Sunday Simplicity

Today is Alex's baby blessing at church.
Here he is last week, sitting with Daddy and listening to the sermon.

Book Review: Before I Dream Bedtime Bible Storybook

Review: Before I Dream Betime Bible Storybook by Karyn Henley

As we await little A's arrival, we have been reading a bedtime story each night. Yes, I read to my belly, and yes, he sometimes seems to respond. Recently we finished reading Karyn Henley's Before I Dream Bedtime Bible Storybook. I bought this book at an Abilene Educational Supply booksale and got the copy that came with a CD of music. The same issue with CD can be found on Amazon for about $50. You might try second-hand bookstores or Christian bookstore's clearance racks for a better deal. Tyndale gives it a retail value of $15, but it is currently out of print.

That being said, keep your eyes out for this book at any second-hand sales or your church's library! I loved reading through this book. It covers a variety of stories from the Old and New Testament, some children's classics such as Noah and David and Goliath, but also some lesser heard stories such as Samuel and Saul. A's favorite seemed to be the couple with Solomon.

Ms. Henley describes her purpose for the book as sending kids off to sleep with positive images in their minds. She does just that. Even when some of the more gritty stories are included, they are tastefully made child-friendly. There is plenty of onomatopoeia ("clip-clop, clip-clop" "whoosh") in the stories to help the reader and listener get into the spirit of things a bit more. Each story also has at least one illustration, and some have full page art.

Overall, this was a great book and I would highly recommend scooping it up if you find a copy!

One Year Later

Yesterday was one year since my LEEP to remove precancerous cells from my cervix.

A year ago, I thought my life was about to take turn dramatically for the worse.

A year ago, I was scared, make that terrified that my dreams of becoming a mother would be gone forever.

A year ago, I had no idea how strong I was.

I was terrified of what would happen. I was worried that they would find out that it was worse than the biopsy showed. I didn't think anyone understood or could understand. And I had no idea what I was doing.

I took it one day at a time and leaned on my husband more than I ever thought I would. I learned that in all of his discomfort with my tears and emotions, he would always be there for me. I learned that he is my rock and my teddy bear all in one. He really was amazing (and still is).

I struggled with what it meant to trust God and be faithful to the command to not worry. I struggled even more with what it meant to take your cares to your brothers and sisters in Christ and ask for prayer. I found myself conflicted in the role of care taker for so many and needing to be cared for, and I learned the importance of being vulnerable even as you care for the broken.

And now I find myself "as big as house" with a wiggling, kicking, little baby growing inside of me and a clean bill of health. I feel closer to my husband that I did before even when he's hundreds of miles away. I feel more at peace and content with the situation and world that God has placed me in. Most of all, I have been humbled to a place of deep appreciation for the glory and majesty of our Lord and the life that we have within him.

I am honored to be able to share my story with anyone who might see this and pray that I might provide hope to someone who needs it.

To read about the events of last here, click here.



My ever growing "very pregnant" belly. :)



Why I Love Religion AND Jesus

I believe the words of Christ when He said that He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

I believe that the life of a Christian is made more joyous when one is free to live within the law and within grace.

I believe that God has freely forgiven me and is seeking me out. I believe that by altering my behavior to be more like the person God has called me to be, I am also seeking Him.

I don't believe that religion alone has caused any wars. Wars are fought by people and for the motives of said people.

I don't believe there's anything wrong with a large church: it can shelter more people.

I believe that divorce is against God's design for man. I also believe that Jesus died because no one else could live up to God's design.

I believe that God loves each and every one of His creations deeply and fully.

I don't believe that God has any problem with religion. I think God has a problem with people taking their wickedness and disguising it as religion.

I believe that the religion that God the Father hold to be pure and faultless is this: to look after widows and orphans in their distress. I believe that includes widows and orphans who don't look/think/believe the way I do as well.

I believe that are churches are not perfect. We need more honesty. We need to show the world that we are all broken people coming together for healing from the master Healer.

I believe that changing our behaviors helps us to change our core. I believe that if we are to be in a relationship with a holy and just God, we must seek to be holy and just. I believe that we will always fail in this seeking. That's why I believe Jesus died to helped bridge that gap.

I believe that the Church and religion give me a wonderful and vibrant heritage.

