Jesus Knocking

I received the following story in an email yesterday and thought it was so cute. A good reminder of the innocence of children and how we should all be a little more childlike.

A nurse on the pediatric ward, before listening to the little ones chests,
would plug the stethoscope into their ears and let them listen to their
own hearts. Their eyes would always light up with awe, but she never
got a response equal to four-year old David's comment:

Gently she tucked the stethoscope into his ears and placed the disk
over his heart. 'Listen', she said...........'What do you suppose that is?'

He drew his eyebrows together in a puzzled line and looked up as if
lost in the mystery of the strange tap – tap – tapping deep in his chest.

Then his face broke out in a wondrous grin and he asked,
'Is that Jesus knocking on my door?

Blessings

Today Eli and I found ourselves alone with Maddie. The boys were, of course, gone to school and Ron had a meeting. So...we decided to bake a cake. Well I baked the cake, and Eli licked the beaters. Do you remember doing that when you were little? He didn't want me to scrap them off first, he wanted as much batter and frosting as he could get. I am getting off the subject here, though. The cake and beaters were not my reason for posting today.

While I was mixing and preparing the cake, Eli got his tools and decided my foot needed to be fixed. I was a little worried when I saw him come back with a hammer, 2 screwdrivers and a tape measure. Yes these were all toys, but I still wondered if I might get hurt.

I played along and he was very gentle asking if it hurt and where and trying to make things better. Then he grabbed his hammer (yes it is plastic) and looked up at me. He looked into my eyes, then slowly looked back down at my toe. He took his other hand, covered my toes and then used the hammer on his own hand.

My heart broke. I may be a little crazy, but I instantly thought of our Savior. Wasn't this the same love that Jesus shows us. He knows we are in need of "fixing" and he knows the "fix" may be painful, so He lays His own life down to take away some of the pain. WOW!

Maybe you're thinking this is a stretch, but I just watched my little 2 1/2 year old and thanked the Lord for the Blessings He has given me in my children.

Putting Rocks out of Work

This morning I grabbed a book off the bookshelf that I have had for several years, but had never gotten past the first chapter (due to lack of time, rather than content). My intention was to figure out how to get Eli to sit quietly in church without being a distraction. (Truthfully that sentence right there should tell you I was in for a rude awakening, but it really was my intention). Seriously though Ronnie and Nathaniel do a pretty good job 99% of the time. When they were younger, Ron and I made a point to have them in church (rather than a nursery or children's Church) and have them not be a distraction to those around us. There were times when we were challenged by "well intentioned" church members who thought we were abusing our children by requiring them to sit still for an hour, but for the most part we have been rewarded for our efforts. They both sit quietly during Sunday worship.

Eli... well that is different. He is just now 2 1/2 and so for the last year of his life (which is a lot to a 2 1/2 year old), Ron has been up front on Sunday mornings and not able to help me teach Eli to be quiet and sit still in the church service.

So, this morning I pulled out the book, "Parenting in the Pew" by Robbie Castleman.

Have you read it?
I was slightly taken back to find out that my goal should not be to teach him to be quiet, but rather that I should be teaching him to worship. Wow, was I shocked to find out that I needed to correct my approach before beginning to correct my son's behavior.

My problem was and is that I have been teaching my children to "behave" in church, but I have neglected to teach them to Worship. In fact I am so worried about how distracting they might be that I don't even truly worship on Sunday mornings.

Castleman references the scripture in Luke 19:37-40 where the crowd of disciples began to joyfully praise God in loud voices...some of the Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke his disciples. Jesus replied to them that if they keep quiet the stones would cry out. So, Parenting in the pew is the process of putting a few rocks out of work.

It really is a great book, so far. I read nearly half the book while Maddie slept this morning and the boys played outside.

There are several things I have learned and can share with you if you're interested. I still need to think through how to "teach" my boys with having 2 services every Sunday. We are now allowing them to go to children's Church during the second service and use that time as their Sunday School. I'm not sure that we should change that, but I am anxious to begin to put into practice the things that I am learning.

It really is baffling to me how I have expected my children to worship in the past and I desire them to be in relationship with Jesus and to truly worship Him and yet I have not lead them in that practice.