Raising Kids on our knees and from our knees

Raising kids: on our knees and from our knees

²⁰ My son, keep your father’s command
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
²¹ Bind them always on your heart;
fasten them around your neck.
²² When you walk, they will guide you;
when you sleep, they will watch over you;
when you awake, they will speak to you.
²³ For this command is a lamp,
this teaching is a light,
and correction and instruction
are the way to life (Proverbs 6)

Andrew heading out to Europe once more...

Well, it was drive back out to TPA (Tampa International Airport) yet again Sunday morning. Andrew was home for all of maybe ten hours this time, en-route from Central America to his home in Southern Europe: Nicaragua; Miami; Tampa; Philadelphia; Munich; Florence; Pisa. Piling on the miles. It’s no wonder they gave him one of those platinum cards and an extra bag of peanuts!

The mission trip was a success, and both Rebekah and I have been hearing beaucoups of good things about Andrew from the other team members. And I must admit to harboring a certain amount of pride, sitting next to him in church. “Yeah, that’s my son, right there; chip of the old block; taught him everything he knows…”

NOT! Well, I taught him a few things maybe, but nowhere near everything – and he’s certainly much more than a chip off any kind of a block. Andrew is his own person, 100%, and that’s what makes Rebekah and I feel so good about all of this. Our kids are so much more than extensions of me, or Rebekah. Both Andrew and Naomi have become these awesome young adults, and they have their own way of relating to life, and I believe they are both well on the way to making their world a better place.

If Rebekah and I have accomplished anything at all well, then I believe it has been in the realm of laying the groundwork, tilling the soil. We set things in motion the best we could – what they have done with it has been up to them.

• We raised our children in a way that ensured they knew without a doubt how much they are loved…
• We raised them to know and love God…
• We raised them on our knees and from our knees, because we knew it was a bigger task than we could accomplish on our own…
• We raised them in the context of the community of faith for the same reason…
• We raised them to understand that struggle is part of the definition of life, but also that redemption is always available because God is faithful…
• We raised them to be well-equipped to take life to the next level – if they chose to pick up the ball…
• We raised them to love and respect other people…
• We raised them to take responsibility…
• We raised them to be both self-sufficient and to rely on God.

Craig and Naomi (and David Henry)

At face value that last one sounds like a it could be a contradiction. But it’s not. Learning to rely on God is a key element of self-sufficiency. Because self-sufficiency is all about tapping the resources available. Those resources include learning, and hard work, and creativity, and community… and an ongoing relationship with the Creator. Including an active relationship with God is the most crucial element of what it means to live a fully engaged life.

Today is another Monday morning. I pray that we all head into this week determined to make the most out of it, and to do our very best as people living “The life-charged life”. Knowing that our children, Andrew and Naomi – along with Craig, are living that way gives us one more reason to celebrate.

In faith, and out of hope – DEREK

I Want My Quiet Back (at the gas station)

I Want My Quiet Back (at the gas station!)

Enough already with the annoying loud music!!!!

Blessed are the peacemakers – Matthew 5:9 I have decided that my new pet peeve – other than the large spiders who wait for me in the trees that line the sidewalk when I walk Scout at night – is obnoxious canned music at gas stations. And, to make it worse, it’s never “Top-40″ but always the show-tunes genre, turned up too loud and interrupted by the added irritation of periodic, and even louder, commercial messages.

I’m not suggesting that pumping gas should be or ever has been a solitary, meditative moment, but there’s a huge difference between the “natural” sounds – engines starting, pumps running, people talking – and the intrusive noise of the anthem from Ms Saigon or the love theme from Cats or – however good it was in the movie – Barbara Streisand belting out The Way We Were.

I actually enjoy the sounds of real life. I don’t mind the noise of a busy street when sitting in a sidewalk cafe, or the cacophony of industrial machinery mixed with human voices on a factory floor, or the unique blend of commotion coming from a herd of middle school students stampeding from class to class.

