Roger worked last Sunday so after church we took our lunch to the airport. I had instructed the kids to bring their rubber boots just in case we went and collected cans. It was a bit of a slow day at the airport, which meant that Roger could sit and eat lunch with us. He had a flight after lunch, but the kids and I put on our rubber boots and headed out to walk along the road. In about forty-five minutes we had two large garbage bags of bottles and cans. Emma has become such a good helper this year, and she’s fun to have along. There is a lot of trash out along the roads as well, but since we have to buy our trash bags for our local dump, its hard to make the effort to pick up that too. Garett found this little bike off in the weeds off the road, and the boys decided that we needed to bring that home. Well, I’m certainly not hauling that around while collecting cans! That was okay with them, they cheerfully dragged the little bike along all the while dreaming up ideas for all the tricks they could do with the bike. (Listening to them talk, it really is amazing that none of them have broken a bone!) I try not to tramp on their ideas too much as most of the time they will get all set up for their idea, and one of them will decide that maybe this isn’t the best idea ever! There was one instance when Garett and Chandler were about 4 and 3 years old and they decided to jump out of the tree using garabage bags for parachutes! That idea I did decided to nix!
We have about five weeks left of our children’s program on Sunday nights. As much as I enjoy working with the 3-5 year olds, I’m ready for a break. As the weather gets a little nicer (Hopefully) and the sun is out longer in the evenings, I think we are all ready to wrap it up for another year.
I had a funeral to attend this week on Tuesday. Roger was working, and I really didn’t want to take Emma to the funeral. My friend, Annah, graciously agreed to watch Emma while I attended the funeral. The funeral was for an older lady in our church. She had been married to her spouse for 70 years! What a testimony of Gods goodness and grace! We’ve had quite a few funerals for older people this winter, and it’s a reminder of how much we need to pray for God to bring new families to our congregation. It seems to be my observation that the church is missing a whole generation of people. We have the older people in our congration (70, 80, 90 year olds) and we have some approaching middle age families (I put myself in this category now! The 30 and 40 year olds) but where is the generation from 45 to 60 year olds? Maybe its just in our church, but as I look back at churches we’ve visited over the years, I don’t think so. I think that generation is largely missing from our church families...why? I don’t know. I’ll let you know if I figure it out!
I think there is a younger generation that is seeking truth, but I also think they are largely being misled by thinking that church is another place for entertainment, coffee, visiting, and meeting of friends. If we are really going to raise up our generation of children to “stand in the gap” as it is referred to in Jeremiah, we need to prepare them for more than shallow music, comfy chairs, and a watering down of God’s Word. If anything, attending these funerals has refueled my desire to raise
our kids to be a beacon of God’s light in a dark and fallen world. The truth of the matter is that we are very spoiled in our country. Around the world, Christians are being martyred and truly persecuted for their faith. And I will pray fervently for our children and do our very best to raise them in the nuture and admonition of the Lord, but I know that ultimately God must do a work in their hearts. I would truly covet your prayers on this matter.
Wednesday is my normal music class teaching day, but Travis had a speech evaluation meeting. He
has made huge, huge strides in school this year. I am very pleased with all of his hard work. He will be dismissed from speech lessons, which he is absolutely delighted with that thought! He has never really enjoyed speech lessons, but his speech teacher said that Travis was a delight to work with. Even though it wasn’t his favorite thing, he gave the lessons 100% of his effort.
Since I needed to stay in town until the meeting for Travis, I had an opportunity to take Wyatt to have coffee with me. We dropped the other kids off at school, and then snuck away for a few minutes. Wyatt has been wanting to have a coffee date for a while now, and I was glad we could make it work. Wyatt is not a talker! But during the course of the conversation, he did share a few things with me. I’ve forgotten what it is like to be the middle child, and Wyatt brought some things to my attention that I needed to be reminded of. I am thankful that the kids go to a school where their teachers understand the importance of these “dates” in the lives of our children. It was a good morning with our sweet middle child.
Wednesday afternoon found my friend, Allison and I crawling around the choir loft at church. Why? Oh just because we had nothing else to do. I’m kidding! The students are prepping for an academic fair, and it was brought to my attention that there would be a need for power strips and extension cords. I was not really thrilled to have to try to find these things, but an unpleasant job is always more fun with a friend. So....I got Allison to help me! We did manage to come up with what we will need, and we laughed our way through it. Last week, we had taken the kids to get pizza after school as there was a fundraiser at one of our local restaurants. I am thankful for a friend to spend time with, pray with, and laugh together with.
Thursday was my music class teaching day, and Emma had to come along. She does really well, but its not her favorite thing to hang out at school while I teach music. We are well into the preparing and planning for the Patriotic Program. I am so pleased with all of the students hard work.
Friday was another day of chapel and hot lunch craziness. I had planned to squeeze in a short run after playing the piano for chapel, but God had other plans. As I finished playing the piano for chapel, I noticed a mom sitting in the back. I went over to chat for a few minutes, but we needed up visting for the next hour and one-half! It truly was a God appointed event as she needed to share some of her burdens, and I was able to help bear those burdens and share some of my own. We spent time in prayer, and the sense of God’s presence was truly felt. I walked away to prepare for hot lunch with just a reminder of how big and how good our God is- the God of the impossible!
I had a few other blessings over the course of this week as well. On Wednesday morning I found myself with about thirty minutes of extra time while waiting for Travis’ Meeting. It was not enough time to run, but no one was in the church sanctuary. I was able to sit at the piano and worship God through music for about thirty minutes. I know why music can refresh our soul as my soul was certainly refreshed.
On Tuesday afternoon the boys had a friend come home with them. I am so thankful for the friendship of this boy from Garett’s class. The boys played outside all afternoon with airsoft guns, loud voices, lots of food, and a good time of visting for them. Good fellowship and good friends are important for our children just they are important for Roger and I.
Today Roger has a day off of work, but he has four boys that are needing his help! Chandler is begging Roger to take him to collect some scrap metal. Garett needs help putting together a model plane for his academic fair project, and Travis and Wyatt both need a little help with some of their projects. I try not to help if it involves painting, cutting things, or putting together something. Usually when I do, Wyatt will announce to me, “I don’t think that’s right. Never mind, mom, I can figure it out!” It doesn’t hurt my feelings in the least that they don’t want my help in this aspect!
We are preparing for special meeting at our church for tonight and tomorrow. I am singing in some special music, and I am very much looking forward to it. We are praying for God to be glorified through these special meetings.
Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty!
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