Sinking In

One of my fears as a parent is that nothing I do will sink in. In particular, it is of utmost importance to me that they develop a relevant faith - one with which they can see that the principles in Scripture always come true. Then, they can know and trust God's perfect will for them, even if they don't see Him working, or even if His will doesn't seem "good" at the time.

Last week, we built structures out of food items from around the house, and we started talking about what makes a structure stronger. To illustrate the point, we did this little experiment: We built a cube out of linguine and marshmallows. We tried to balance a lasagna noodle on top. It fell down. We added "crossbeams" to our structure, then tried to balance the lasagna noodle.

It stood.

Little Man said, "The wise man built his house with triangles. The house on the sand did not have triangles."

"It was foolish for him to skip the triangles, wasn't it? To make his house stronger?"

"Yes."

I didn't expect it. I didn't plan for that to be part of our lesson. I am so thankful that it was.

Everybody's First Splinter

That's about as much of a smile as we could get out of this little guy after the operation - and I do mean operation. And, yes, he looks completely worn out from the crying and drooling. Poor little guy.

I had put off this day as long as I possibly could. Let those suckers work their own way out, I say. Just check every day and make sure they are not getting red.

But when he showed me this one, my mommy conscience just would not let me leave it inside his body. I wish I had thought to take a "before" pic. Truly huge and gross.

To make matters worse, the tip broke off the first time I unearthed it, so we had to wait until after bath time and start again. With a very unwilling participant. He was very brave and held fairly still, but it broke my heart to hear him keep crying and saying, "I don't want to, Mommy. Please don't do it!"

But Bryan held him still, and I just keep sticking the needle in further and further to pull out the wood. We were trying to pump him up as it got close to sticking out - we were so excited, because we knew it was almost out! Needless to say, we could NOT get him on board with the excitement, so we just finished the job.

A little ointment, a band-aid, a few hugs and kisses, and the healing could begin.

We have told him many times not to play with the mulch at the park, but I think he is going to remember a little better next time.

An incredible glimpse into my Father's heart - why He tells me to avoid something, what He must be thinking when he sees the result of my deciding not to avoid it, how He holds me even as He is digging out the wood, how it hurts to hear my protesting cries, the excitement He feels as He gets close to uprooting my sin, and - finally - the hugs and kisses as He sends me on my way to healing.

Now, for the next lesson...

Unconventional

I do the things the conventional way. Call me the oldest child, type A, rule follower - whatever you wish. You may also want to throw in "doesn't think outside the box". Add a love for neatness, and you have me down. I do like to try out every which intended way a thing can work, though. I remember when I was a kid wanting to follow every path as far as it would lead (but no further), and I was bummed about backtracking when a path ended. I still only really like to hike loops trails or from point A to point B with a pick-up car.

I am hoping not to impose this way of experiencing life on my kids, and last week at the park, I really had to bite my tongue when Lee decided to climb up the spiral steps, and slide out of the playset on his belly. This included a set of stairs, a bridge, another set of stairs, and a little throwing of mulch into the air at the end.

Make your own rules, son.