My Bible Study Challenge: Know More Than The History Channel

"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me." John 5:39

Every Monday morning I typically find 1 or 2 History Channel shows recorded on my DVR.  They don't spontaneously get there, but my in-house historian gets really excited about and records the strangest shows when he's home.   A few weeks ago, there was a special about biblical prophecy and Babylon.  This one was actually interesting. While I didn't agree with everything I had heard, I realized that my historical context for the Bible is poor.  Growing up, we studied timelines and historical charts in school and Sunday school, but there is still so much that I need to learn.  So I decided to try something I've never done before.  I bought a Chronological Study Bible.

I feel like I'm getting ready to start an adventure.  I have no idea what order the books have been placed in this Bible and I have no intention of cheating and figuring it out prior to reading that section.  Instead, my goal is to approach this Bible as if I've never read it before.  I can't wait to see what I learn this time around.

In John chapter 5, Jesus says that the purpose of reading Scripture is not to be saved by the Scripture.  Instead, God's Word is a testimony about Jesus and the salvation that He offers us through His blood.  With that in mind, I'm off an adventure of Hebrew, Persian, and Greek history.  I can't wait to see how the biblical accounts of these historical eras tell the story of Jesus.  My Bible calls this "Theological History."  So I am now on a quest to become a Theological Historian. (The last time I went on a quest to do something, I actually graduated from Law School. So watch out world!)

No longer shall I watch History Channel shows on TV with confusion on my face.  In the future, I hope to be able to answer these shows and to be able to explain the truth to my children--straight from God's Word!

Red is Not Your Color

It's always fun to witness a fashion war, but this one seemed like a lost cause from the start. Apparently Christian Louboutin filed for an injunction in federal court against Yves Saint Laurent to get YSL to stop designing and selling high heeled shoes with red soles. Let's just say that Christian's argument didn't fly too well.  I mean, he tried to convince the judge that he had a trademark for the primary color red. Although I was half asleep in my patent law class in law school (with grades to prove it), and I never took trademark law, even I know that this sounds like a bad argument. This would be like Juicy Couture claiming that no one else could sell velour sweatsuits? It's the ultimate fashion catfight.

Anyway, I get that Mr. Louboutin has made millions with his staple red-bottomed shoes.  But if he can't continue to make millions while sharing the color red, maybe he's not the great shoe designer that he claims to be. If he truly wants to trademark his shoes, I think he's going to have to try harder. (Think Fossil and their dangling keys or Burberry and their distinct plaid.) Besides, if Mr. Louboutin could claim red as his own, those of us who like color could be in serious trouble.

What if another designer tries to claim another color and sells it for $800 too?! Is the poor, general public going to be sentenced to boring color options for our fashions? Thank you U.S. District Judge Marrero, you have saved the masses from color envy. Plus, you recognized that red shoes have been around since King Louis the XIV and the Wizard of Oz. Judge Marrero, your decision has also just expanded my shoe collection! You really ought to win a fashion award this year.

It will be interesting to see if Mr. Louboutin can learn how to play well with others and still succeed. My gut tells me he'll do fine. (I mean, I've never tried on a high heel that gave off the toe cleavage that his did.) And for those of you who have spent way too much money to have red-bottomed shoes, I guess it stinks to be you. Because the rest of us are seeing red.

The Monkey Needs Air

Little boys never cease to do amazing and sometimes, downright clever things.

The other evening, Daddy was on dinner duty since mommy was on a tight work deadline. This of course, meant that Daddy was grilling us something for dinner.  As is typical, my son went outside with Daddy to "assist."

As my husband was getting ready to throw the burgers on the grill, he noticed that my son was doing something strange. Our little guy was furiously stepping on our foot controlled air pump and had the needle tip aimed directly at his stuffed monkey's mouth. Puzzled, my husband asked why my son was using the air pump on his monkey. Then my son proceeded to tell the story...

Dole (the monkey) was playing baseball in our backyard.  Apparently, as he was rounding the bases he slip on home plate and hurt his shoulder. (This is what happened to our son the other night before we took him to the doctor for his collar bone fracture.) Since Dole was hurt, the little guy had carried him over to the air pump because he needed air!