And I honestly do like show tunes. Musicals are wonderful, and we never missed a concert when Naomi sang with the Ambassadors at Bloomingdale High School. But it’s about context. Noise that’s intrusive is noise that we know – instinctively – does not fit.

BUT, and I believe this is alarmingly true, we have developed this tendency in our culture to deliberately introduce distractions whenever and wherever there’s the danger we might actually pause to think.

• Some folk have the television running in their home every waking hour – even during mealtimes.
• I’ve been to social gatherings where the host not only left the TV running but turned the volume up when conversation made it hard to hear the show!
• How about those parties where some of the guests watch “the game” while others try to have meaningful conversations!
• Do you listen to the radio every time you drive anywhere, even a mile or less?
• Does the grocery store assault you with prerecorded messages that change from aisle to aisle?
• Is there even a TV in your bedroom?
• Does the allure of your smart-phone pull you away from setting any carefully calibrated tempo at the beginnings of your day…?

Feels good to air a pet peeve!

God forbid that anyone of us have a few quiet moments to meditate.

Personally, I’d like to initiate a “take back my peace and quiet” campaign. Guerilla tactics could begin with disabling the speakers at those gas stations… Hmmm, not a bad idea….

PEACE – and I really mean that – DEREK

New Passport - Ticket to the World

New Passport, Ticket to the World

by derekmaul

You are now free to move about the planet...

Yesterday, the new passports arrived in the mail. Ah, yes… travel, romance, mystery, adventure. It makes me want to strap on a backpack and – just – go.

The tri-fold pamphlet that came with the documents says it all: “With Your U.S. Passport, the World is Yours!”

My new passport, apparently, contains a small integrated circuit (chip) embedded somewhere in the pages. It’s all part of the initiative to facilitate international security. The chip is a good idea, I’m sure, but my own take on this is that the best thing we can do in the name of safety is to – as the old Kindergarten report cards put it, “Play Well With Others.”

• U.S. Report Card (2011); Category – Plays well with others; Assessment - “Fail!” Teacher’s comments – “Sammy is always the first to help his friends in a crisis. Unfortunately, there are too many unresolved issues regarding personal space, grabbing, and occasional bullying. Sometimes Sammy forgets that the whole playground does not belong to him…”

I still have two old British Passports, the first of which was issued in 1972 when I was 16 years old. The inside cover made me feel important and safe: “Her Britannic Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Requests and requires – in the Name of Her Majesty – all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.“

Don't you just love the haircut?

Gotta love the “requests and requires” phrase. My U.S. passport stops short and only “requests” safe passage. But in May of 1972, in my 16-year-old imagination, those same guys in big fuzzy hats who protect the Queen with fixed bayonets and grim expressions were on standby, ready to take care of me in parts unknown, should the need arise.

I’ve seen a lot of the world since then - although nowhere near as much as my son, Andrew. This year he’s travelled extensively in Europe, spent time in Africa, visited the United States twice, and is currently on a mission trip to Central America.

As a child, with Europe in my back yard (“The Continent” as the English would say), I was fortunate to have parents who made the effort to introduce us to the world.

I have lived in the States since 1975, when I came ostensibly for two weeks and just never went back; I became a U.S. Citizen in 1985. I am proud to be an American, and this is my home. However, as the years have gone by, I see myself more and more as a Citizen of Planet Earth. I believe that shift is directly related to my conviction that every single person on this planet is a beloved child of God. Consequently, we are all siblings.

And – this is important - I don’t only consider professing Christians to be my brothers and sisters, or just those people who believe in God. Our connection as people is not limited to belief, our connection is rooted in the fact that all human beings are created in the image of God. Or, as John Ortberg once said in a sermon, “I have never ever met a person who Jesus did not die for.”

I have never met a person who Jesus did not die for.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it

“With Your U.S. Passport, the World is Yours!” Well, not really. This world belongs to God. The people who inhabit this world are God’s children, and anywhere we travel on these shiny new U.S. passports we’re going to find the same thing. My prayer is that more people understand that truth.

- Bon voyage!

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