Category: God’s heart

Open Letter

To the Table of Moms sitting beside ours at the children’s museum,

First of all, congratulations on expecting your second children in the household. The thrill of a miracle growing inside of you is indescribable, even in those last few months of “bumping into everything”. And your toddlers may not have any idea what’s coming, but they’ll learn to enjoy the company of another little smiler.

But even in your excitement my heart breaks for you both. I saw your glances and while it would be easy to brush you off as judgemental, my heart is really saddened.

Yes, Big Guy spilled his cup of juice because he wasn’t paying attention. He’s only been to a children’s museum twice that I know of and it’s a lot to take in, even when wolfing down lunch in anticipation of playing with legos. Yes, Little Man was fussing. What you didn’t know is that he had already been fed and freshly diapered, he was just having an impatient moment while I was nursing Hannah. And yes, the boys do not look like me… or my girls. In fact, to a deeply judging eye they could mark me to look like an unfaithful woman… or a woman in a really biologically confusing mess.

But my heart breaks that you didn’t really see my kids. You didn’t see Abi’s utter bliss at the chocolate covered pretzels we got as a special treat from the shop downstairs. And you didn’t see the twinkle in Big Guy’s eyes that even though he forgot his money that he brought to buy a special snack, he got to share a bag of Buggles with all of us after eating his cheese and crackers (the unsoggy ones). And you didn’t see the progress that Little Man has made in only fussing a bit and being responsive to my touch and my words to calm himself down.

You didn’t see where my boys were two months ago and how much they have moved from being constantly attention-seeking and fearful to secure and excited.

Yes, we are a noisy bunch sometimes… many times around eating time. And there are still needs to remind Big Guy to sit still and that just because he’s not touching it right now doesn’t mean he’ll never get to. And there are still needs to balance nursing my Hannah with rocking Little Man into comfort.

But my heart breaks for you, Moms, that while you may be there in your hearts some day to take in a child that needs someone while their world gets a little more under control… you’re not there right now. But right now there are Big Guys and Little Mans out there… waiting for Children’s Services to intervene and remove them from their crumbling worlds.

Tomorrow we’ll probably still be noisy, and a little bossy sometimes, and a little over-the-top excited and needy, but I am so thankful to God that tomorrow these precious boys know that they’ll still be safe. And loved. And snuggled. And told that “we’re praying for your Mom and your Dad” while they wait to see who will rescue them and who will fade away into a memory.

Sweet pregnant moms, my heart breaks for you.

Please take another glance.

Please.

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Music Monday: Step Intentionally

This is a humorous song written by Sara Groves that actually holds a really good point. This song talks all about the church running from the conflict of the world – fleeing to the moon in a moment of “I don’t want to deal with this”.

I have always enjoyed this song (even though Matt laughs at me sometimes due to it’s silliness) because it speaks to a reality of the foolishness of avoiding the world’s sin. There are many times I just wanted to run and hide – be it a frustrating conversation challenging my faith or a discouragement in watching a fellow believer take Scripture way out of context and represent a characteristic of God that in inaccurate. I’m sure I’ve caused many others to smack their own heads as well as God is continually modeling and shaping me to be more like Him and less like my sinful self.

Just as this song touches on the irony of running from the world, it’s been a helpful tool in remembering to look at the large picture of Christianity and the faithfulness of God to work amongst us broken and sinful people. What a great God that He uses us losers as tools to reach the lost!

So in those moments that I want to rein it in, pack it up and run away from conflict, frustration and “the log in another’s eye”, I am thankful that God uses people like Sara Groves to point out the silliness in that philosophy.

Afterall, how will they hear or see if no one shares Christ?

You have to get into the muck to help another out of the muck.

– Step intentionally.

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Good Kindling

If you want a good read, ask a homeschooling Mom for her book list.

What I’ve found to be true, in most cases, is that homeschooling Moms have good book lists.

And what I’ve found to be true in all cases is that it matters what you read.

So I wanted to share a few beauties I have found amidst our public library system as well as online.

We strive to read with a purpose around these parts. Certainly we have some lovely classics like the “Anne of Green Gables” series, The Chronicles of Narnia series and The Little House on the Prairie series (though am I the only one to find those difficult to read aloud?), but we also have more mission-focused readings to add to our worldview around these parts.

I have found the enjoyment of the happy balance of reading to my girls before their nap time. Most days they fall asleep to my reading of a Missions Adventure novel, which I have mentioned before. We stumbled on a series, after stealing the recommendation from a homeschooling Mom of 10 who reads to her children for 2 hours per day from the smallest to the oldest. Janet and Geoff Benge, a husband and wife team, have taken and continue to take us on a journey through “big name” missionary’s lives with their beautiful mix of autobiography and narrative. With 35 chapter books in their Christian Heroes: Then and Now Series, we have enjoyed their 8-9 page per chapter adventure, witnessing the gospel spread in sometimes the bleakest of situations around the world. Some missionary stories come for the 1800’s and others from the 1900’s. There are varying denominations represented and varying countries supplying the missionaries. And I have found it quite a blessing that at least half of the entire series is found in our local library system.