My very impressed husband asked our son if he wanted to be a doctor someday.  That's when the little guy looked him square in the eye and replied, "But I am a doctor."  Well, of course!  I mean the little guy already understands that sick people need oxygen!  Mommy, the nurse, couldn't have been prouder of her intuitive little boy. 

And just for the record, Dole is doing just fine.  Mommy thinks he needs a brace for his collar bone too so that both monkey and child can get well together while staying off the backyard baseball diamond for a few weeks.

Under the Sea

"How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number--living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan you formed to frolic there." Psalm 104:24-26

When I read this verse today, I was very excited to share it with my little guy.  When I asked him what creatures God made to live in the sea, he knew the answer was fish! He was given a season pass to our new Sea Life Park for his birthday.  And he loves it!

It's so incredible to see a child understand the awesomeness of creation.  Sometimes the older we get, we forget that God's works are wonderful, made in wisdom, and are a display of greatness for all of us to see.  We think that aquariums and zoos are for children.  But God's creation is for all of us to enjoy.  Like the Psalmist, we should revel in Creation and praise God for His greatness.  Maybe it's time we all took a trip to the aquarium.

The Nurse is Always on Duty

I very distinctly remember picking nursing as a major because it was "family friendly."  Nurses get to get their hands dirty and be involved in medicine without putting in the ghastly hours that doctors work.  Plus, I figured that nursing skills could be very useful in everyday life.  I just didn't realize that mommy would get to play nurse so soon...

On Saturday, we realized that something was wrong with our oldest child.  The kid never complains of pain.  I just remember him complaining of a stomach ache once before, and that was after we discovered he had a serious stomach bug.  (The same bug that had Mommy and Daddy flat on our backs for 2 days!)  Anyway, on Saturday he started complaining of pain in his left shoulder.  And he repeatedly pointed to the same spot.

As a nurse, I guessed it was his collar bone.  However, since he was using his arm just fine and still demonstrated full range of motion on his left arm, I figured he would be fine until the doctor's office opened on Monday.  A collar bone fracture is not typically a medical emergency.  (Did you know that a collar bone can even heal itself?)  But later, after dinner when we started playing a family game of t-ball in the backyard, my guy started showing signs of serious pain.  When he started crying, we packed up the family and headed to Cook's urgent care.

Sure enough, mommy was right.  He has a broken collar bone.  It was our very first broken bone and our first ER visit for one of our children.  Thankfully, Cook's was wonderful and made the experience rather pleasant for our little guy.  Now we get to live with a brace for 6-8 weeks and get to wait until we're cleared by orthopedics.  I'm just so glad it's a collar bone and not a body part that requires a cast.  Mommy, the nurse, has enough experience with casts and crutches to know that the collar bone was probably the best thing to break!

Anyway, that night we heard crying in the middle of the night.  Who would have thought that it was child #2 throwing up his dinner?! What parents get lucky enough to score a broken bone and a stomach bug on the same weekend?  Obviously us.

I have to confess that while we were at Cook's I had flashbacks to being a pediatric nurse and even kind of missed it.  But child #2 provided a nice reminder for me why I'm done taking care of other people's sick kids.  Because as a mommy, you're always on duty and have plenty of messes and ailments to deal with at home.  And who wants to be up in the middle of the night dealing with another person's kid?

I'm sure we'll have more ER visits, wounds, and stomach bugs before our guys make it to college.  But in our house, at least we have a full-time nurse.

This is What Girls Do

I was sitting at my desk minding my own business when I heard a sound.  This was a new sound.  Every mommy knows that new sounds can be dangerous and usually need to be checked out.  I soon discovered that I was hearing the sound of water in my kitchen sink where my oldest child was doing dishes! 

My little guy had dragged his stool out of his bathroom and placed it right under the sink so that he could reach the water, soap, and everything else in the sink.  When he saw me he informed me that he was washing his spoon from lunch.  I immediately replied that I was very impressed that he was being such a helper, such a big boy. 

But then he frowned and gave me a troubled look.  He looked me straight in the eye and said in a serious voice, "This is what girls do." Apparently he knew he was helping, but he thought he was doing a woman's job! Of course Mommy had to reply to that one by reassuring him that boys can clean dishes too.

