The Lego Jar (5/4/13) – Parenting and Spring – A true story

This week’s Lego Jar has me reflecting on the depths of parenting. Parenting is like  graduate school.  If you have more than one kid, then it is like having a heavy class load.  There are things you learn in the daily grind and there are things that feel like busy work.   The only difference is that while both cost a lot of money, one will get you a degree while the other will give you a degree of insanity.  I will let you decide which one provides which blessing.

Parenting brings blessings, joys, sorrows and sacrifice.  But when I come home and they all come running, it really makes no difference.  I like to sleep just like you do.  I even enjoy adult conversation.  It is just that right now I am in the parenting classroom learning about who I am and how that relates to several other young lives.

Parents:  Take time to appreciate your children today.  They might be a handful, but they are your handful.  Enjoy!  I know that the time invested now will pay off in the future.

Children:  Appreciate your parents.  They might be a handful, but remember you were their handful first.

If parenting is like graduate school, I suppose I will never be graduating.  I suppose this is a good alternative to getting my terminal degree.

In other news, spring has come to New England.  I spent a good part of the week mocking my family and friends who were receiving snow in May.  I was not receiving snow in May so it looked quite beautiful to me. 

 

I hope you have a great weekend with some awesome people!   May the 4th be with you. 

The Lego Jar (4/27/13) – We got chalk

Spring is apparently happening these days.  That means more daylight and more time outside.  This week we experienced both, as I wrote about earlier this week with my daughter.  This Lego Jar gives a picture of how my children navigate the change of seasons.

We Got Chalk

My 3-year-old still has trouble with certain words.  Mainly he puts the letter ‘f’ in front of words that he shouldn’t.  As you can imagine, it makes for many little heart attacks when he screams about trucks driving past.  I came home on Friday and he told me that we got some fhalk.  I figured it out because I am so smart.  Actually, it was obvious.

 

The outline of the body is funny to me.  There was nothing to see here, so I moved on.

Making Dirt

Once again I noticed two of my boys pouring water into a bucket.  Upon further inspection it was determined that there was also dirt in this bucket.  They were making something, but we really don’t know what.

 

Wagons

Wagons do a couple of things in our world: they transport people and they transport dirt. These two things often happen at the same time.   This time it was my daughter who wanted a ride, but no one seemed interested.

Duck Dynasty

My family has spent some time watching Duck Dynasty.  As a result, my boys have been adding phrases like “jack” onto their sentences.  It is funny if you have seen the show or live in the south.  Here in New England people just look at us funny.  Well, let’s just say they  do that anyway.

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Our job is to make God known not to make ourselves know.

Our love with social media and notoriety with people we don’t know is quite intriguing.  Somewhere along the way the purpose of platforms like Twitter has gotten lost in a sea of needy people looking for followers.  I have been thinking a lot about this because the need to be liked seems to be a universal component in humanity.  We want to be liked and known by as many people as possible.  This little tidbit my children have even picked up on as I have posted things about them on this blog.  ”Hey dad, put that on your blog” is something I have heard more than once over the last few years.  One time I put a picture of one of them on here and he said, “I am going to be famous!”  I assured him that his fame had nothing to do with who viewed my blog.

Look at me! I am famous.

A love affair with self.  I guess that is not a new phenomenon.   Is our goal in life to be famous or to make God famous?  Is our goal for all the social media sites to have as many followers as possible?  I don’t believe it should be.  I think a better goal is to be faithful to God in all things.  This blog started because I was just thinking about different things and needed a place to think about them.  That continues to be what this is about.  I share my life  here in hopes that it encourages others to follow God.  The goal is not to get as many followers as possible.  I pray often that God would have His way with this and I am grateful that some people read and are encouraged by this.

My point here is not that these things are bad.  Instead I feel that we all need to do a little motive check on why we do these things.  Does it really matter if you get more followers?  Does it matter if someone does not follow you back?  Those things are insignificant when you really think about it.  God is not looking at how many followers you have.  God is looking at your heart.

King Saul learned this the hard way.  He was set-up to be the perfect King.  He had the height, strength, and status.  If you were to look at his social media profiles you would see many followers.  But the most important aspect of his life, his heart, was way off.  He did not honor God and it cost him everything.

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7

There is not a moment in our life that is to be wasted.  We are to live with intention and attention.  The intention refers to the action of our hands and the path of our life.  The attention refers to our heart.  Intention without attention leads to a lot of rash decisions.  Attention without intention leads to a clean heart that makes very little impact on others.  We need to remember we are here to bring God glory and share that with others.  Let’s use all of these different avenues to bring attention to God’s Kingdom rather than trying to build our own.

The Lego Jar (4/20/13) – It’s the milk chocolate!

We spent a few days visiting some friends this week.  This week I share with you a few pictures of our trip because it captures the week quite well.

