Category Archives: Children

When We’re Ready

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Every young child loves to “help” his or her mommy. That may be because God placed a drive within them to mimic, or simply because what adults do seems fascinating from the outside looking in. (Think blue Windex spray bottles, shiny sharp knives, and the buttons on the wash machine.)

“Me do it!” or “By my own self!” are often early sentences, and children think of themselves as every adult’s equal.

Spray bottleThe other day, two-year-old Emerald borrowed the spray water bottle from her bathtub toys and went-to-town washing windows. The only trouble was that the window she chose was Birgitta’s flat screen TV, which now is no more.

Adults know the truth about being given responsibility before capability. So they try to walk that fine line between letting children assist and giving them free rein. Take vacuuming, for example.

Isaac assistingMy grandson Isaac, 13 months, loves the family vacuum. With 4 youngsters ages 6 and under in the house, this attractive tool makes an appearance daily, and Isaac longs to be in charge of it.

Of particular interest is the warm vent-air that blows out the side, and Linnea patiently lets him “help” as she makes her way around a room. But turning it over to him would be ridiculous. The tidying-up would remain undone, and dust and crumbs wouldn’t be the only things going inside the vacuum.

We can draw a spiritual parallel when it comes to our relationship with God. Often we think we’re capable of spiritual accomplishments he hasn’t yet trained us to do. Just as children watch their mommy and figure they can do what she does, we look at others doing “great things for the Lord” and wish we could do the same.

It’s honorable to want to accomplish for God. We love him dearly, and in trying to please him, can set our sights on tasks beyond our readiness. Along with that, we can be off in categorizing certain jobs as loftier than others.

His list of what’s important and what isn’t probably doesn’t match ours, and a job we consider to be low-level might be his highest calling for our here-and-now. For example, there’s not a much lowlier task than changing poopy diapers, but doing it faithfully is to participate in the high calling of motherhood.

Isaac moving in to take chargeAnd so, we should patiently pursue whatever God places in front of us with the tools he’s trained us to use. And if we get ahead of him, we can think of little Isaac’s relationship with the vacuum and know that the better plan is to wait till God says we’re ready.

“Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of…” (2 Timothy 2:15)

Praising and Praying with Mary

  1. Last year on St. Patrick’s Day I underwent the Whipple surgery to remove a tumor from my pancreas. I never thought I’d see another St. Patrick’s Day, but here we are, thanking the Lord for this gift.
  2. As our entire family (25 of us) vacation together in Florida, please pray that my bad sinus infection will soon clear so I can participate without passing it along to anyone else. Thanks!

Creative Genius

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My grandson Micah recently turned 5, and like all 5-year-olds he’s a creative genius. For instance, last week as his daddy worked hard pressure-washing the driveway and house, Micah watched carefully. Within minutes of Adam rounding the corner toward the back yard, Micah was playing on the clean driveway, admiring its fresh, bright-white appearance.

Maybe it was the rejuvenated contrast of concrete and joints, but Micah quickly came up with a new idea. After running to a neighboring empty lot and uprooting a fistful of weeds, he planted them (dirt, roots, and all) in the driveway cracks. Though he’d never done that before, pressure-washing day seemed the perfect time to smear dirt into the clean concrete.

His wise father saw this but didn’t chide his son. Surely, though, he was disappointed. Couldn’t it have stayed clean for even an hour?

I asked Micah, “So, what’s that you’re doing there?”

“I’m planting a garden, and I’m going to jump over it.”

MicahWhen he was finished, he brought a big red bouncy ball from the garage and proceeded to jump high enough to clear the foot-tall plants. Back and forth he jumped, till he was flushed with the effort. We cheered him on, snapped photos, and praised his high energy.

*                *               *                  *                 *

Occasionally the parenting years include work that must be re-done and messes that are completely unnecessary. Actually, not just occasionally. Often.

Raising kids is a ton of work and isn’t for the faint of heart. But the interesting thing is that when we feel “stretched to the breaking point,” we usually don’t break. Instead we discover there’s always a bit more stretch left.

Where does it come from? No doubt from God. More than likely it’s him showing up in response to our prayerful calls for help.

When God gives us a big assignment (such as raising children), he doesn’t do it without offering the tools to do it well. As young parents parent, he is parenting them. And no loving parent would ask his children to do something he knows they can’t do.

It’s also true that God-as-Parent wants to be in on every “stretchy” parenting project. He offers to give moms and dads “more stretch” whenever they need it and then hopes they’ll take advantage of his offer. When they ask, he delivers.

Micah NathanAs for Micah’s driveway garden, after he’d moved on to another project, Grandma Midgee plucked up his weeds, brushed away the dirt, and found that the bright-white driveway was none the worse for wear.

“The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he knows how weak we are.” (Psalm 103:13-14)

Adventureland

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A year ago when I was visiting my Florida family, the grandchildren and I went on several little-kid adventures. Two blocks from their home was a multiple-acre property with a dilapidated old barn on it, along with scattered debris that all belonged in the trash but fascinated the children: a discarded tire, a deflated Mylar balloon and it’s dirty ribbon, a cracked bowl, a broken brick, etc.

We fantasized about each item and about the barn. We named the terrain as we walked along: Midgee Mountain (small hill), Skylar Pathway, Micah Rock Pit – our own Adventureland. It was the kind of fun kids hope goes on forever, a simple activity they wanted to repeat again and again.

Open field

But between then and now, the landscape has changed. Giant trees have been removed, the barn bulldozed away, and the land leveled. All the “treasures” are gone, making it just an empty, open field with no personality at all. But we went to Adventureland anyway.

This time, though, the kids did spot one exciting find: a yellow road sign that said, DEAD END. I told them that if I’d have come across it when I was young, I’d have taken it home and hung it on my bedroom wall. Linnea quickly discouraged such a possibility, but I had a twinge of wishing it would fit into my suitcase.

Dead EndIt’s funny how the passing of time brings new trends and fads. During my college years, I had a number of road signs in my room, each with its own unique story of acquisition. All my friends admired them. But these days, that kind of thing seems silly. Times have changed.

Thankfully, some things never change — like the things God puts into place. Take character qualities, for example: being kind, loyal, gentle, fair, and so many others. These never go out of style. That’s because they’re God’s ideas for how we should behave. He’s programmed all of us to be capable of them and to respond positively to others who demonstrate them toward us.

Jesus modeled every positive character trait known to man as he dealt with the people of his day. And when we’re willing to try, it brings satisfaction to him and to those around us, and even to ourselves. It’s not always easy to be cheerful, honest, grateful, dutiful, polite, and lots more, but even a little can mean a lot. Best of all, Scripture says that if we practice even one good character trait, it’ll lead to another… and another.

As for the road sign, maybe it’ll come into a new life with the owners of our old Adventureland.

“Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” (2 Peter 1:5-7)

Praising with Mary

Blood work done on March 10th brought the good news that my cancer is growing only slowly. The bottom line remains the same, but this report was the best we could hope for. And your prayers have a lot to do with it! Thank you!