Every Day Life: Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman (at Christmas)

By Lara

She sits alone in her bedroom looking for any and every distraction possible to keep her from coming up with something creative to write for the holidays. She's already finished half of her vacation scrapbook… made lists of people to buy gifts for… watched a movie or three… called half the people in her phonebook… played her cat to exhaustion… fed and entertained her parents… Sigh. If she had sucked it up and spent $4.88 per 12 cards in a box of non-tacky Christmas cards at Walmart, she could be addressing envelopes right now… and staring at a blank computer screen trying to write a Christmas LETTER. She takes a deep breath. And so she begins.

Right. What will I write this year to amuse and entertain my friends and family? A fable? No. It's been done… recently. Remember the penguin? A play? Hmm. I wrote a Thanksgiving play last year. I guess this year should be a story of some kind.

A story. What could I write about? It has to be funny… People have come to expect that from me. And it has to be appropriate for both friend and family audiences alike. Let me think. What is funny? Bananas are funny. Banana. Banana. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Sigh. No bananas. Oooo. It could be about an animal. Everybody loves Christmas stories about animals. Ok. So… there could be this hippo. And she's friends with a… lion. Wait. That seems too… Madagascar. No hippos. Weasels with chainsaws are funny, but not universally appealing. Maybe I should put funny on the back burner for a bit.

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Praying Prayerfulness For Our Children

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people." (Ephesians 6:18, NIV)

I sometimes find myself complaining loudly to my children that they complain too much.  At other times, I've noticed that I argue with them about how much they argue.  I know this is ineffective and even hypocritical, but it's amazing how easily I fall into the same old patterns again and again.  Why?  Because Satan loves to see me stumble and fall flat on my face, and so he keeps setting the same traps and I keep falling into them.

The call to prayer in Ephesians 6:18 comes in the context of a passage on spiritual warfare, which in emphasized here by the call to "be alert."  1 Peter 5:7-8 has a very similar and even more sobering call: "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.  Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."  Again, we see a call to prayerfulness ("Cast all your anxiety on him") with a call to be alert because of the reality of spiritual warfare.

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The Do-Nothing Kid

By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)

I'm not one of those overzealous moms – the ones who enroll their kids in every next thing: soccer, T-ball, French horn, yoga for toddlers, Portuguese, Tai Chi.

Don't get me wrong – it's not because I'm self-righteous and virtuous and protective of my children's childhood. It's because I am simply lazy. The thought of schlepping Noah and Rowan back and forth, night after night and weekend afternoons to games and practices and recitals, combined with work and grocery shopping and Walgreens and trips to the post office paralyzes me. Frankly, I'm much too self-centered to spend all that time shuttling my children.

Yet I do strive to involve them in some activities, because heaven forbid, I wouldn't want them to become "nothing kids."

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Praying For Perseverance

By Jason (Connecting to Impact)

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." (Hebrews 12:1)

We live a society that has become transfixed on happiness at all costs. Everything seems readily accessible and easily replaced. The value on people has receded just as the value on things has.

Relationships with family, friends, spouses, and others are all judged and weighed through the lens of what we gain from the arrangement. Church becomes yet another place to be a consumer instead of a contributor. And even if they do want to contribute, they may not find something that immediately interests them and walk away.

Our kids have to have perseverance. It’s not just because that’s a nice value to promote, the Bible tells us a lot about enduring and overcoming. As Hebrews 12 goes on to say, the hardships we endure can be counted as discipline. Discipline doesn’t make us happy, but we need it to be all that He has called and made us to be.

As I said in the post about our kids and work, if these are important values, we certainly have to model them, but we also need to pray them consistently for our children.

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." (Romans 12:12)

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Be Gentle

By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)

I stop short in the driveway and stand staring. It all looks so normal, so everyday, I think to myself, observing the potted impatiens she planted in front of the garage, the Windexed windows, the kitchen light glowing inside. Who would know what goes on behind that front door, between those brick walls? Who would guess there is grieving and sickness, tears and joy mingled bittersweet?

I watch the grandkids play tag, climb the river birch tree. They yell and laugh, scream and fall in piles on the grass.

A neighbor drives by, slows, points to my husband’s uncle’s car – a 50s Chevrolet convertible parked in the driveway – gives me a thumb’s up. He approves of the car. But he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know that I don’t care a bit about that car, about its funky tail fins and genuine red leather interior. He doesn’t know that I don’t even see it.

This neighbor can’t see the real story, of course. All he sees are grandkids leaping on the lawn, neatly trimmed shrubs, the classic car, a beautiful house bricked shut.

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