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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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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