Standing Up

Chancery came home from school yesterday, & right away she said, “I told the bullies about Jesus loving them, but they did not believe me.”

 

I was going to ask her why they were bullies, but she took a deep breath & continued on.

 

“The bullies were not being nice to my friends, so I tried to tell the bullies all about how nice Jesus is, & how much he loves everyone, but they wouldn’t believe me.”

 

I told her what a great job she had done to stand up for her friends who were being mistreated by the bullies, & how wonderful it was that she decided to tell the bullies about Jesus.

 

Often we are not as brave.  When we see others being mistreated, we turn a blind eye, glad that it isn’t us being targeted.  If we do happen to speak up, do we do so in love, sharing Christ with our persecutors?  May God grant us the strength to stand for what’s right, & go that one step further & be a witness too.  Those bullies might not believe us today, but someday they might…

A Little Bit of Christmas

I just love the gift giving part of Christmas.  I love the hunt for the perfect gift for each person, & then watching them open it.  We opened our gifts as a family on Christmas Eve this year.

Chancery was delighted to receive some My Little Ponies.

 

Asher had conveniently stated, “I wish that I could see inside my body!” a few days before I attended an Usborne Book party, so he received the See Inside Your Body book!

 

Asher gave me The Book Thief Book (and so did PChad!) apparently they both knew what I wanted

 

Chancery was over the moon to find 2 new nightdresses in her present!

 

Asher was not quite sure about the slippers & mittens he opened, but that boy has lost so many mittens this school year!

 

PChad loves Volkswagens!

 

PChad decided to stop trying to fight against my love of hoodies.  He gave me a really nice one, so that I will be happy & warm whilst wearing it, & he will be satisfied that I am a bit dressier than normal!

 

A Volkswagen tablet case?  How perfect!

 

Asher asked at one point, “Why do I keep opening books, books, & books?”  Then he answered his own question, “Because books are awesome!”

 

Chancery wrapped a little gift on her own for Daddy…

 

And it was 2 McDonald’s Happy Meal toys!

 

Another Volkswagen shirt!

 

What could be better than seeing that delight?  Celebrating Jesus’ birth!  The ultimate gift all wrapped up in swaddling clothes.  It’s pretty awesome to think about!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Dinnertime Prayer

Asher was taking his turn praying his own prayer at dinner the other night, & I had to stop myself from laughing a few times.  It’s just so funny the way kids think sometimes.  But I wanted to be sure not to forget this one…

 

“God, you are awesome, & we love you.  Everyone in the whole world is happy because of you.  But there are some people who don’t know you, and you will defeat them, & forgive them.  Thank you for everything, everywhere in the whole universe.  Amen.”

 

We had just been explaining what the word ‘defeat’ meant, but I don’t think he really understood…

Chocolates & Santa

Chancery & I were at the store to buy a birthday card for her friend Corbin’s birthday party.  While in line, Chancery noticed all the candy bars displayed below the counter…

 

Me: “Please don’t touch the candy, Chancery.”

 

Chancery: “Are these for my friend, Corbin?”

 

Me: “No, he doesn’t need any.”

 

Chancery: “Are these for me?”

 

Me: “No, they are for other people to buy.”

 

Chancery: “For other people to buy for me?”

 

Me: “Nice try, no.”

 

The lady behind us started laughing midway through this little exchange, & jumped into the conversation:

“Oh, now she definitely should get one!  She’s so clever!”

 

Really?  Now I have to explain to the random lady that my kid doesn’t need a chocolate bar, when I just finished explaining it to my 3-year old?  What would I be teaching her if I bought her a candy bar now?

 

The lady turns to Chancery: “Santa will bring you a candy bar.”

 

I couldn’t believe it!  Now she’s making promises to my kid about what she’s getting for Christmas!  I loved Chancery’s response…

 

Chancery: “Santa isn’t real.”

 

Lady: “Oh my Gawd!!!  At her age?”

 

Chancery: “It’s not nice to say ‘Oh my God’.”

 

Lady: “Who told her Santa isn’t real?”

 

Me: “I did.”

 

Lady: “Why would you do such a thing, at her age?”

 

Me: “That’s not what Christmas is about.  It’s about Jesus!”

 

At this the cashier joined in too: “Amen!”

 

Lady: “But you can let her have a little fun!  Santa’s just something fun to do!”

 

Me: “And at what age do you tell your kids that you’ve been lying to them all along?  They’re going to start wondering what else you’ve been lying to them about.”

 

Cashier: “That’s right!”

 

Chancery: “Mummy, can I have this kind of candy bar?”

Night Vision

Asher & Chancery were commenting on how dark it was outside around 4 pm the other day…

 

Chancery: “It’s dark outside.”

 

Asher: “Yes it is, Chancery.”

 

Chancery: “We need to have a flashlight so we can see if we go out there.”

 

Asher: “Not if we are candle people.”

 

Me: “Wouldn’t a candle person get burned?”

 

Asher: “No, they only have fire on their heads, & it doesn’t burn them because it’s the Holy Spirit!”

 

Me: “Oh, you mean like when the tongues of fire came down at Pentecost?”

 

Asher: “Yes!  I want to be like that so I can see in the dark!”

