There’s a dinosaur on my coffee table
Lurking right there behind the stack of imported trays
Piled with very expensive artificial apples and pears
His lumpy green plastic head lifted as a silent roar escapes his lurid mouth
I think my living room has never looked more lovely
There’s a dump truck on my kitchen window box,
Headed straight for the antique ceramic salt and pepper shakers,
Two metal star molds lying askew in its wake
With a plastic kid from the Fisher Price bus stuck underneath
An arrangement I find wonderfully uplifting in the morning sunlight
In the guest room, where one dark cactus green wall accents the deep gold of the others
And picks up the desert reds and rusts and blues of the designer spread,
Woody and Buzz Lightyear dominate from the Toy Story 3 sheets that cover the air mattress on the floor
And I think this might be the best room in my whole house
Precious clutter
Put there by a beloved little boy
Who will not play these games, with these toys,
For more than a moment
Before he moves on, with a speed that catches parents by surprise,
To Little League, and computer games, and first cars and first dates and dorm rooms and first jobs
And very rare visits where he makes his bed and hangs his towel and leaves by Sunday afternoon.
I know how this story ends, with perfect décor, and every detail in place
And empty drawers and closets with plenty of space
So now, I wander through the rooms my grandson left, taking pleasure in seeing how he played
Knowing that the hours he spends in joyful adventures at “G-Diddy’s house”
Are among the greatest treasures I will ever own.
As brand new boxes of crayons, tablets and colorful folders take front and center in stores, the excitement of new beginnings catches on, and parents begin shopping for book bags and blunt scissors and school shoes, eager to fully prepare their children for the approaching school year.
But for parents and kids alike, new situations also can produce new anxieties, and the most important preparation for every family member is prayer.
Whether our kids attend public, private, or parochial school, or we teach them at home, we need to remember that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but has in fact called us to take His message of redemption and hope to our neighbors and communities.
Discuss with your kids their individual roles, and your role as a family, in showing the love of Jesus. Let your children express their hopes and anxieties about the upcoming year. Talk about the needs you are aware of in your school and community.
Then, as a family, begin to pray for your elementary, middle and high schools. Pray for administrators, teachers, students and their families. Ask for God’s protection, His grace, His blessing, and pray that His truth will be evident in every class, and His love be revealed to the entire community. Even if you are active home schoolers, we would encourage you to make it a family project to pray regularly for your public schools.
An engaging, meaningful object lesson that will help your children visualize the effect of their prayers would be to read the story of Jericho in Chapter 6 of Joshua, and then in the evening walk the perimeter of your school, each family member silently praying for all who are connected with it, and for your own family’s interactions there. While it is certainly true that God will hear your prayers wherever you are, that mental picture can encourage your kids as they go through the blessings and challenges of the coming school year.
Make it a point this year to keep your prayers for your school and your passion for your neighbors and community as sharp as those bright new crayons, and see what beautiful things God will do in and through your family this school year.
Does anyone ever actually want to be a couch potato?
What is there to inspire or motivate us about a slovenly, overweight, crumb-covered, do-nothing, sitting around all day, stuffing all kinds of junk food, mindlessly flipping channels?
The food may be momentarily entertaining, but it serves only to slow him down, and there might occasionally be something worth watching on TV, but the constant channel surfing guarantees that she will never have a thought of her own.
There’s nothing in that picture that any of us would aspire to.
And yet, for many of us in America today, that is a precise description of what the younger generation sees of our spiritual lives. We should not be at all shocked that a large number of kids who grow up in the church are heading out the door the minute they are 18, never to be heard from again.
We are a bunch of spiritual couch potatoes. Sadly, too many of us are content to sit in our comfortable pews Sunday after Sunday, listening to music and rating it as if we were on “American Bandstand,” and flitting from congregation to congregation because “we’re just not getting fed.”
It’s no wonder that our young people want no part of that.
Paul himself shot down the idea that mature Christians are supposed to be “fed.” He pointed out that babies need to be fed, but adults are supposed to be out hunting and preparing their own meals…and providing for the babies. So, if we are regularly studying and applying truth we find in our Bibles to our own lives, what is it that we should be doing at church?
Like our couch potato who finally goes into the kitchen to prepare himself a nutritious meal, we may find, when we look into the New Testament, that we become energized to actually be the church in this world.
That would mean exercising our spiritual gifts and calling, by getting out of the pew and into our community—feeding the hungry, providing for widows and orphans, protecting the weak, giving to the poor, being friends to the friendless, visiting those who are sick or in prison, demonstrating to them that there is hope because Jesus loves them.
Today’s young adults, whether they are believers or not, have a deep concern about the needs they see in the world around them. Not content to just cluck their tongues and feel sorry, they want to take action. They live green, they volunteer, they raise funds for charities and disaster relief, they travel around the world at their own expense to dig wells and build schools.
