Happy Birthday To Me!
… and my youngest son, who is turning 2, and my nephews, who are turning 11 (all on Dec. 29)!
The Big Guy
We finally took the kids on Friday to get their picture made with Santa. We’d actually seen Santa three times before already: at the mall Thanksgiving weekend, at the craft fair last weekend and Friday morning at my husband’s company’s “Breakfast with Santa.” But I had yet to get a picture of them (or at least one I liked).
So we ventured out Friday night to Santa’s Village, which has live reindeer, light displays, live music, cookies and hot chocolate, so it was the complete holiday experience.
Every time Finn has sat with Santa he has added a new wish to his list. He’s been consistent with “pincher thing,” a toy he wanted at Cracker Barrel months ago that I wouldn’t buy and so responded in typical parent fashion, “You should ask Santa for that.” He’s never forgotten that and whenever someone — including the four Santas — asks “What do you want for Christmas?” his first reply is “pincher thing.” In his sweet 4-year-old voice this is often misheard as “picture frame” at which point Santa gives me a strange look that says, “Why does your 4-year-old boy want a picture frame?”
Recent additions to the list are Hot Wheels and Power Rangers (per Santa No. 2’s suggestion as the typical boys’ toy when he didn’t understand “pincher thing”) and a rocking chair. He already has a rocking chair but this request too is a result of him sitting in a chair at the craft fair and wanting one and me responding “Ask Santa.” (You think I would have learned the first time.)
The ones I love the most, though, are his additions Friday night. After asking for a pincher thing, Power Rangers and a rocking chair, he added that he wanted a school bus and a tractor for his little brother. Aww. As much as they wrestle and fuss, there’s obviously a little brotherly love somewhere in there too.
Prayers for your Child
This kind of goes along with yesterday’s post about praying for your child to make good decisions. This was in Finn’s bag when he came home from pre-school Wednesday.
Prayers for Your Child
That he might choose good friends and not those that might lead him down the wrong paths. (Psalm 1:1-3)
That he might not be sassy or smart-mouthed. (Psalms 19:14)
That he might show evidence of salvation. (Matt. 7:16-20)
That he might date only Christians and then marry a Christian. (II Cor. 6:14)
That his will might be channeled into the right direction. (Phil. 2:13)
That he might have God’s wisdom as he makes decisions. (James 1:5; 3:17 and Proverbs 23:23-26)
That he might discipline himself to study at home and at school. (II Tim. 2:15)
That he will be a witness for Christ at school in word and deed. (I Tim. 4:12)
That God will keep him from having nightmares. (Isaiah 26: 3)
That he would learn to be dependable in the little things — telling you before he leaves the yard, asking permission to eat candy or chew gum or play with objects that do not belong to him. (Matt. 25:21)
That he might learn the Word of God and it might become a part of him. (Col. 3:16; Psalm 119:9-11)
Pray through your child’s life — his salvation, his teachers at school and church, his friends, his witness at school, his education, college, his moral purity, his vocation, his mate, his children, their salvation, etc.
A Thought-Provoking Thought
This is yesterday’s entry in my “Power of a Praying Parent” calendar:
“So much of our children’s safety and well-being depends on decisions they alone will make. The possible outcome of those decisions can seem frightening to a parent. We can’t ever be sure they’ll make the right decision unless they have the gifts of wisdom, revelation, and discernment along with an ear tuned to God’s voice. The only way to secure any of those things is to seek God for them.
That made me really think. It is so true that no matter how much we prepare our children to make the right decisions, it ultimately comes down to them. I can remember, at times in my life when I had to make decisions, my mom saying that she couldn’t make the decision for me but could pray for me to make the right choice. I think sometimes I focus so much on telling my boys what the right choice is and insisting that they make it that I forget it is still their choice and my role is to pray for them to choose the right thing. I won’t always be there to decide for them so it would benefit us both if I’m able to teach them to make good decisions on their own. Hmmmm. A very thought-provoking thought.
Love Lost
“‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson
In a work-related accident, a 27-year-old man from our church died Friday. I didn’t really know him but he was part of the praise team so I knew who he was. It’s sad when anyone dies, but when one dies so young — and so close to my own age — it just breaks my heart. As a parent, I feel for his mother. What a tragedy to lose your child. But as a girl who remembers what it’s like to fall in love and how lost in love you become as you plan your wedding and your life together, I am most sorrowful for his fiancee. Is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all? I don’t know. Either way is painful, I’m sure.
Changing Perspectives
I remember several years ago being perturbed when I saw parents letting their kids draw on the offering envelopes or visitor cards in the pews at church. My rationale was that the church paid for those materials for people to give money or information to the church and what a waste to let a kid doodle all over it and then at the next service there’s no cards or envelopes for the people sitting there? Can’t you see how I would be annoyed?
But my perspective has changed. Now I’m the parent, frantically looking for something – ANYTHING – to keep my child quiet in church, and last night during a special concert (during which there was no nursery offered) I gave the boys visitor cards to draw on! I could feel the people around me thinking exactly what I had thought oh so many years ago. “How dare she waste the church’s resources as doodling paper?” But I figure my tithes and offerings go to pay for those items, too, and since the alternative was loud, out of control children, I think I put the church’s resources to good use.
Letters to Santa
My 4-year-old informed me this weekend that we have to write “letters for Santa” before Christmas. I thought to myself that yes, he probably is old enough that we could sit down together and I could help him write a few words for a Santa letter. But I came out of my thoughts to hear him talking about what letters he would write. “A, F, L, M, N, O, P,” he said. To him, “letters for Santa” was not a note to Santa but the letters of the alphabet!
I’m sure he’s never heard us use the word “letter” to refer to something we send or receive in the mail. His observations of what we get in the mail are probably bills, magazines and “junk mail.”