 

Me: “Well, I’m not sure that it helped them see in the dark.”

 

Chancery: “But it was fire on their heads, so they could see!”

 

I guess we’ll just have to add that to the list of things we need to ask God about someday…

Mixed Theology

At dinnertime we often say our own prayers & encourage the kids to pray for whatever comes to mind.  Asher had quite the prayer…

“God, please help all the people that we love, but not strangers if they are bad.  They should be in the flood that you send, but not the good people, just the strangers…”

There was more, but I couldn’t hear what it was over all the snickering we were trying to suppress.

Don’t worry PChad straightened him out… hopefully.

Declarations

Chancery & I were in the grocery store today looking at juice bottles for Asher to take to school.  I’m pretty particular about things like juice bottles, last time I bought him one I made sure it wasn’t a metal container, since I didn’t want to have to worry about the metal making the juice taste weird.

 

But he broke his old one a few weeks ago, & before I could PAY for a new one, Asher managed to break the replacement one in the store.  I figured that if he’s that adept at breaking the only non-metal juice container I could find, maybe it was time to breakdown & buy a metal one.  But I was still going to be picky…

 

So, Chancery & I were in the grocery store looking at the juice bottles.  The only ones they had were metal, & there were some with screw off tops, as well as some with straws.  I can totally see Asher spilling the entire contents of his juice container if he has a screw off lid, so I decided to go with the one with a straw.  The only problem with them, was they only had Batman designs.  Normally that wouldn’t be a HUGE issue for me, but there are pictures of the Joker & the Penguin looking quite menacing…  Oh well.  I picked one up anyway.

 

Chancery wanted to hold the juice bottle, so I let her.  She was looking at all the pictures & trying to open the lid & close it.  It was doing a great job of entertaining her, until she dropped it.  I’m not sure how she managed to drop it in such a way that it went rolling waaaay under the shelf & there was no way I could get it back.

 

I told Chancery, “Well that wasn’t good.  Now we’ll have to go back to get another one.”

 

And she replied by raising her little arms, & stating, “I. am. JESUS!!”

 

What do you say to that?

 

“Honey, you are not Jesus… let’s go get another juice bottle for Asher.”

Christmas Time’s A-Comin’

As we were setting up out artificial tree this year, we had a bit of help from Chancery.  Asher found something else to occupy himself, but Chancery was an eager participant.  We put each section of the tree together & Chancery helped us get all the little branches out of the box.

Now, she proudly points to the tree & says, “We made a tree!” or, “We BUILDED a tree!”  She’s so proud of what she has helped us accomplish this year.

 

Today she was telling me once again, “Mummy, we builded a Christmas tree.”

 

And then she continued, “Christmastime is coming soon… It’s going to be God’s BIRTHDAY!”

 

I’m so glad she gets it.  Even if she doesn’t fully understand yet, it’s nice to know that she’s beginning to grasp the reason we celebrate & ‘make’ trees.

Singing Sensation

Chancery has a new favourite song, and can be heard singing it around the house most days…

And just in case you aren’t familiar with the original, here it is!

Bigger & Better!

Asher commonly references when he grows up as “when I get big like Daddy,” so a few days ago when we were getting ready to go to the store, I told him that he could be the driver when he got to be big like Daddy.

I was a little surprised to hear his reply.  He vehemently said, “I don’t want to be big like Daddy, I want to be big like GOD!”

How, exactly, do you follow up a statement like that?

Pat's Progress

If you've been following the story of my friend, Pat, who broke his neck this past summer, here's an update!



You can read the other posts here & here.

Pat Update

A few months ago, I wrote about my friend Pat, who had broken his neck, and was now believing that God would heal him. Here's an update:

An Amazing Testimony

The following video is about a friend of mine that I went to school with. He went on a mission trip & had a bad accident. In the last 2 months, God has been doing amazing things in his life & I just wanted to share his story with you.

Sunday Pictures: Good Friday Edition

Asher - 2.5 years

Chancery - 7.5 months
**********************************
Chancery: "Um, Asher? I think Mum is confused about what day it is today."


Asher: "No, we're going to church because it's Good Friday today."

Asher: "See, Jesus died & they put him in a tomb, like this....."


Chancery: "I think that's Tad that you have in the box there."

Asher: "Pretend it's Jesus & bear with me for a minute."

Chancery: "Ok."

Asher: "But then after 3 days, he rose from the dead to save us from our sins!"

Asher: "And we're going to church to remember that."


Chancery: "So is this Jesus, or Tad now?"

A Housework Analogy

A few weeks ago at Coffee Break we were talking about how our relationship with Christ is something that we have to maintain & work at. It's a bit different from our relationship with our spouse b/c our spouse is physically present to remind us if we haven't spent enough time together & the effects of it can be a bit more obvious.

It got me thinking that living in relationship w/ Christ is a bit like cleaning house. It's not something that you can do once (accept Him into your life) & figure it's good. Rather it's something we have to keep working at. We have to keep asking Him to renew us & consciously keep Him as the number one priority in our lives.

Image what it would be like if you went on one date w/ a guy, then he asked you to marry him, you said, yes, but never saw him again. It wouldn't be much of a relationship, would it?