They should see the church as a group of people more concerned with giving than getting, people who are responsibly training for spiritual fitness, people who are racing to meet the needs of the world around them with power and compassion, in the name of Jesus.
Let’s get off the spiritual couch, and invite the next generation to join us in running the race, intent on the prize of the high calling of life in Christ Jesus.
Zacharias went to burn the incense, as he had for years as a priest, simply because it was his turn, and he did what he was supposed to do. It had been years since he and Elizabeth had put away their dream of having children, and just gone about the business of their days, faithfully living the best way they could.
Mary went about her daily chores, performing the lowly tasks women in her culture were assigned to do, not resenting, but working to be a girl who would please God. It really wasn’t a big deal.
Joseph worked in his shop, building carts and chairs and mending tables, day by day following the holy law to the best of his ability. Even as he absorbed the news that his fiancé was pregnant, knowing that he was not the father, he put aside his disappointment, and tried to figure out what would be the right thing to do.
The shepherds were sitting in a cold, dark field, huddled around a fire, making sure the sheep were not attacked by animals or stolen by thieves, the same as they did night after night, year after year. It was a job without much challenge, without much pay, with little or no respect from the community. But it was their job, and they were doing it.
Anna and Simeon were in the temple, each praying and hoping as they had every day for years…So long, in fact, that the first fire of inspiration that had motivated them long ago had dwindled to ashes, and each one’s attendance there had become habit motivated simply by the desire to faithfully do what they believed was right.
It had been over 2,000 years since God had spoken to His people through the prophets. Their land was occupied by a foreign power, and life was hard. God’s promises didn’t seem to have much to do with what their lives were like. But they were faithful, and spent their days doing the things they knew to be right.
And then!
God interrupted routines, beginning by sending Gabriel to give incredible news to Mary, to Elizabeth, to Zacharias, to Joseph, to the shepherds.
In one night, the world was turned upside down, and a Redeemer was born who would restore intimacy between God and man, and who Himself would be the answer to every longing of the hearts of men and women for all time.
There are believers this Christmas season who have been living in the place where nothing much seems to be happening. Like Mary and Joseph, like Zacharias and Elizabeth and the shepherds, we are going about our days, motivated by faith to do the right thing, though circumstances are not what we had dreamed of.
For us, this is a good time to remember that faith, faithfulness, is the substance of things hoped for! Whatever it is that we are longing for God to do, it is our faith, and our faithfulness in the place that He has us right now, that will allow Him to bring about His plans for us.
My prayer this Christmas season is that we all will find ourselves, like Simeon and Anna, faithfully in the place where He has called us to be, so that, like them, our eyes can behold His coming.
I pray that this year, the routine will be interrupted by the glorious. This year, may you suddenly find Christmas happening in your heart!
Emmanuel!
Martha
Dear Josiah,
Happy first birthday to the best grandson in the whole world! That’s not just bragging. That’s a fact. I always knew being a grandpa would be great, but I never dreamed how amazing my grandson would be. Has there ever been another one-year-old who would crawl up in his grandpa’s lap just to watch a football game on television? It was just too good to be true that your first words were “hut-hut’.
So, I’m pretty thrilled about how this first year has turned out, even though it started out filled with fear for your whole family. You looked so perfectly healthy when you came into this world, then the doctors said you were going to need serious surgery immediately. You were the trooper you always have been. They literally reached inside you and took everything out and laid it on a table to fix what was broken. For one whole month you had tubes all over you and were isolated from us in that intensive care room. But you were so tough. You made it through.
Then, they told us you had cystic fibrosis. I didn’t know exactly what that was, but it sounded scary. And, it was even scarier when I started reading about it. There is no cure for it and the prognosis is pretty discouraging. But, thank God for all the doctors and medications that have kept you very healthy and very happy during your first year.
One thing that I never expected when I became a grandpa, was how much you were going to teach me. But God has used you to teach this old dog plenty of new ways of looking at things.
You’ve taught me, once again, how pure real love is. It’s something that we all need to be reminded of, and your crinkled-up face when you give me your biggest smile does that for me. Like your Uncle Matt said, we needed you to keep us all from becoming “bitter intellectuals”.
You’ve taught me what great people your Mommy and Daddy are. I thought I knew that already but I really didn’t. I knew that I loved them and that they were fun and smart, and that I was glad they were part of my family. But I had never seen the real beauty of the grace and peace that is within them. Day by day, they walk through the whole ordeal of your illness. They don’t complain about the hours and hours that breathing treatments and therapies and doctors appointments require of them. They don’t fret over the huge expenses of special medications and specialists’ fees. They work diligently to find the balance of keeping you healthy and yet, not overprotecting you. They’re joyful, knowing that difficult times might be ahead. All the while, they do above and beyond what’s expected of them as they reach out to teach and love teenagers in their work. You are blessed that you belong to them, and I’m blessed that they are my daughter and son-in-law.