I've never taught my son that girls are supposed to do dishes.  He came to this conclusion entirely on his own.  It looks like the men in his life need to take dish duty a little more seriously.  And when he gets older, it looks like this guy might get "cleaning the dishes" on his chore chart.  I know his future wife will appreciate it. 

Correcting a Child

As I've been learning some valuable lessons about parenting, I thought I would share some wisdom from a mother who gave birth to 19 children and successfully raised 2 preachers will serving as a minister's wife.  Susanna Wesley's ideas may sound a little old fashion, but they obviously worked.  So here are some words of wisdom from the Mrs. Duggar of another generation... 

Conquer the Child's Will

“In order to form the minds of children, the first thing to be done is to conquer their will and bring them to an obedient temper. To inform the understanding is a work of time and must with children proceed by slow degrees as they are able to bear it: but the subjecting the will is a thing which must be done at once; and the sooner the better. For by neglecting timely correction, they will contract a stubbornness and obstinacy which is hardly ever after conquered; and never, without using such severity as would be as painful to me as to the child. In the esteem of the world they pass for kind and indulgent, whom I call cruel, parents, who permit their children to get habits which they know must be afterward broken. Nay, some are so stupidly fond as in sport to teach their children to do things which, in a while after, they have severely beaten them for doing."

“Whenever a child is corrected, it must be conquered; and this will be nor hard matter to do if it be not grown headstrong by too much indulgence. And when the will of a child is totally subdued and it is brought to revere and stand in awe of the parents, then a great many childish follies and inadvertences may be passed by. Some should be overlooked and taken no notice of, and others mildly reproved; but no willful transgression ought ever to be forgiven children without chastisement, less or more, as the nature and circumstances of the offense require."

“I insist upon conquering the will of children betimes, because this is the only strong and rational foundation of a religious education; without which both precept and example will be ineffectual. But when this is thoroughly done, then a child is capable of being governed by the reason and piety of its parents, till its own understanding comes to maturity and the principles of religion have taken root in the mind."

“I cannot yet dismiss this subject. As self-will is the root of all sin and misery, so whatever cherishes this in children insures their after-wretchedness and irreligion; whatever checks and mortifies it promotes their future happiness and piety. This is still more evident if we further consider that religion is nothing else than the doing the will of God and not our own: that the one grand impediment to our temporal and eternal happiness being this self-will, no indulgencies of it can be trivial, no denial unprofitable. Heaven or hell depends on this alone. So that the parent who studies to subdue it in his child works together with God in the renewing and saving a soul. The parent who indulges it does the devil's work, makes religion impracticable, salvation unattainable; and does all that in him lies to damn his child, soul and body forever."

 

The Journal of John Wesley

A Coffee Moment

"I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to Him as I rejoice in the Lord." Psalm 104:33-34

As I was sipping my coffee this morning, I realized something.  It's a beautiful day outside. (Ok, it's actually probably going to be about 110 degrees again today.)  But it's still a wonderful day.  It is a day where I was able to get up and spend time with my boys, enjoy a cup of coffee, send my boys to play with their grandparents, work, and just spend some time with myself--and God.  As I was sitting in silence inside my house, I was struck by how awesome God is and how I can see Him working in my life.  I really do have a reason to praise Him.

God has been good to me and has given me more than I need.  So, today, as I'm sitting at my desk alone with my coffee, I'm singing praise to Him.  I don't know if it's the intense heat outside or if it's just the truth of these words, but my heart has been singing the lyrics from Hillsong's, Desert Song today.

This is my prayer in the desert
When all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides

This is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flame

This is my prayer in the battle
When triumph is still on its way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I'll stand

All of my life in every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship
 

I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here
 

This is my prayer in the harvest
When favour and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I've received I will sow

Sometimes it takes a lonely coffee moment to bring us to our knees and remind us that God is our victory and He really is here.

Where Did All The Toys Go?

Sometime during the last year I heard a discussion on the radio that literally saved my home from disaster.  The radio personality was discussing the sanctity of the home.  He explained that the home ought to be a place for the family to live. It is not a playground.  Thus, a house should never be overrun with toys.

