Thank God for grandma’s who love ice cream.
SURVEY SUCKER
January 9, 2008 by Leave a Comment
I don’t do those online surveys everyone sends around. But for some stupid reason I keep entering myself in those contests where you could win a grip of money if you answer a bunch of questions and enter some secret pin number on a website that is listed at the bottom of almost all store receipts these days.
Tonight, instead of sleeping, I entered my name in 3 surveys from sales receipts:
$10,000 at Best Buy
$1,000 at Starbucks
$5,000 at Target
I’ve almost got the buttons memorized I swear. I also wonder if anyone actually ever wins these dumb survey prize thingys. I’m not holding my breath that I will. I’m guessing I should go to sleep and not stay up waiting for my phone to ring with my prize money.
BATS AND COCKROACHES
January 9, 2008 by Leave a Comment
Just watched another episode of Planet Reality with my kids that we had not seen before they went to bed. I love that DVD set. This episode was on caves. There’s a cave on the island of Borneo- the largest cave in the world- which has 3 million bats in it. Every night for they all leave the cave in swarms-so many that it takes over 2 hours for them to exit.
In the process, I found out that several things eat bats. I didn’t know anything ate bats. But evidently there are snakes that cling to the walls and catch bats as they fly and peregrine falcons that hunt bats in the air. Owls do too evidently. Go figure.
What’s weirder than birds eating bats? The fact that the ground in the cave is alive with millions and millions of cockroaches that feed on a mountain, 100 meters high, of bat dung. Oh now that makes cave exploration in Borneo officially something I’m not interested in. That makes Indiana Jones’ snake floor seem like something I’d rather walk through.
Makes my back twinge just letting the image play through my memory.
FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD
January 8, 2008 by 3 Comments
Per my previous post on Berry Bonding, I’m also acutely aware of the impending boyhood to manhood transition that is fast coming upon me. TJ is 10 1/2 and enters middle school next year. I have the infamous birds-and-the-bees father/son sexuality talk to consider. I feel fairly prepared for that talk. What I’m not so sure I’m prepared for is any kind of rite of passage or milestone marker to help my young boys clearly step up and into young manhood as they enter puberty and then beyond. I’m not sure what kind of men weekends I should be planning with them. What kind of conversations I want to have for sure or even a fine tuned list of 4 or 5 critical character traits I think they each must embrace if God is going to stick for them or they are actually going to become real men. I know they’ll be anatomically men one day. However, I’m not at all sure the culture I’m raising my boys in can help me or them be much more than that though.
I have declared war on this as a youth pastor and have done a lot in my recent years to try and get teenage boys to step up and be young God-fearing men. I do not want to be a youth pastor with a legacy of raising up teens who have no spiritual backbone. I want them to be men of integrity, protectors, providers, lovers of God, responsible, respectful, filled with healthy habits, self aware, and passionate, respectful, faithful lovers of the women they may marry…. all of that and some more. It’s a monumental task I often feel alone in against the culture and many absentee fathers.
But I have not, as of yet, had to ponder much how this will affect my own boys who are still very entrenched in legos and nerf guns. One day soon they’ll discover girls, want to conquer the world, and need to take up the risk factor in their life. I don’t want them to feel like they can’t journey with God, or with their Dad, in that process. I really really really want to navigate it intentionally with them.
So, the next 3 months are a fatherhood/boyhood-to-manhood intense reading time for me.
Here’s my reading list I’m hoping to take some notes on and compile a plan as to how to navigate these personally uncharted waters from some who have been there and done that. I’m sure I won’t agree with all they have to say, but I’m hoping all of it will help me know what I want to do and don’t want to do with my house full of boys….
You Have What it Takes, by John Eldredge.
The Dangergous Book for Boys
Passed through the Fire, by Rick Bundschuh
Raising a Modern Day Knight, by Robert Lewis
Bringing up Boys, by James Dobson
Any other recommended reads?
BERRY BONDING
January 8, 2008 by 4 Comments
A long time ago we started family devotions with TJ that we called “Berry Bonding”. It was a silly name we came up with for our family to have some intentional spiritual conversation- on a kid level. It has aways been after dinner with a brief bible story, dessert, and some kind of project or craft. It sometimes had a memory verse and sometimes didn’t. Initially, we tried to do it weekly. It would work for a season, and then we’d end up with some conflict and have to put it off to a different night or take a break during summer or whatever.
Well, last night we started 2008 with out new series of Berry Bonding on Monday nights. For this quarter of school, we’re going to be going through a Bible I’ve given the older boys to read along with their homework everyday. It’s the One Minute Bible for Students and it has various readings from scripture and a brief thought; all of which amounts to one page per day. I’m hoping it will help my boys to be in the Word and asking questions about what they don’t understand and stuff. It goes roughly along with the pattern of scripture from Genesis to Revelation and this week it’s been filled with readings and reflections on Genesis 1 and the creation narrative.
So last night we picked up trash that the wind had blown the night before into the empty lot next door to us. Then we built lego creations- whatever we wanted. We talked about what we made and what cool things it could do and how proud we were of what we made. We then talked about how it hurts us when someone destroys it.
We read Genesis 1:1 and talked about how God created all of us and the world around us and how important it is to take care of our bodies and the planet and not destroy it. As cheesy as all of this may sound, my boys, at least for now really love this time in our world and often ask, “Is tonight Berry Bonding?” with some excitement in their tone.
But I know the window of their enthusiasm for this is natural as a kid and very unnatural as a pre-teen and teen and so I’m trying to really maximize this treasured time while we still can. Hopefully we can figure out how to keep it consistent later if we get enough of a running start in the coming year.
Husband. Dad to 5. Student Ministry Pastor. Follower of Jesus. Yatta yatta.
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