Most importantly, Josiah, you’ve taught me how God wants me to live my life. I was so frightened when the doctor spoke those words, “cystic fibrosis”. Every negative thought immediately flooded my mind. But then God stepped in and spoke so calmly to me, “You’ll live through this day by day.” It’s true that we don’t have any promise that tomorrow you’ll be with us. But God reminded me that that’s not just true about you, but everyone. We’re all just day-to-day here on this earth, so we love God and each other as if this day is our last.
“Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” (Matthew 6:33-34 The Message)
I live this day believing that God will bring healing to your life – praying for the doctors and scientists that are searching for a cure, and depending on the miraculous power of God to touch you. But I live it knowing that with you and with everyone else, every moment I must love wholeheartedly, without expectations or keeping score. I can’t allow worry or concern about what the future might hold to crowd out “right now”.
So I love every single moment that I get to spend with you, Little Man. I can’t begin to tell you how thankful I am for you and how much I love you. So let’s celebrate this first year as big as we can – with football and loud music and funny faces and monkeys and Veggie Tales and everything else you love. Happy birthday to the greatest grandson that’s ever lived!
I love you so much!
G-Diddy
Here’s a save-the-date for you! We received a note from Family Life Today that our “Setting Up Stones” interview will be broadcast in two parts, Monday and Tuesday, December 7 and 8. FamilyLife Today is hosted by Dr. Dennis Rainey, President of FamilyLife and Bob Lepine. It airs on over 900 stations all over the world.
You may have seen Dr. Rainey on Fox News last week, talking about the ministry that FamilyLife has for military families. You can see that online at
http://www.familylife.com/site/c.dnJHKLNnFoG/b.5601869/k.6089/Dennis_Rainey__Fox_News.htm?from=hpvideobox
To find out the time and station in your area for our interview, go to
http://www.familylife.com/site/c.dnJHKLNnFoG/b.3469313/k.93D4/Find_a_station.htm
Please pray that our thoughts and words on the broadcasts will make an impact on families all over the world.
I would have expected a phone call last evening. But, I knew it wouldn’t be coming, so I just shut my phone off so I could deal with the emotion the events of the day had brought my way.
I lost a good friend yesterday, very unexpectedly, and much too early. Bill passed away on the basketball court, doing something he loved to do, with the person he most enjoyed sharing it with – his son Zach. Bill and I shared the same passions, and that’s why it didn’t take too long for us to begin to connect after we first met. He loved God intensely, and extravagantly poured out the overflow of that love on his family. He loved to laugh, boisterously, with friends. And, he loved sports. What I enjoyed most about Bill was the way all those passions kind of sloshed together. There was a seamless flow in our conversations together that usually included bits and pieces of all those things. The extent of the family and marriage counsel he sought from me was how a dad could watch his kids compete and succeed in sports without becoming too proud or too pushy. He wondered what things I had done to make Martha more interested in sports so he could share them with Deborah, too.
Bill had a real gift. I suppose it was what made him so successful in sales. I’ve never been friends with anyone who asked so many questions about me, what my thoughts were, what made me tick. And, after he figured me out, he was diligent about sharing those passions with me. The first time we were really engaged in more than cursory conversation, he managed to find out that our son Matt was attending Baylor University, so, we were a family of Baylor sports fans. That’s all it took. He pledged to me that he was going to be a Bear Backer, too, except, of course, when they faced his beloved Texas Tech Red Raiders.
And that’s when the phone calls started. I could count on hearing from him every time Baylor was on TV, or when the paper ran a story about them. The sport didn’t make any difference – football, basketball, baseball, track, men’s teams or women’s teams. The phone would ring, and he wouldn’t have to identify himself, he just led off with, “What did you think of the game?” So, when Baylor bowed out of the NCAA baseball tournament yesterday, the phone should have rung, Bill should have been on the other end to console me, and he would have ended the conversation with, “Oh well, football season starts in another month, and I’m expecting Robert Griffin to make big noise for the Bears this year. Hey! We love you guys!” But the phone was quiet.
I always felt that Bill was thinking about me. He made me feel that he valued my opinion and appreciated my company. After all, that’s just exactly what real friends do. I saw him at church yesterday morning, the first time our paths had crossed in about a month. He threw his arms around me and said, loudly, of course, “Man, we’ve missed you guys! When can we get together?” Next time we get together Bill, time won’t constrain us and busyness won’t deter us. We’ll talk and laugh as long as we want to.
So, I’ve been reminded the past twenty-four hours how important it is to shake off the tyranny of the urgent, those things that cry out for attention and fill our time, but are of no eternal value. Those people God has placed in my life really mean something. Lord, help me to be aware of my time, cautious of my attention and lavish with my love.