The radio personality explained that my kid friendly house was doing a disservice to me and my family.  He reminded me that my children are not the homeowners.  My husband and I have worked hard for our house and it belongs to us.  Our children are privileged to have the opportunity to live in our house.  But until they pay the bills themselves, they should not run my house. 

This was my "aha" moment.  My house was overrun with toys.  I had succeeded in creating an environment where my children could explore and play.  But I had unintentionally created a Fisher-Price war zone.  There were toys everywhere and I had even placed a toy box in my living room so that the toys could stay where the people are.  I've been in lots of houses where little children live, and for some reason, I assumed my house was the "normal" house of toddler children.  Sadly, I think I was right.  In this instance, however, "normal" wasn't necessarily a good thing.

I discussed my concerns with my husband immediately.  Thankfully, he agreed with the radio personality and was very open to regaining control of our home.  Thus began our project: Home Redo. 

Over the past year we have successfully managed to contain toys in their proper place.  Initially, we kept a tent in our living room and placed all toys inside.  Then, we moved the tent to our oldest son's bedroom where it lived until our Great Flood of May 2011.  The house flood gave us a reason to throw toys away and to literally redecorate much our home.  Now, we have a cozy, clean house with toys that live in our toddler's bedroom.  For the first time as homeowners, our friends can drop-in unexpectedly and we don't have to hold our breath in fear that they might slip and fall on some toy.

Surprisingly, my children get the concept of a clean house too.  They understand that toys have a place and that they must be put away every night.  Most nights, I'm just happy for the toys to make it inside the perimeter of one of our kid's bedrooms.  But the toys do get there.  And we have officially regained control of our home.  We finally have a place where we can relax and live without the clutter of V-tech and Fisher-Price everywhere.  It's an amazing feeling.

Thank you Dennis Prager for teaching me that toys don't have to rule my life.  We still have baskets in the living room and office where we keep stashes of play things for the little ones, but we aren't constantly making evasive maneuvers around our house to avoid toys.  Sanity has been restored.  It's never to early to teach neatness at home.

The Strong-Willed Son

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.
~General Douglas MacArthur

What do you get when two law students have a baby?  You get a child who seems destined for adversity.  You get a strong-willed child.  You also get a child who actually thinks outside of the box.  For example, when our son was told he could finish his milk at the kitchen table or go outside without finishing his milk and drink water for the rest of the night, he declined both choices.  Instead, he suggested that he could do both and drink his milk outside.  What child creates his own option 3?  (My child developmental psychology classes never mentioned that 3 year olds could negotiate their own terms.)

Oh my, parenting isn't as easy as it looks.  Our oldest child is really a sweet kid, and he's very smart.  But he likes to have things his way.  Skirmishes between mother and son are a regular occurrence at our house.  And last night, we had a midnight incident that gives me a migraine just to think about.  I lost a lot of sleep last night and ended up finally taking James Dobson's, The New Strong-Willed Child book off my bookshelf this morning for the first time. 

I really thought that I could parent a child without having to read a parenting book.  And I probably could.  That said, I'm 2 chapters into this new book and am already encouraged by what I'm reading.  I can tell that I'm on the right track and have been getting good advice from the wise people in my life.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that my own mother has told me the exact same thing that Dr. Dobson says on page 12: "Choose carefully the matters that are worthy of confrontation, then accept [his] challenge on those issues and win decisively. Reward every positive, cooperative gesture that [he] makes by offering your attention, affection and verbal praise. Then take two aspirin and call me in the morning." 

I'll never forget the day we were shopping in Target and my mom told me that I was letting my toddler "win."  I was very pregnant at the time and extremely exhausted.  Decisively "winning" the battle with my toddler actually required more energy than I felt I could expend.  Winning usually involved some type of physical activity--removing him from the scene, spanking, or getting in his face and having the stare down. Thankfully, when pregnant mommy was failing miserably at winning my battles Grandma reminded me that I have to start earning his respect at an early age by winning the early battles.  Pregnant or not, Mommy needed to make her powerful presence real in the life of her toddler.

Over the past year, Mommy has definitely made some progress.  Daddy and Mommy are regularly winning the battles that we choose to fight.  We've also agreed that we don't negotiate with 3 year olds.  Plus, