Home Blog Page 86

Life With Kids

Jeremy
-
0

It’s Sunday afternoon. I’m at home. All the girls are sleeping (Mom and the kids). It’s really quiet.

In moments like this, I try to remember what life was like before Amanda and I had kids. Our house is typically not this quiet when we are home. However, before we had kids, it was this quiet all the time. I wonder, what did we use to do with the time? It’s hard to remember… it’s not that long ago. Sari is only 3 1/2, you would think it would be easy to remember, but it’s not! A lot has happened in the last 3 1/2 years! Crazy how quickly life can change.

I’m good with it most days. I really like my kids and the life that I presently live. Sometimes I wish there wasn’t as much screaming and fighting, but I guess it comes with having 2 girls that are 21 months apart. That might be why I am really noticing that it is quiet right now–there is no screaming!

I guess I really enjoy the things that I didn’t expect with kids (which is almost everything!!). Things like:

  • piggy back rides downstairs to feed the cats
  • screaming and running to the front door when I come home from work
  • cuddling in the morning when they wake up in a good mood
  • watching them run around the dining room table and hide under it because I am chasing them
  • yell: “Dad, give me an underdog!” on the swing-set outside
  • the simple joy of helping them go to the bathroom ON THEIR OWN!
  • their sadness when one of us is leaving (Mom or Dad)
  • the look on their faces when they see a playground, a trampoline, or Uncle Gabe
  • repeating a request about 25 times until they get your attention
  • watching them make new discoveries
  • spend hours and hours playing with their toys, babies, coloring pictures, or playdough

All of these things and more make me really happy to be a Dad. Oh, yeah, it can be real frustrating at times (especially @ 2:00am), but that special moment that is always around the corner that makes you smile and enjoy parenting makes it worth it.

It’s still quiet.

Back 2 School Bash 2010 (video)

Jeremy
-
0

Back 2 School Bash @ Hayward Wesleyan Church on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 for middle school and high school students.

source YouTube

Learning the Ten Commandments

Jeremy
-
0

This past Sunday in Main Street (grades 1-6), the story was covering the second half of Exodus: Israelite complaining, receiving the Law (10 Commandments) and their charter as a nation, etc. Kathy Baker talked the students through the various stories quite well. Then we put the 10 Commandments up on the screen and had the students write them down on a piece of paper.

Our goal was for the students to memorize the 10 Commandments. I come across students all the time that think they know what the 10 Commandments are, but actually don’t really know them. But when working with kids on a Sunday morning, how do you get them motivated to learn/memorize 10 Commandments? Prizes.

In our storage room, I’ve got two large Rubbermaid containers filled with “prizes”, more like junk to me, but to kids, unspeakable treasures.  I dumped those containers of prizes on the stage and spread them out while I watched their eyes go wide and their mouths drop.  “If you can recite the 10 Commandments from memory to another leader this morning before Main Street is over,” I told them, “You can pick a prize off the stage.” Their reaction was like winning the lottery! It really motivated them to memorize the 10 Commandments!

I was working with about 3 incoming 1st graders.  These kids are young, but they did it! They wanted the prizes so bad that they struggled to do it and they did! It was fun to see the students having fun while they were tackling something that is difficult to do.

Warrior Macie!

Jeremy
-
0

Last night Macie was coloring with markers at the table, and we weren’t watching her (usually she’s fine).  Amanda was in the bathroom doing something with Sari and Macie went in there, too.  Amanda started laughing hysterically and sent Macie to see me in the living room.  It was really funny!  For the next hour we were calling Macie, William Wallace (from Braveheart)!!

When My Teeth Get Bigger

Jeremy
-
0

A couple days ago, Sari and I were searching for a movie that Amanda wanted to watch.  At one of the video stores in Hayward, there is a big gumball machine right when you walk in.  Sari gravitated toward this colorful object and said:

“Hey Dad!  When my teeth get bigger, can I have one of those?”

How Can I Grow In My Spirituality?

Jeremy
-
3

Back in April, I was asked to come in and meet with a ministry at our church called Mentoring Future Families. This is a strategic outreach for single parents (typically women) and their children. They serve a meal, then there is a babysitter for the kids and the moms go and talk about stuff (i.e. parenting, life, etc.). Really neat ministry.

After introducing myself and talking about children and youth ministry at Hayward Wesleyan Church, I asked if they had any questions they had always wanted to ask a pastor. One young mother asked me this profoundly simple, yet complex question: “How can I grow in my spirituality?”

One of the leaders looked over at me and said something to the effect of “Boy!  I’m glad you’re here!”

A question like that could mean any number of things. Some women in this group are Christians while others are not. I could have given her some tips and techniques, however, I could tell that that is what she wanted me to do. I remember thinking to myself (praying actually!): How would Jesus field this question? I thought of the rich young ruler who really wanted some tips and techniques from Jesus in order to “inherit eternal life” and yet Jesus told him to get rid of everything and follow him. So I answered the question this way:

I talked about my own experience with reading the Bible. I said that as a pastor and a student of the Bible, I have read it countless times. I told her that generally speaking I have a good handle on the Old Testament and the Epistles in the New Testament. While there is always new things to learn and insight to be gained, by and large those areas of the Bible are rather easy for me to grasp and continue to work through understanding them. However, the area of the Bible that gives me the most trouble is the Gospels. That Jesus character always trips me up!  Stories in the OT stay fairly consistent. Paul and the other writers in the NT are not extremely shocking. Jesus, however, is extremely shocking. Just when I think I’ve got him figured out, as in what he’s probably going to say next, he does something totally unexpected! It’s like he’s God or something!! No matter how many times I read stories in the Gospels, I am always on my heels when it comes to interacting with Jesus. It’s good because it reminds me that as humans we won’t have this thing all figured out, but there is a person that we can look to who does have it figured out.