Beyond the chapter experience, I stumbled upon “The Good Garden” by Katie Smith Milway recently. This was a lovely story with beautiful illustrations taking the readers through a 30 page journey (15 pages of text) of one family in Honduras’ movement from a poverty-stricken farm to a “food secure” farm. This story highlights the contribution of Don Elias Sanchez’s agricultural teaching and the impact on the local community. It also has a 2-page spread at the end of the book of world missions opportunities and ideas of how you can become involved in helping others become food secure. Neat book with poetic-like reading through a little girl’s, Maria Luz’s, perspective.

I also found recently these little, and I do mean little, books addressing specific sins through a kid’s view. They’re the “God I need to talk to you about…” series. They are written by Susan K. Leigh and Dan Carr and address: sharing, stealing, bad words, hurting others, bad temper, whining, greed, disrespect, bullying, laziness, paying attention, lying, bad manners, video games, vandalism, bedtime, school, homework, cheating, talking back, healthy eating, feeling sad, my parents, and being a bad sport. Each is a short read (about 2-3 minutes) in the form of a child’s explanation and admitting of the sin with the last page being a personal prayer of the child asking God to help them and admitting they were wrong. Each book takes you through a certain situation or scene depicting the problems through a kid’s eyes and even includes scripture on almost all of the pages regarding the sin. The book itself could fit in your palm, but the pictures are bright and fun enough to hold a child’s attention. I like that it addresses the sin quickly and simply while allowing for a bridge to open conversation about avoiding the temptation and asking Jesus for help. Plus they’re about $1.19 a piece on amazon. SCORE! Recommended age 4-8, but my 2 yr old enjoys these too.

We also recently purchased this book for our daughter’s 4th birthday that we stumbled upon in Family Christian bookstores. This is one of a small princess series written to target the fluff-age of fairytale with a little more backbone in the parable world. Princess Faith’s Mysterious Garden takes you through a kitten-seeking rendition of the parable of the lost sheep, with a two-page spread at the end paralleling the two stories. As you can quickly tell in the opening of the 5 daughters of the king, this series could be open to two additional books, since each sister appears to have their own story. But there are currently only 3 on the market. There’s Princess Faith, Princess Joy and Princess Charity’s stories out there thus far. But they’re cute, less-fluff, (primarily because of the attached 2 pages relating the story to the parable through the princess’ narration) storybooks satisfying the intense fairytale need in the eyes of any 3+ yr old little girl.

And then there’s my personal favorite in opening my own eyes, let alone the eyes of my sweet little ones, to the realities of “other than us” family living out there. Material World: A global Family Portrait by Peter Menszel is a wonderful project book composed of a pictorial look into the lives of families all around the world through the contents of their homes. Through this study, Peter Menzel had various families empty the contents of their home onto the nearby property to broaden our understanding of their lives. Each family has about 4 pages devoted to their lifestyle among the obvious conversation-fueling photograph of their “entire livelihood”. From the dirt-poor to the wealthy, this book is an awesome tool for broadening your understanding of “need”, “want” and culture. Plus, it’s found in our library system. While this is not really a “read to your child” type book, especially if you have preschoolers, it is jam-packed with facts and information about the countries, cultures and individual lives of these families.

I have also come across the “Little Lights” series by Catherine MacKenzie which allows us to put a few short stories about missionaries on our bookshelves. There are 8 books in this series that focus through 24 pages (each 2 page spread containing a new part of the story) on one missionary’s life in highlights starting from their childhood. The author does a nice job of keeping things pretty simple, but adding in the gospel and evangelistic drive of each missionary. I also like how there is a one-sentence summary available on each 2-page spread for your “quick flipping” crowd. And while the age recommendation is for 4+, my girls have enjoyed our growing stash of these books from age 2 and up. It’s just nice to read something with a little more historical meat in it without compromising the gospel message and the nice illustrations.

What are some of your favorites?

Well, that’s all from us for now.

– Enjoy!

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Music Monday: When the Saints

“When the Saints” by Sara Groves:

I don’t think it could be said better.

This world is so full of sin and injustice.

The only hope is Jesus.

But how will they hear if no one tells them?

…

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Music Monday: Be Still

I remember sitting on the floor in my room, well before the household awoke and listening to this song each morning. It was still frosty and cold and I had to get going to make it in time to High School. But I made it a point to sit, sometimes praying, sometimes reading the Word during that time, but many times just sitting with open hands and letting the song pray for me.

He is God.

Then when I went off to college I remember sitting in the hallway outside my dorm room. It was too early and my roommate wouldn’t let me keep a light on, so I sat in the hallway, in the corner of our fourth floor dorm building each morning at 5, just praying and reading the Word. Since my french class started at 8a I got up every morning at 5a, going to bed early despite the bustle of college, so I could spend however long the Holy Spirit led me to pour over God’s Word.

It was still.

Not a soul was awake on the floor.

The showers were vacant and the fall air crisp on that Tennessee morning.

After a quick shower, sometimes foregoing one because I ran out of time, I walked across the campus to this soundtrack.

Frost hung in the cold breeze. Hardly a soul in sight as the campus slept.

It was still.

And I knew that there was, and is, and will be forever… God.

This song is very dear to my heart.

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