God Is... All-Knowing

By Nick (My Experience As...)

He Knows When You are Sleeping

I know, Christmas is over, but I love Christmas and could celebrate all year.  Plus, what better example for the all knowing God to a kid.

I have 4 children age 2-7.  They are girl, boy, girl, boy.  You could plan things better if you tried. My kids are all over the place with Santa, but they love presents … mostly.  The youngest is down with a present or two, but then basically wants to play and gets mad that we keep trying to get him to open the new presents.  The oldest two pretty much just tear into it. We make them take turns but you can tell it really kills them waiting. The youngest girl takes her time, looks at each thing and then opens the next present on her turn.

So back to the Santa deal.  We don’t really teach Santa in our house, but we don’t narc on the myth either.  We talk about St. Nicholas, a real hero of mine, and we talk about Jesus. They get plenty about Santa in school and since starting public school the oldest two have waffled back and forth on the Santa issue.  I think they are hedging their bets. Our oldest, a girl, was pretty firm this year and her 10 month younger brother was persuaded by her insistence a lot of the time. M, the youngest girl, is dead set that Santa is not real.  Odd that a 4 year old is so absolute in this.  She gets into screaming arguments that he isn’t real. I’m worried for kindergarten next year. I have a feeling she is going to really upset some kids.

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God Is... Good

By Jay Cookingham (Soulfari)

“We must never tolerate an instant’s unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questioned, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; His dispensations may vary, but His nature is always the same.”  - C. H. Spurgeon

God is good and everything He does is good.  Have you heard that phrase before? Those words flow so easy off the lips when all is well don’t they? When life throws up on you…what then? Two years ago my world came to a sudden and crashing halt. My wife Christine had a heart attack and though it was a minor one…it shook my faith in His goodness.

It was late when it happened, everyone was asleep except my oldest daughter, and she waited anxiously at home as I rushed her mom to the hospital. When my wife was stable and resting, I returned home around 3:30 in the morning. Exhausted and wondering how I would tell my kids that their mom had a heart attack and now was in ICU awaiting further tests. It was difficult, my kids range from age 8 to 21 and their response was as varied as their age. Some were crying, others stunned, and all were concerned of course. However, every one of them expressed (in their own way) something wonderful…their trust in God’s goodness towards their mom. They were positive (even more than I was) that their mom was in the best hands possible...the God who loved her.

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Who Is God?

By Ginny (MAD21)

I've shared with you all before that one of my favorite times of day is bedtime. Not because it's when the house finally goes quiet, but because it's one of the few times in the day when I have some good, quality time with my girls without distraction. This is when we talk about our day, good times and bad, tell silly stories or ask serious questions.

During one particular conversation about a month ago, my oldest was asking me some questions about God and what I thought about him. At one point she actually asked me, "Who is God?" Leave it to our kids to ask us questions that can take a lifetime to answer. Since she is only almost seven (I have to say that -so she says- because she'll be seven in a few weeks), I could keep the answer a little simpler than if an adult were asking me, but it really got me thinking. For one thing, she won't be seven forever and she has a little sister who is growing up right behind her who rarely accepts short answers even at almost four and a half (that half is important to her, too).

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It Was A Good One

By Ginny (MAD21)

My desire to remain in my own reality and have Christmas vacation last forever has come to an unfortunate end. I tried ignoring the fact that time was screaming by at a completely unfair speed, but it just didn't work. Hubby is back at work and the girls go back to school tomorrow. I'm left with... well, everything else.

We had a lot of prayers and wishes answered in the last two weeks:

We got to take the girls to their first real show at a theater. We went to see The Voices of Christmas at the Living Waters Theater in Pennsylvania (part of The Sight and Sound Theater). I'm not sure if I had more fun watching the show, or watching my girls watch it. It was truly a blessing on all counts.

We got to go to the Udvar-Hazy Center (part of the National Air and Space Museum) and see some really amazing aircraft such as the Enola Gay and the Enterprise (no, not the one from StarTrek!). This was a fun adventure in general, but the museum has special meaning to my hubby and I. Before the collection of aircraft was brought together at the Center in 2003, it was located in what can only be described as a giant warehouse that looked like someone's garage. It was called the Garber Restoration and Storage Facility. It was the first place my hubby and I ever went to together as a social thing before we got married, or were technically even dating.

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In Excess

By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)

My kids are hoarders. Rocks, shells, SillyBandz, Bendarooz, marbles, spare change -- you name it, if it comes in multiples, they horde it.

This, you should know, drives me insane. I hate clutter, of course. I hate piles of junk and stacks of papers and counters littered with debris. Clutter literally depletes my energy. I can't relax, I can't function, until everything is in its proper place...or in the trash. I am the Queen of the Toss-Out.

An experiment conducted by the confirmation class at my church, however, made me realize that perhaps I'm not immune to hoarding tendencies after all. My pastor suggested the confirmation kids film snippets of their lives that point to excess -- as an example, she filmed her tea collection: tea in the kitchen cupboards, in canisters on the counter, more boxes stashed in drawers. Passionate about tea, Pastor Sara has enough of it in her house to last months.

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