rock collection for me. I still remember the stones in their little pockets encased with thin sheets of plastic. I remember getting out the collection from my closet and spending long moments gazing at those rocks, one of which was an amethyst, my birthstone. I remember taking the collection to my second grade class to show my friends. More than showing off the rocks I was showing off my very cool grandmother…the one who lived in Orlando near Mickey Mouse and always flew in with honey roasted peanuts to give to me from her plane trip.

Acting As If-Parenting and the Prophetic

We are on our way to what is their final destination for the next several hours and I know this is it.  These next few moments are all I have until I see my children at the end of their day.

Remembering

Once a month and then once a week I leave my apartment on Czechosolvensky Armady and push the button for the teeny, gray elevator with the mirrored walls that is located right outside my door to the left.  I take it down from the fifth floor and walk out into the foreign, shabby chic streets of Prague to catch a tram on Dejvicka Circle.  I am careful to watch for the busy cars flying by that swerve quickly around the circle.  I look for a place next to a window and take notice of the various characters around me.  If it is full, someone usually gets up and offers me their seat.  Up towards Prague Castle and over the hill we go.  Peering into the cobblestoned streets of Mala Strana, I lean my forehead on the glass, feeling so wonderfully content and far away.

 

Take My Hand

To fulfill the requirements for my Ph.D. program I have to be “in residence” for one year.  What that basically means is that I have to be full time, the equivalent to taking three classes each semester.  When I looked at the semester schedule for fall 2011 I discovered that to be full time I would have to take a class on Wednesday nights.  I discarded the idea entirely.  Why?  Wednesday night is one of Jon’s busiest nights at work.  Trying to coordinate childcare would be…complicated.  The idea of trying to navigate those arrangements caused me anxiety just thinking about it.  So despite the fact that Jon wondered if it was indeed the best year for me to do the residency requirement, I threw the idea away and thought that I would fulfill it later.  As August approached, the possibility came up again.  Was I really going to do this thing (the Ph.D. program) or not?

Like a Sponge

Soon after my oldest daughter started kindergarten we were sitting at the table having a snack, talking about her day, looking through the work she brought home, when I found a piece of paper where her teacher had written a note.  The note simply said that Eloise had not finished her morning work and needed to finish it at home.  Huh.  Well, ok, that isn’t a big deal.  I asked Eloise about it and she told me that she was having a hard time getting her morning work done before time was up.

In The Middle

My middle daughter and I have a ritual that we do every time we leave each other, whether leaving each other is for bed, school, work, church…  She developed it so let’s see if I can get this right:

Pedestals and Honor

Choosing gifts for my parents for birthdays, father’s/mother’s day and Christmases is never easy.  Sometimes I find a gift that I think will show that I notice who they are and what they like.  I think my mom looks lovely in red and for years now I often get her something red…anything red…for Christmas.  Sometimes the gift is completely and totally a token, a symbol that I remembered the day.  No matter what, no matter how tight the money, no matter the circumstances of life, I try to get them something.

Monarchs, Menarche, and Menopause

I sometimes tell teenagers I work with that middle and high school is one big crash course in relationship skills, with the operative word there being “crash”.  There are often lots of crashes along the way.  There is some major emotional “weight lifting” that takes place in high school.  You know what happens in weight lifting.  The muscles get torn down and then grow back stronger.  Teenagers get torn down and, hopefully, grow back stronger…if the emotional weights are not damagingly heavy.

My teen years were filled with highs and low, the best of times, the worst of times…depending on the day you asked me.  While I had the best friends in the universe, I was also in class with some of the meanest girls ever.  Well, I sure thought they were!  On the tennis court I was confident.  In school around peers I was painfully insecure.  I was tall, thin, and awkward.  I did not want to be told how much I would appreciate my height later.  I wanted to be little and cute NOW

Deborah, Barak, and Solos

My oldest daughter, now seven, sang her first solo Sunday night at church.  It was a short, little line with, as she pointed out to me, 17 words.  I watched her, nervous and proud all at the same time.  She knew her cue.  She knew that if she did not move quickly enough to the microphone the song on the track would move on and she would not get to sing her lines.  She was fast.  She was confident.  Her words were loud and clear.  The experience culminated in a twenty second moment in time.  She walked away pocketing an experience that left her with a drop more confidence that she COULD DO IT.

 

Relationships: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

If you listen to enough testimonies you will discover that there are certain themes that pop up over and over again. One of those common themes is the impact that a specific relationship had on a person’s life. You will often hear something along these lines: “…and then I met ________ and everything changed.” Even people who do not remember a specific moment in which they gave their lives to the Lord often tell of a Sunday school teacher, children’s minister, or youth minister who had a major impact on their lives. Relationships are a significant tool in the hands of God for growing our faith. Notice three things about relationships.