Off and Running

Mar28

I teach second grade. That means that I have charge of 10 7- and -8-year-olds for about four and a half hours each day that I teach.

One of the wonderful things about our school is that we take a lot of field trips. Recently, I and two chaperones took my brood to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse as we were wrapping up our study of U.S. sites and symbols.

In their enthusiasm to see everything, the kids wanted to run on ahead and get to the next place first, ahead of everyone else. Problem was, they didn’t know where they were going. Many, many times during our time there, I had to call out and say, “Wait a minute! Come back here! We’re not going that way! Wait for me!” Or something to that effect.

How much easier would it have been if they had just stayed with me and seen all that I wanted them to see? Considering I was fighting a virus and had very little voice that day, it sure would have been easier on me.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust int he Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Aren’t we just like second graders, wanting to run ahead in our enthusiasm to see what there is to see? But in the process, we can miss what God is wanting to show us. We’d accomplish a lot more if we’d take His hand and walk by His side.

Thankful today for:

145. Rosie

146. Lessons in the little things

147. TheCity (our youth ministry. See TheCityStudents.com)

Sink or Swim

Mar27

This is Zoey. Isn’t she adorable? She’s the 4-month-old lab mix that our friends brought over for a playdate with Berkeley. The point was to give her a little socialization, and to give her a chance to try swimming for the first time. On both counts, Zoey was a little hesitant. OK, a lot hesitant. Although she eventually warmed up to big ol’ boisterous Berkeley, she didn’t want anything to do with the pool. Now, Zoey is a lab mix. She’s got webbed feet. She was made to swim. She just doesn’t know it yet.

And then there’s Berkeley. He lives with a pool. He’s been swimming many, many times. He loves it. And he’s four years old, not months, like Zoey. She’s still a baby. She doesn’t know how much fun it is.This is Berkeley, without hesitation taking a leaping dive into the pool after his beloved ball. He knows what he was built for: to play ball, and to swim, and to bark at whatever passes within 100 feet of our property.

Zoey has yet to learn these things. But I’m confident that she will, if she’s exposed to water enough. We put her in the water and she immediately began to dog paddle. Her children were surprised by that, but I showed them her webbed feet and told them that this is what she was made for, even though she was mortally afraid.

How often are we afraid to take that leap and do what God has designed us for?

The Bible says, “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

If God has called you to do something, He will completely equip you to carry it out–with His help. He doesn’t just toss you in to sink or swim. He’s there to uphold you, to teach you, to guide you every step of the way.

Go ahead, take a leap of faith.

Thankful today for:

143. haircuts

144. people who know more than I do

145. fans

Missing Mom

Mar26

Tomorrow, my mom would have turned 78. Hard to believe. Wish she could be around to celebrate. But we lost her to pancreatic cancer four and a half years ago.The last time I saw her was a couple of months before she died. We had planned a family trip out to Cali so the kids could see her, but she didn’t know whether she’d make it that long.

Neither did we. But we hoped.

Here she is with my three kids. She came to spend that first Thanksgiving after my dad died with us. That was the last time my kids would see her. She died the next August. Boy, did she love her grandchildren. It was hard to be far away. She sent gifts and came to see us whenever she could, but it’s not the same as being there.

Though my mom and I were never good at heart-to-heart talks, I miss her still. Mostly, I miss what my children will miss by not having her around.

Happy birthday, Mom. I love you.

Thankful today for:

137. Resolve stain remover

138. games with friends

139. playdates for my doggy

140. VeggieTales

141. fulfilled promises

142. my mom

Of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games

Mar25

What do Harry Potter and The Hunger Games have in common? This is what I notice:

–they both started out as books

–they were both written by women

–the central characters in both series are young

–they are both phenomenally successful

–they both have been denounced by members of the Christian community.

Let me say right now that I would not be one of those members.

On the website http://www.credenda.org, the writer, Douglas Wilson, in a review of “The Hunger Games,” states:

“In short, when you have the privilege of setting up all the circumstances artificially, in order to give your protagonist no real choice about whether to sin or not, it is a pretty safe bet that a whole lot of people in a relativistic country, including the Christians in it unfortunately, won’t notice.”

The gist of the article was that we shouldn’t let our kids watch this movie, or read the book. Wilson says, “But in terms of helping Christian young people set their minds and hearts on that which is noble and right, we can’t even give it one star.”

As a writer, and a follower of Jesus, I can see that I have an obligation to help my readers become better people. But if you are coming from a worldview that does not acknowledge God (and I’m not saying either Suzanne Collins or J.K. Rowling fall into that camp), then you can’t be held to that standard. What these stories do is give parents a chance to actually have meaningful conversations with their kids about what they’re reading.

I have read the Harry Potter series and loved it. I thought the character development was wonderful, the plot amazingly complex and the pace fast and exciting.

I have not yet read The Hunger Games, but I’m fixin’ to, as soon as Justin puts it down.

I talk to my kids about what they read and the worldview adhered to therein. We give them a solid foundation at home and make sure we keep our lines of communication open. I know what they’re reading, I know who their friends are, I have a relationship with my children. I filter the things they can read and watch, but I don’t prohibit all that does not follow the worldview we espouse. Our school calls this living in a wildlife refuge versus a hothouse. They’re exposed to some of the things out there in the world, but protected while they’re at it.

There’s a scene in the second Harry Potter book, The Chamber of Secrets, that holds a great truth. Harry is talking to Professor Dumbledore and is quite concerned about some things that Tom Riddle said to him. He’s afraid he might be like Tom, who is the epitome of evil. In the course of the conversation, the professor helps Harry think through the process that the Sorting Hat went through to put him into the house of Gryffindor. This is what the author said that I thought was so profound:

“‘It only put me in Gryffindor,’ said Harry in a defeated voice, ‘because I asked not to go in Slytherin. . . .’

“‘Exactly,’ said Dumbledore, beaming once more. ‘Which make you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.'”

Romans 7: 15-25 talks about this dilemma: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Harry Potter and his friends do not acknowledge God. The powers they have simply come from within themselves. What a great opportunity to talk to our kids about sin and righteousness and God’s grace.

The Hunger Games  puts young people in an ethical dilemma: kill or be killed. What a great chance to talk to our kids about moral absolutes and where that comes from and how God is not just the giver of life, but Life Himself.

And then pray that those who write things our kids love would begin to see things from God’s perspective.

Thankful today for:

138. Homemade pizza

139. The end of a good book

140. A new book to read at the ready

Pruned

Mar24

February in Florida is the time of year when I give my rose bushes their annual pruning. I was a little late this year and didn’t get to it until March. But, regardless, in Florida, the roses are blooming when I prune them. It’s always a painful thing to cut away the new growth and buds and full blossoms, though I do usually get a vaseful to enjoy inside for awhile. But I know this pruning is necessary to keep the plants healthy.

In the Bible, John 15 talks about pruning: “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (v. 2, NIV84).

Huh.

Pruned even though we’re bearing fruit.

We have a little orange tree in our backyard that bloomed beautifully this year, but now it is carrying way too many little pea-sized oranges for its tiny size. I’m going to have to go out when they get just a little bigger and pull most of them off. Why would I do such a thing? Because if I let them all grow to full size, the little tree couldn’t put its energy into growing because it would be putting all its energy into growing the fruit.

Huh.

Picking off fruit so the tree can grow stronger.

Is God amazing or what? There is order in the universe; there is a lesson in every aspect of nature. Lord, give us wisdom to see it.

Thankful today for:
135. good deals on things I’d like to have
136. gift cards to make those deals even better
137. Kohl’s cash to sweeten the deal