I believe that Christ died for me, as I am a part of the creation that was lost and needed to be rectified to the Creator.

I believe that the Church is Christ's bride, not me, not you.

I believe that Christ loves the Church and eagerly awaits her.

I believe that religion is man's attempt to seek out the Creator. And I believe that the Creator rejoices when His creation calls out to Him.

I love my God. I love Jesus. I love the Church.

Remember to take time to listen...

Found this on a friend's Facebook:

Childless in Church (Part II)

I am incredibly disillusioned with my Bible study right now. With a group of ladies from church, we're working through Beth Moore's To Live Is Christ. I was working through some of the homework and I just had to stop. It just wasn't going well.

This day's lesson is talking about Timothy and the legacy of faith through his mother and grandmother. So, let's talk about our children. Here came the one simple sentence that brought me to tears: "Hang in there parent!"

As someone who longs for children so much, such a simple phrase can be such a sharp sword. Now I know that most of the women who will follow this study are parents, because most women are, and once again, I know that there was no ill intent.

But my heart is broken. I know that tomorrow morning the ladies will all want to talk about how important it is for them to instill faith in their children, and I will have nothing to add. They will talk about ways that they teach the stories of the Bible and of the joy of watching their children grow to accept Christ.

Perhaps today is simply a bad day to have done this part of the study. Maybe my hormones are getting the best of me. It's possible that I'm just overly sensitive right now. But I feel like I owe it to myself to be honest about what I'm feeling, and I owe it to the other women in the some position to give them a little louder of a voice.

Seven Simple Truths I Learned Teaching Sunday School

I help teach our Kindergarten class on Sunday mornings. Our current class averages about 15-23 kids. This is my third class at this church, and they've taught me a lot.

1. Thank God for everything... In one class we let the kids say a prayer for what they were thankful for and one little boy was thankful for food. "Thank you God for all our food, our ice cream, and our carrots." I don't know that I've ever thanked God for carrots or ice cream, but perhaps I should.
2. The Bible is an unbelievable story... It's never the same story, but there's always a point in which one  kid will let out a good, "no way!" I think it's important to remember the awe that these stories inspired in us the first time we heard them. 
3. Praise twice as often as you punish... I've studied parenting and education through out both degrees, but the one thing that could never be stressed enough is that children thrive on praise and perish when overly punished. Yes, kids need to be disciplined in order to learn proper behavior, but I've noticed that we get much better behavior when focused on positive reinforcement of good behavior than discipline of negative behavior. We recently started giving stickers out for exceptional behavior, and I'm making a point of thanking kids for sharing, helping, and listening, and I have seen a huge change in their behavior.
4. Childlike faith may be simple, but it is real... God is so real to these kids. They don't even think to question if it's just a story or why other people don't believe the same way. God is real and He lives in heaven. Jesus is His son and died on the cross and rose again. And when you pray, God listens. The simple belief of these kids is amazing and wonderful.
5. The kids are watching you... I've seen little kids (five and six) say and act like 40 year olds, and there's only one place they're learning that: from what they see. This can be both good and bad. One little girl was the spitting image of her grandmother and she sat next to a crying child and patted his shoulder. Another group of little girls emulated their fashionista mommas as they stood in a circle and discussed how another little girl's shoes were "ugly" and "not cool." Good or bad, your children will follow in your footsteps.
6. They learn what to expect... Most of the class knows to get their name tag now. They know when it's about time to clean up, and they know what the bell means. They also know whether to show Mom and Dad their picture because they will be excited, or just hand it to them because they won't say anything. (I don't mean to rag on parents. Many of our parents are great, but it breaks my heart when kids are so excited to show their parents their balloon sheep, but then Mom's too busy to notice.)
7. Simple truths are best... Our recent lessons on baptism have been kind of hit or miss. Our lessons are written out for us and we do our best with them, but the baptism lessons were a bit above their level. Cleaning on the inside versus the outside is a bit hard for a Kindergartener, but Jesus is the Lamb of God went amazingly well. People call Jesus "the Lamb of God". Kids can get that. They get that John the Baptist was weird and ate bugs. False prophets and spiritual purity are a bit tougher.

I love teaching my Kindergarteners. It's so amazing to see that little seed of faith grow just a little bit bigger each week. I've even found some amazing role models in the parents whom I can see are making active efforts towards growing their children's faith. 

