timely advice

You know when you're sitting in church and you just know, I mean, you really KNOW that perhaps the message is for YOU? I had that Sunday. Let me tell you a little about Friday night first. When we got home (after a VERY long day of work), I had to go to the bathroom. Usually, I have to kick everyone out, but this time, they went off to play (Hint #1 that this was going to be a rough night). When I came out, the noises were coming from the utility room. . .and they weren't quiet (hint #2). Kady was IN the dryer with one of those big water cooler water bottles and couldn't get out (hint #3). She had placed toothpaste in my brand new washing machine (let's just stop counting the hints, shall we?). She had knocked the bottle of color-safe bleach onto the floor and it had run all over the floor, including up under the washing machine. Let's just say the day was, um, trying.

Sunday arrives cold and windy. I manage to get both kids to church on time (sometimes a HUGE accomplishment!). Our pastor had a family emergency, so the associate pastor had been called on to give the sermon late Saturday night. His sermon? Sometimes you just want to take your kids to the zoo and leave them, but you still love them. If you can love your kids (even when they're horrible) that much, how much more does God love you? (Matthew 7:11)

OK, God, I got it. . .for now. Please feel free to remind me, because we both know I need frequent reminders!

A Mother's Prayer of Thanks

Dear God,
You are amazing! Only You could use a nap and a long car ride to bring a mother and son closer together. It had been years since Kyler and I had so much time to talk--really, truly talk. Kyler, little boy that he is, is usually about as deep as his father, which is to say as deep as a typical Ozark mud hole in August. This not being your typical August, yesterday was amazing.

We went to see Kevin this weekend and had a lot of fun. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had to be back for the start of school. Kady immediately fell asleep when we started back. I put in the new Third Day CD--just got it Saturday! Kyler opened his mouth and out spurted the most amazing things. So often we dismiss what kids are thinking/feeling/doing, etc. Let me tell you, as adults, we are (or at least I am) giving these kids too little credit.

Kyler announced that he thinks God is urging him to be a paleontologist and minister when he grows up. Now, he's not yet eight, so there's not much telling what he'll end up doing, but I can feel God doing great things with him. (I can tell you that this would be employing the gifts God gave him. . .) God has done so much with and for our family so far.

It was truly amazing to hear the words of wisdom and insightful thinking flow from his mouth. I so wanted to keep the conversation going, but I could hardly say anything: I was thanking God for giving us this opportunity. Kyler just kept talking. We talked about how hard it is to have faith sometimes. We talked about how easy it would be for God to make us "robots" or to show us that He is real so everyone would believe. We talked about faith--how we need faith, how He does show us He's here for us, and He is here for us, if we only look. We talked about the devil and people who do bad things. We talked about loved ones we've lost because of bad things. We talked about the devil's power and God's BIGGER power. We talked about what hell is like. It was profound and moving.

God showed me my son. He showed me my faith. He showed me Kyler's faith. Kyler has always been a philosopher. He would ask these huge questions and just listened as you stumbled over an answer. You knew he was listening, because days later, he would come up with some obscure comment regarding the topic. (He once told me he wanted to save $10.00, so he would have enough money to give to God when he got to heaven. . .missed that one big time, huh?) But yesterday. . .yesterday, we had a conversation--thanks to a God who can move mountains and create floods in August.

Thank you, God, for all you do for us.