Are You a Good Guy or a Bad Guy?

Greg and Daniel like to ask me this at random throughout the day - usually with their cowboy hats on, their toy pistols pointing at my nose. They eagerly look out for "bad guys" and take justice into their own hands.

My guys seem very concerned with heroes and villians right now, making sure they save the day. I hope they continue to be spiritual heroes as they grow into young men.

Aaron and I recently came up with 5 things we want our children to be certain of when they leave our home, and one of those was, "We want them to realize there is an Enemy." They will fight a daily battle, a spiritual battle, and we want to do everything we can to prepare them for that.

Excuse me , I have to go be Princess Leia to my little Luke Skywalkers...

Music Saved My Life

We just got home Monday afternoon from a most excellent time in good ole Greenville, Ohio - my hometown. Baby brother Doug got married and I'll just have to save all those juicy details for another post. But we actually drove the 19+ hours all the way, without stopping at your friendly Holiday Inn...and lived to tell about it.

First of all, I have to say to all parents of young children out there - Heaven has a special place for those of us who have traveled in a mini-van over long distances with small people. Once the journey is complete, do you not feel as though you have waged a long and strenuous battle? Do you not carry the sweat, tears, and scars of one who has gone to edge of Hell and back??? Alright, enough melodrama.

But the one smart decision that probably kept us from driving into the Mississippi was the fact that we drove all night long, taking shifts. I would usually start the wheels on the bus somewhere between 7-8 PM (after the 3 hours it took to pack the bus to begin with, I'm so not joking) and drive until my head started bobbing, which was about 1:30 or 2 AM. Then Aaron would take the graveyard shift - 2 to 5 or 6 AM. The children would blissfully sleep until about 7 or 8 AM, and by then there would only be a few hours left in the trip.

Now, for Aaron - his weapon of choice in the stay-awake-or-die department is sunflower seeds. I have no idea what the magic is in these seeds, but they simply give him something to work on, to keep him from diving into a coma. He is also fond of beef jerky. He says it balances the salt of the seeds. All I know is, my mini-van is already funky enough by this time to do without the scent of the "manly snack".

I choose the tunes, baby. Give me even just a radio and I'm good for at least a couple hours. On this trip, the country stations were plentiful, so I had fun listening to all the latest hits in honky-tonk land. One of my favorites was Carrie Underwood (newest American Idol) singing, "Jesus, Take The Wheel"- appropriate, eh? I couldn't really sing as loud as I wanted to with all my boys catching zzz's, so I just lip-synced my little heart out on I-55. I also liked Brad Paisley's "When I Get to Where I'm Going" (doncha love these titles?) about Heaven. Love the part where he talks about his Grandpa.

Have you ever driven in complete blackness, one straight strip of road, for hours on end? Man, it's hard. And sometimes life is that way. It feels like the daylight will never come; life will always be like this. You wonder when there will be a rest stop, a change of scenery - anything but the road you're on. But try to enjoy the music God provides during the journey and hang in there...I think I see the Golden Arches up ahead!

First Church of the Moon

I wish I had written this! This is one of my favorite songs off the new Sara Groves CD - Add to the Beauty. It’s funny, but convicting as well.

To The Moon

It was there in the bulletin – We’re leaving soon
After the bake sale to raise funds for fuel
The rocket is ready and we’re going to take our church to the moon

There’ll be no one there to tell us we’re odd
No one to change our opinions of God
Just lots of rocks and this dusty sod
Here in our church on the moon

We know our liberties – We know our rights
We know how to fight a very good fight
Just grab that last bag there and turn out the light
We’re taking our church to the moon

We’ll be leaving soon

The Slow Lane

God has a way of coming at me from lots of different angles when He’s trying to get through to me. He really got my attention a few weeks ago when our pastor began speaking on the same thing I was reading about at the time.

I was reading Breathe – Finding Space for God in a Hectic Life by Kerri Kent. It was a book written for moms and challenged us to reflect on our lifestyles, habits, and commitments. Are they all necessary at this season of life? What is most important? Although I don’t really consider our family life to be terribly busy, it was a great book to read before my kids get to the ages where they will want to be involved in different sports or activities.

Then Chuck spoke at the same time at Crossbridge about slowing down and taking time for silence. I guess it was like my spiritual speeding ticket, if you will. “Do you know how fast you were going, little lady?” I didn’t think I was in overdrive, but maybe God just wanted to give me a gentle warning.

Little boys don’t know what time it is. They don’t care. And come to think of it, neither did Jesus. His clock was ruled by love and love alone. It makes me want to intentionally slow my life down and stop all the hurrying I seem to do. It makes me want to be more loving and less harried. Here are the 5 questions Chuck had us think about…

What is it that is driving me to push so hard all the time?
What am I trying to accomplish?
Who am I trying to impress?
Does God really ask me to do all I am doing?
What needs to happen in me to become the kind of person that leads an unhurried life?

And I love how funny God is sometimes. During this same time, I ran across a verse in Psalms that made me smile: “I will hurry, without lingering, to obey your commands.” (Ps.119:60) I guess that’s the only time a follower of Christ needs to hurry!