Childless in Church

This is something that's been weighing on my heart for a long time now, and I thought I'd go ahead and put it out there. There is very little space for childless couples in our churches. You go from the college or singles ministry to young marrieds, but young marrieds are expected to have children. After all, most of the class likely has young children or is trying to have children. So what about those who choose to wait? Or even those who didn't get to make that choice?

Philip and I have been married for four years (the exact time can be found on the counter to the right). We chose not to have children while I finished school, and now we wait for medical clearance before we revisit that plan. There's a lady in my Bible study who has also been married four years, and she has three children. In fact, I am the only one in my Bible study who does not have kids. There's a good portion of our class that I cannot contribute to simply because I have yet to have children. The first week of our class even focused on raising children (we're studying Beth Moore's To Live Is Christ). While I found the lessons important not only for my future, but also for my work in children's ministry, I felt a bit out of place.

Then there's the expectations of those in the church. One lady asked me how I was and when I responded with "Good, just a little tired" she assumed I had young children who kept me up. I laughed it off and told her it was just the cat waking me in the morning, but she quickly ended the conversation and moved on to talking with another lady nearby about her children.

Isolated incident, I know. And I know this woman meant no wrong. She simply didn't know what to say next. However, she's not the only one with the assumption of children on her mind, and to be quite frank, it's my Christian friends who are the worse at this.

Only the closest of our non-Christian friends have asked about our plans for children. But everyone I meet at church seems to expect that we have kids. What's worse is the look you get when you tell someone that kids are still a ways away. It's almost like you have three heads. "What do you mean you don't want to get pregnant on your honeymoon? Don't you know children are a blessing from God?"

Yes, children are a blessing, but no, we aren't seeking that blessing just yet.

What breaks my heart is that while I have made a point of being involved in my church despite feeling like the odd one out, I know there are many who have not. I know that there are many hurting women who feel as if they don't quite belong to their churches because they have yet to birth children. And I know that the people who have hurt them had no idea what pain their words and looks could cause.

Here's my challenge to you. If you are blessed to be a parent in our churches, be kind and considerate to those who have chosen, or have come to accept, not having children just yet.

If you are one of the childless in our churches, please stick it out. Find a way to get involved. Use your great mothering skills to support your children's ministry. Use your time to support those around you. And please, be patient with the well-intended words of others.

Season of Gratitude

Today I am incredibly grateful for my Kindergarten class. I teach Kindergarten for Sunday School, and I absolutely love it. I look forward to class every week. This week was particularly fun.

We walk the kids through the new testament and of course we start at the beginning. This week, we were talking about the three wise men. In the past this lesson has been a movie day. The activity is really short and the kids don't always get it. Typically after the teaching part of class they draw their gift to Jesus, which is intended to be something deep and spiritual, but the kids are five, they don't really think that way.

Instead, today we had them draw what they would bring Jesus if they had been with the wise men. My favorites included a rattle, a doll, and a bottle. The bottle was so that baby Jesus could drink it and get really fat. (Definitely a walk away and laugh moment.)

Then, we had the kids wrap gifts to give away. The rules are that they have to give the gift to someone not in their family and not in our Sunday School class. We had some of our high school kids come and help, and the little boys just loved it! Not only did several of our little boys talk about how they would give their gifts to girls so that they could get girlfriends, but they were really hoping that some of the high school girls would be cheerleaders. It starts so early!

Then came my favorite part! Before they sat down for lesson, the kids took their shoes off and placed them outside the classroom in a line against the wall. The Three Kings then came during class and filled them with treats!

I loved doing this! It was great to see the kids emptying their shoes (particularly one boy who trying to put his boot on but it didn't fit so he flipped it upside down and shook out a starburst). We had several adults wishing they could be in Kindergarten for class that morning. I really enjoyed putting that together for our kids. I can tell why "Santa" likes coming very year on Christmas.

I am so grateful that I get to be there for these kids and minister to my church family every week. In particular, I'm glad that I have a church family that is so supportive of my work with these kids. I've had experiences in the past when I've been told that for whatever reason that I haven't been able to minister in one way or another, but the church we're out now is incredibly supportive and I couldn't be more grateful to our ministers for giving me this opportunity each week.