Resurrection Egg

It always amazes me how new and exciting Easter is to my children even when we do the same things.

My 3 year old came home with a Resurrection Egg (pictured above) from MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers).  She has the gift of sharing and was quite put-out with me when I wouldn't let her give the palm branch to her brother who loves green.  As we talked about the importance of keeping the pieces together so we could tell the story (which hasn't really resonated with her yet) I watched her struggling to understand the pieces.  As we talked about them my 5 year old picked up the sheet and tried reading it -- stumbling over words like Resurrection and Jerusalem she decided to just tell it from her own words.  In stepped my 7 year old son to explain that "that isn't what it really says."  As I struggled with how to balance teaching faith and basic reading skills and where my emphasis should be in that moment I decided to see if my son could tell me what each of the symbols meant without reading the paper.
Resurrection Eggs have been a part of our Easter celebration for many years http://sbpcmops.blogspot.com/2010/03/resurrection-eggs.html and I love how they have equipped my children to not only know the Easter story but also be able to share it.  As we walk on the beach, a rock will suddenly bring a discussion of Jesus' tomb as a child will announce "I have a rock in my egg"  The palm trees bring to mind Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem and we tell the story again.
As I reflect on our Ressurection Egg experience of yesterday I am also struck by how often things like the using the "right words" or the egg being "my favorite color" so easily distract us from digging deeper into the story of Jesus.
Lord, help us to let go of the distractions and focus on you this Easter season.  Amen.

Lent this year...

We have two themes this year that our family is exploring for Lent -- generosity and thankfulness.

Lent started a little early for us on Friday the 8th for us (even though Ash Wednesday was the 13th) when my youngest brought home her "love loaf" bank from MOPS and our conversation about generosity started.  As we attended church Sunday and my older two picked up their banks the conversation continued.  We have a tradition of collecting money for the people of the AFAR as you can see from past year's posts. 

As I walked into Walgreens later that afternoon with my daughter and we stopped to visit with a girl who was asking for money generosity took on new meeting.  What was the generous thing to do?  We could spare the $20 the girl was asking for but I believe there are better ways to help the homeless.  It certainly would have been the easier choice to continue my walk rather than slowing and  visiting with her and learning her story.  I don't know if I made any difference in her life...I like to think we offered a small glimmer of hope that evening as we shared some options for housing and shelter but I think more than likely she is still on the street.  I do know she impacted our lives as I got into the car and had my daughter ask, "Mommy, how do you live on the steet?"  My reply of, "I don't know," met a ready question of "Why didn't you ask her?"  Unlike myself that had no interest in living on the street my sweet daughter wanted to know why I wasn't availing myself to this girl's expertise...  While there was part of me that wanted to instantly reassure her that she would never live on the street who am I to know what her future holds...what choices she will make...what life has in store in the coming years.  I have heard too many stories...know real people...
As I thought that night of my daughter's willingness to explore another lifestyle and what I would want for her if someone one day met her on the street corner I had to wonder if I shouldn't have gone for the quick $20 fix...it might not have changed the future for that girls but as temperatures dipped into the 30s that night she would have been warm and protected...
What does it mean to teach my children generosity?  While we collect our change for people in the AFAR and talk about caring for others who live far away how do we deal with the needs on our own streetcorners?  While we reflect on all the things we have to be thankful for http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/03/how-to-help-raise-grateful-kids/  I have to wonder where the words stop and the action begins.  What happens if my children really "get" the concept of generosity and challenge the way we live, the decisions we make?  Where do we "draw the lines" of caring for others and caring for ourselves?  What can we really afford to give away?  Am I truly willing to embrace the story of the widow's mite...and give all I have? (Mark 12:44 and Luke 21:4)  What does it mean to live with generosity?

Today I discovered...

..others on my journey...

I came across an article in homelife magazine entitled "Fun Discipleship: A Creative Way to Grow Authentic Faith." Since that has been a big discussion around my church, Solana Beach Presbyterian, as we have adopted David C Cook's Tru curriculum this last year which has a home component it was fun to learn how others are spicing up their home discipleship. For more details on how the Stewart family is making a spiritual impact in their home check out familymuscle.com - I feel they understand the realities of carving out family time and making it worth it - something both kids and parents look forward to.
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So if the wave hit Japan why are we sending money to Africa?

..Have to love the questions of a 5 year old...and then he continued to explain to me that the nomadic group in Africa could easily fix their houses because they are made of sticks but in Japan there are boats on top of houses -- that's not as easy to fix...

What does it mean to meet the needs of the world around us?
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Turn around or try again?

This morning after dropping W off at school I commented that "I'm in the wrong lane.". L in her 3 year old wisdom was quick to ask "Are you going to turn around or try again?"

She understands that mommy makes mistakes and needs to change things - it was a great chance for us to talk about sin and repentance (that oh so big word for turning around or trying again) as we went to school this morning.
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Gold and God's Promises

This morning as we sat at breakfast William saw a rainbow out the window. In light of the recent celebration of St. Patrick's Day after pointing it out he continued by sharing that given it's location we should go find the pot of gold in the park.
I grabbed the moment to ask what else the rainbow tells us and we discussed God's promise to Noah after the flood that he would never again flood the whole earth.
I long that my children will see God's blessing as of greater value than a pot of gold --- He is the God that owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth of every mine...and he cares for ME! May that truth be rooted in my children's lives today.
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ASH WEDNESDAY IS TODAY!

WOW!
Hard to believe today marks the official start of the Easter Season! (Especially since I still have a few Christmas items that didn't get fully put away yet...)

For Lent (the time of preparation for Easter) this year I will be following the Lenten Guide by Solana Beach Presbyterian Church (www.solanapres.org/news/2011-lent-daily-reading ). I am quite excited that they put it online this year (saves my having to keep track of the booklet and it comes directly to my email box each morning - YEAH!) So the focus this year is Leading Like Jesus and today we reflected on what it means to follow Jesus. My kids and I read Mark 1:14-20 about Jesus calling the disciples and talked about Jesus calling us to be his followers too.

One thing I am trying to be more faithful about this Lenten season is praying for my children. I was encouraged by a friend the other day who had stumbled upon a mention I had made of a daily prayer email for my kids -- you can subscribe at www.realworldparents.com/pray -- and I have been trying lately to be more faithful in actually opening the email and reading it and praying it personally for each one of my children. But I was also encouraged in this further by a more recent reference at momandlovingit.org/PDFs/PrayingDaily_new150.pdf which is a new resource I found this morning (thanks to a referral to the Mom and Loving It conference by another friend) -- it provides a monthly calendar with a different scripture for each day of the month. For the 9th, today, it was "respect (for self, others, authority) Father, grant that my children may 'show proper respect to everyone' as Your Word commands," based on 1 Peter 2:17

May this Lenten season be a season of preparation where God makes me more aware of the work He is doing in my children's lives. May He increase my awareness of how I can partner with Him where He is already at work in their hearts, helping them become fully devoted followers of Him. May I walk faithfully and humbly with Him in loving my children and family.