Kennedy's Solo

Last night was our church's Christmas program. Kennedy had been singing "Go Tell it on the Mountain" all afternoon, so I made her promise to sing it as loud as she could that night at church. Here is what follows:

My favorite part is when , in her embarrassment, Kennedy hugs the little girl next to her. The program as a whole went a lot like that, at least with that first row of kids. Every little girl showed us her belly button and Carsen mostly tried to make sure no one took his spot. And he liked when they got to sit down.

toilet humor

A few kid quotes from the last couple days:
Our newly remodeled bathroom upstairs has an exhaust fan. Kennedy likes it to be on when she is in there. On Sunday here is what she told Shiloh:
"Hey mom, I want to turn off the poopy light." Yep, we have something in our house that is now called a poopy light.
On Sunday Shiloh was cleaning the bathroom. Carsen came in while she was cleaning the toilet. He looked inside the toilet and exclaimed, "Mom, Jesus wouldn't like that."

Also, I'm pretty sure with blogs you're supposed to make a big deal out of "milestone" posts. This is post #100 for me. Yeah! If I made money or something from it I would give away a Wii or a car or something. Instead you'll have to settle for this rambling little paragraph!

Suffering

"Relational ministry presupposes suffering; when we are called to go, we must give our very selves to others, for this is following the Crucified." -Andrew Root

This semester has been a semester of learning the truth of the above statement. It's nice to plan great events and small groups and have lots of fun in youth ministry, but the students I come into contact with are not always having fun anywhere else. Or maybe the hate the very idea of God. Whatever the case, it leads to the need to enter into the dark places of their lives and just be there. And for me, that's hard. But through the Holy Spirit I'm learning and changing. And getting amazing opportunities to love teenagers as Christ loves them.

Good Parenting

Although it won't lead to great grades on color tests, I'm proud to report my sons view of colors as we looked at the neighbors Christmas lights on Friday night:

Me: Carsen, what colors are the lights?
(Correct answer: Red, blue, green and orange.)
Carsen: I think there's red, green, blue and Broncos.

Go Broncos!

Preschool

Yes, you read that right, my little, tiny, just-born-yesterday kids started preschool this week. They are going two days a week and giving their mom a deserved break while they go learn some sweet stuff.

Getting ready to go in:Kennedy loves her Spiderman "pack-pack." She picked it out and thinks it is the greatest backpack a kid could ever have. Carsen says his is a mommy lion because he has a little lion stuffed animal that he sleeps with at night.

Communion

I have been asked by my pastor to lead communion the first week of October. He wants it to be creative and different (and he really means it.) I have a few ideas, but I would love to hear some thoughts on creative ways you have taken communion before. Comment away!

Be Creative!

Continuing in the tradition of such great Christian products as the "A bread crumb and a fish" shirts made to look like abercrombie and the massive number of bands that decided to be Christian versions of Creed 8 years ago comes this. Christian Guitar Hero. It makes Christ look cheap to knock off the world for Christian consumption. And we are no safer from sin if we insulate ourselves from the world than if we embrace the fact that God put us here. We sin because we are human and we are fallen, not because we play fake guitar to a song by weezer.

Christians need to step up and create out of the creativity and beauty instilled in them by God, not by the creators of guitar hero.

end rant