That was a close one!

After Vacation Bible School last night I was driving home with my children.  As we were approaching an intersection, I began a conversation that went something like this…

Me: Hey guys look at that beautiful Yellow Lab!  (pointing to the right of the car where a woman was walking her dog)

Caitlyn: Oh Daddy! She’s so pretty!

Me:  Caitlyn that’s a boy doggy.

Caitlyn:  How do you know?

Me: (with sudden panic in my voice) Oh, I just know.

Caitlyn:  But HOW do you know?

Me:  (attempting to think on my feet) I just know what to look for.

Caitlyn:  What are you looking for?

Me:  (with sweat breaking out on my forehead) Ohh…

Caleb:  (My dear sweet boy interrupts the conversation to say)  Caitlyn, he’s looking for the bow!  If she were a girl she’d have a bow on her head.

That was it.  End of conversation.  Thank You, Lord for simple answers!

Good, not Great

Recently I was taking my son, Caleb, to preschool and we had a great conversation.

ME:  Hey Caleb are you ready for school?

Caleb:  Yep, we get to ride our bikes at school today.

ME:  How are you doing this morning?

Caleb:  Good.

ME:  Just good, not great?

Caleb:  I’m not old enough to be great.

(Now let me pause here long enough to say that sometimes asking a 5 year old to explain himself can get you in lots of trouble, but it was just the two of us in the car so I thought I’d risk it.)

ME:  What do you mean you’re not old enough to be great?

Caleb:  You know, like Great-Grandma, you’ve gotta be older before you can be great.

 

It made absolute sense to him that he was not allowed to be great simply because of chronological age.  He had reasoned out in his head that since he calls both of my grandmothers Great-Grandma, that to be great meant you had to have a few years under your belt.  While that logic seems flawed to us, in his mind it made perfect sense.  I often wonder what God thinks about our reasoning for not being “Great”.  I can just hear the rationalizations that we give:

“Our town isn’t big enough for a really great church”

“We don’t have enough money for that”

“I don’t have enough education to make something out of myself”

“We’ve never done it that way before”

We often use our own reasoning to explain away what God can and cannot do in our lives, in our families, and in our church.  The picture that the bible paints is quite different than that.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” Phillippians 4:13

“…I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance”  John 10:10

God desires great things for our lives, I think that when we give our reasons for why things can’t be, God chuckles to Himself the same way I did when Caleb said he wasn’t old enough to be great.  He sees so much more clearly that we ever could, and He reminds us that He doesn’t want us to be good, He wants us to be Great!

Three Funerals and a Birthday

Yesterday was Caleb’s 5th birthday.  To celebrate we went to Springfield and ate burgers and ice cream at Culvers and then we went to get his birthday present…FISH!  He got a beautiful fishtank with 8 fish.  As of this morning we had performed 3 fishy funerals.  What a way to teach you child about the cycle of life…have him watch his birthday present die.  (I’m pretty sure I lose dad points for this)  He was enthused when he found out he could go pick out new ones though…all’s well that ends well!

Is Easter too scary for kids?

I took part in a very interesting discussion yesterday that I would love to get everyone’s opinion on.  Our church is going to see a dramatic presentation of “The Promise” this evening.  It is a portrayal of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  Some wondered if we should not take children to see it because of the graphic nature of Christ’s death on the cross.  What do you think?  Is it ever too young for a child to understand the sacrifice that Christ made?  Is there a difference between seeing pictures in a children’s bible and seeing it portrayed by people?  I’d love to hear your thoughts! 

Sickness Round Two

Man, this bug that’s going around is a nasty one!  I got sick again this past wednesday and Rachel picked it up yesterday afternoon.  Thankfully the kids have yet to succumb to it’s attack.  I have learned a few things while laying around trying to keep my insides on the inside, here are my observations:

1.  TV really does stink these days.  Not only is the content less than desirable, but they just repeat everything over, and over, and over, and over, and over…get the idea? 

 

2.  Never accidentally mix Gatorade and Diet Coke.

 

3.  Having your son run across the room and jump up on you for a hug is really great when you feel well, and really scary when you’re trying to keep your lunch down.

 

4.  It’s easy to lose weight when nothing stays in your system for more than 15 minutes.  I’m thinking of coughing on a bunch of sugar pills and then reselling them as “the new diet miracle drug”.

 

5.  It’s amazing how fast you can run up a flight of stairs when the only open bathroom is located on the second floor.

 

6.  Laundry doesn’t go on vacation just because you’re sick. 

 

7.  Friends DO go on vacation just because you’re sick.  (Or they at least wear gas masks within 50 feet of you).

 

8.  The lack of anything good on TV does make it easier to get sermons written.

 

9.  Hugs from your kids DO make you feel better.

 

10.  Are you still reading this?  I figured you’d be bored with it by now.  What do you know…now if I could only get my kids to pay this much attention. 

My Children’s Cooking Experiment

Last night we had a couple over for dinner.  It was a great time, I got to fire up the grill, (always fun), and we all ate more than we should have.  After dinner we were sitting in the living room laughing and sharing stories when all of a sudden I smelled something burning.  I first thought that we had neglected to turn the oven off and that was where the smell was coming from.  Then my daughter yelled up the stairs “there’s a fire”!  I have never moved so quickly in my life.  My kids had put a bath towel in the downstairs microwave and it had caught on fire.  Everyone was safe and nothing was damaged, but I was reminded of the preciousness of life in that moment.  I will always be thankful for the protection of our Heavenly Father.  I know I can’t protect my children from every danger in their life even though I want to.  We had a great talk with our kids about safety and how good they were for letting us know what had happened.  ( I can’t imagine what would have happened if they had tried to hide what they were doing ).  It reminded me of a time when I was a child and put a rolled up piece of paper into a space heater.  It caught on fire, singed my eyebrows and eyelashes and smoked to high heaven.  Obviously my kids get their destructive side from me, I can’t get that upset with them.  Besides, on the bright side, my kids obviously like “hot” food!

Favorite Teams: Faithful Past or Local Convenience?

I am truly blessed.  I have a wonderful congregation that I have the privilege to pastor. I have a beautiful home in which to live in.  I have the greatest kids in the entire world.  But most of all, I have a wife who loves sports almost as much as me.  No really, I’m not kidding, last night she actually jumped off the couch and screamed “I can’t wait for football season to get here”.  Now there are some sports that she loves more than others.  She is a HUGE NFL fan, she loves Major League Baseball, likes college basketball and NHL hockey, and deals with the NBA.  So last night we entered into a very important discussion in our home.  What teams will our kids grow up rooting for?  During her formative years Rachel lived in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Therefore she loves the Bengals and the Reds.  During my childhood I lived in Kansas City, MO.  So I obviously grew up rooting for the Chiefs and the Royals.  For the past few years both of our football teams have been very competitive, either making or just missing the playoffs each year.  Because of that competitiveness they have been featured on several national telecasts, so we have been able to watch our teams often.  Our baseball teams have been a different story entirely.  My beloved Royals are the perennial cellar team of the MLB, this year the Reds have taken that position from them.  Because of their poor play neither team gets many nationally televised games.  While we were living in Southern Illinois we began following the St. Louis Cardinals.  I had always had a great respect for the team and the great fans of St. Louis so rooting for them was a very natural thing to do.  Here’s our dilemma…we’re an hour away from St. Louis, do we encourage our children to root for the local team that they will have the ability to follow more easily or do we remain faithful to our past?  Let us know your thoughts…we’d love the help!