Reading Material

I have documented many times how my children love to gather any free publication they can.  True to form, they went ahead and picked as many as they could off every display they were able to get their hands on.

So many to choose from

They found another one.

Free!

Feeding the big doggie

We saw a horse and were able to feed carrots to it.  My daughter called it a doggie and even waved bye to it.

The Sweetest Place on Earth

We took some time to stop in Hershey, PA.  While there we spent a couple of hours at Chocolate World.  It was awesome!  We even did the free tour twice because my kids loved it so much.

She loved the signing cows

The kids

Keep Your Staples At Home

We went to a park and came across this sign.  It is obvious that they have a real staple problem in New Stanton, PA.

No Staples

We managed to have a great time away.   My boys are still singing the song “it’s the milk chocolate” that they cows sang.  They want to go back!    I can’t say I blame them.  It is a huge candy store after all.

Have a great weekend!

Thank You God For Each Moment

Waste Nothing!

Taking time out of the normal settings of life can be refreshing and joy giving.  This past Sunday we were able to worship together in a different church.  It allowed me the opportunity to be a part of worship without a role in leading it from the platform.  I love being able to take a break and absorb what is going on around me.   However, during the service there was a time to share what things people were praising God for that particular day.  I had no intention of saying anything and had nothing really that I felt was worth sharing.  Without prompting from me my 6-year-old son said out loud, “I am thankful that I am with my family today.”

This comment did a few things to me.  First, it made me proud as a dad because my son was willing to praise God for something in front of a bunch of strangers.  It is encouraging to see him step out like that.    It also made me think about the nature of worship.  We are told to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God because it is all that we have to give.   This means on the days that we meet to worship together and the days we don’t.  Everyday is a day to worship God.  Everyday is a day to thank God for something, even if the only thing you feel the need to thank God for is the breath in your lungs. Every moment is a gift from the author of life.

Without realizing it, he had caused me to stop and consider how many things I miss because I am not in the moment.  It is like my boys at breakfast asking me what is for dinner.  I always tell them not to concern themselves with that now because it is breakfast time.   It is the same with life.  Praise God for each moment.  If you are sitting with your family in church, praise God.  If you are watching a movie with your spouse, praise God for that.  If you are driving to work, praise Him.  I guess the lesson here is that God does not waste moments and we shouldn’t either.

Honoring Life Above Politics

Life– What a blessing! 

For all that is, or isn’t, being said about the Kermit Gosnell trial, I thought I would at least make a few comments on it.  I know that the outrage on social media is about how the media isn’t covering it.  I would agree with that, but there is an even greater outrage then that.  For so many people life has become such a trivial thing that it is reduced to politics and rhetoric.  In the end it doesn’t matter what media is or isn’t covering on this.  What matters is that lives were lost because someone disregarded them.  It deeply hurts to read some of the accounts of things that took place there because they were done to defenseless people .  It should bother us as human beings made in the image of God.  He is the author, the very source, of life.   We are not in charge of that no matter what we might think.

I pray not just for a media frenzy.  I pray for redemption.  I pray that people will stop taking lives, regardless where these lives happen to be.  If we just stop and think for a few minutes we would at least agree on that without any politics.

   This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live – Deuteronomy 30:19

The Lego Jar (4/13/13) – The clouds keep crying

Spring on Cape Cod means two things: rain and rain.  It seems like we don’t have any real transition to summer.  This week’s Lego Jar represents some transitions for us from winter to summer.

First of all I need to explain what I mean by crying clouds.  One morning I was taking the boys to the bus stop when my 6-year-old son started talking about the rain.  In his unique way of understanding things he said to me: “hey dad, why do the clouds keep crying?  They should just be happy.”  I agree.  That being said, they must be quite sad because it has rained a lot this week.

There are other deep thoughts to share too like:” hey dad, metal is not plastic; metal is glass”  He also asked me what it would be like to be a car and if I had ever been one.  I assured him that I have not had the pleasure of being a car.   It does make me wonder what kind of car I would be.

One night after dinner the boys put together a little dessert for us.  They are wanting ice cream now that it is spring.  I have not started that yet, much to their dismay.

Dessert for all

Spring is time for home repairs.  My kids appreciate the opportunity to help using their tools.  My daughter thinks it is fun to take the tools out of the tool box and then put them back.

My oldest had his spring concert this week.  I was shocked by the number of people using large tables to record their child.  There are two thoughts I had:  1) Why do you record the entire program?  Who wants to watch the whole thing again?  2)  Can you be anymore obnoxious with your tablet?  If I have to watch the show through your tablet, it is too large and you should stand in the back.  But despite my snarky thoughts the show must go on.

My son is the blonde kid in the top row

Lastly, our daughter continues her climbing ways. She has moved on from tables and is now climbing the shelves in the closet.  She is so proud of herself.

She’s a climber!

Spring vacation is here for the kids.  Let’s hope the clouds stop crying!

Have a great weekend!