Today, my wife and I taught in MOPS (mothers of pre-schoolers) about parenting. This was a first for me. I have not been in a room of nothing but 60 women… um ever.

Well anyway, it was a good time with them, but the culture shock for me were these 2 things:

1. They start off by sharing “children” stories to laugh at the silly things their kids do and say. No big deal. Except that almost all of these stories today were about feminine products and body parts questioned by their small male children. My favorite was some lady who took her kid bra shopping. When the toddler saw all the bras and mannequins and such, he announced, “Look mommy, it’s like boobieland.” This kid is clearly revealing his cards a little too early in life. As the only one in the room without “boobies”, these stories make you wonder what realm I just entered.

2. They also ask this question to start off every meeting. “Um, does anyone want to announce a pregnancy… doing your part to keep MOPS going?” This was really weird. One lady then actually stood up, they all clapped and gave her a prize and had her pick a blue or pink bootee out of a bin over her head to predict it’s gender. I think this was nice and sweet, just something I’ve never experienced. Can you imagine if I stood on stage in my high school group and asked, “Hey, I was just wondering as we kick off our next dating series, anybody want to announce they’re pregnant? If so, we have a prize for you.” I guess context really does matter.

I’m blessed to have 3 boys. My poor wife must be feeling my pain everyday. The momentary baptism into girlland was enough to make me thank Jesus for my boys.

We’re in a weekend series in our high school group called “Oops, I did it again.” It’s on changing our bad habits and is based on the 12 steps to recovery. This week of the series is titled, “An ounce of humility goes a long way” and we’re talking about steps 7 and 8.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

In our high school service planning meeting, my students suggested this video by The All-American Rejects and it’s called “Dirty Little Secret”. I don’t know much about this band, but what they’ve done in this video is both scary and brilliant. After watching it, I wished I’d titled this series. “My Dirty Little Secret”. You can see it here off u-tube.

You can also buy the video on itunes to use as a discussion piece with your own small group if you teach a high school Bible Study or maybe lead a parent one.

I think it’s an amazingly true image of hurting teens today. I think it would work awesome in the CORE this year, which we’re hosting and is on “Helping Hurting Kids”.

I hope and pray that this video helps to inspire students this weekend to confess, return, embrace, and connect with God and a genuine community that deals with it’s own short comings honestly and humbly.

WARNING.. this post is about hour 5 of this season’s day 6 of 24. So, if you haven’t watched it and plan to… just skip it.

I have but 2 thoughts after tonight.

#1. Jack’s family feud was a random plot twist. I think the brady bunch would have been an even bigger hit if they showed them torturing one another with grocery bags over their sibling’s heads while tied to chairs with shoe laces to find out where Alice hid the cookies. At the very least, that should have made the movie remake. And the previews of next week at the end evidently show that the family feud is anything but over. Now Jack and Joseph have something in common. Evidently, both of their brothers sold them to foreigners to have them spend time in jail and expected them to be dead. I wonder if Jack will be as forgiving as Joseph or will he kill them like Curtis?

#2. Does the white house really have a fully operational “bunker” way down underground? Do they have big concrete garage doors that slam shut with high tech televisions and the ability to get satelites to take pictures for them and make their own oxygen with enough food and water to last till a nuclear fall out clears? I want to know if that part is true- or just some twisted plot.

#3. Ok I lied, I have a third thought: Here’s the cheesiest line/scene of the night:

We already knew Jack was coming back. At least it could have been more genuine. Last time we saw him he was morning the fact that he just shot his best friend to save a terrorist. Now he’s back in the game with one line. “No. Not after this”. Evidently the blast from the big bomb cleared his previously confused head too.