So my advice was to read through the Gospels and try to figure Jesus out and see where that might take your “spirituality.”

(note: I really do think the rest of the Scriptures do the same thing I am talking about with Jesus in the Gospels. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that I have the rest of the Bible conquered—I do not. At this stage in my own biblical understanding, the Gospels is what continually challenge me.)

The Walleye

Jeremy
-
3

On the way home from my Grandma’s 80th birthday party, Sari had to go to the bathroom.  We stopped at this gas station off of I-35.  As we pulled in to this place the girls yelled: “Look at the fish, daddy!”  For a second I thought we were in Hayward already, but then I remembered we were still about 2 hours away!

After we went to the bathroom, I took the girls over to the fish and we checked it out.  By the way, it was a model of the walleye that Paul Bunyan caught!

“I’m Potty-Trained!”

Jeremy
-
0

So we are still in Spokane (last day) and we were heading to a local aquatic park to go swimming with the girls.  Nana had to stop by her work to do a couple of things.  While the girls were playing in the lobby in their swimsuits a salesman came in and greeted us and the girls.

Feeling confident, I suppose, Sari proceeded to tell this friendly salesman: “I’m potty-trained!”  It was hilarious!  Not only Sari’s comment, but also the salesman’s: “Me too!”  Then Sari got shy again!

An Internet Fast (unintentional)

Jeremy
-
0

This wasn’t on purpose.  I love my cellphone.  It’s a smartphone that’s capable of fetching emails as well as simple internet searches and reading, in addition to calendaring, unlimited contacts and other “media-related” stuff.  Along with my wallet and keys, this phone is always in my pocket.

Not the last 3 days.  I was trying to make a call before we got into the motor home for our trip to Wenatchee, WA to go camping with my friends from college and my phone was locking up on me, so I set it in a compartment in the truck.  And for those of you who know what it’s like loading up the supplies it takes to take 2 toddlers on a 3 day trip away from home, you know how long and arduous it would take to transfer to the motor home.  It wasn’t until we were about 10 miles down the road that I was going to have Amanda look up our route on Google Maps on my phone, when I realized that I had left my phone in the truck.

Bummer.  I suppose I could have justified turning around and going back to get it, but that was silly because I didn’t really need it.  So basically, I didn’t have access to email and the internet for 3 days.  It was good for me.  I didn’t know or realize how “mentally”, “behaviorally”, and “habitually” I am connected to the internet.  It was good for me to experience this 3 day fast.  Weird and unsettling, but good for me.  It’s not that the INTERNET is bad.  My dependency on it is what is unhealthy and why it was so good for me to be away from it for a couple of days.

I wonder if these kind of experiences (intentional or unintentional) help reveal things about our character?  I wonder if we ever pay attention to these kinds of things?  Do you?  Is it worthwhile?

What is the Bible all about?

Jeremy
-
3

It’s precarious to summarize the Bible in one sentence, especially when its 66 books long containing hundreds of thousands of words and multiple interconnected stories.  But it’s helpful to start with something so to not lose the forest for the trees.

When I was at Wisconsin Wilderness Campus (WWC), Mark Jalovick had such a working statement: From Genesis to Revelation, God is seeking to rebuild his kingdom through obedient servants for the purpose of world redemption.

During this next school year (2010-2011), we are going to go through the Bible with the Middle School Youth group.  I wanted to use Mark’s statement as a reoccurring thematic statement every week–something the students can remember and repeat every week for the whole school year–however, I felt that it needed to be “reworded”.  Here it is:

The Bible is about God continually working to fix this world through his kind of special people in order to make his kind of world.

The Bible – Genesis to Revelation
God – as revealed in the Bible, Elohim, Yahweh, triune, Father/Son/Spirit
continually working – active presence and involvement
fix – right / redeem the wrong of the Fall
this world – broken humanity and creation
his kind of special people – Israel, Jesus, the church
make – craft/ redeem / procure his will on earth as it is in heaven
his kind of world – true humanity, the kingdom of God, heaven

Any other ideas or edits?

120 Year-Old Moses Visits (video)

Jeremy
-
0

I was trying to think of a way to end the school year in Main Street.  Nothing sounded good the preceding weeks nor even the week before.  It was Sunday morning, and I still didn’t know how I was going to end the curriculum year where we had storied through Genesis, Exodus (Leviticus) and Numbers.  Deuteronomy was the last story of the year.  How could I bring this particularly profound book home to these 1st-6th graders?

It was in the shower that Sunday morning that I got the idea to do a monologue of Moses, reviewing with the students why he wrote the Torah, and what he thought they really needed to know as they were poised to enter the Promised Land.  It was fun!

This idea also led me to do Moses when I preached in the sanctuary on June 6 when I was tasked to communicate the story of the Exodus.  That was fun, too!

source Vimeo

Seeds @ Church on the Move Resources

Jeremy
-
0

I haven’t used any of these resources yet, but it follows in the same vein as LifeChurch’s Open.  Seeds is a resource center for Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK. It’s all free, but comes with a few reasonable conditions.

It looks interesting.

1...858687...91Page 86 of 91
© Newspaper WordPress Theme by TagDiv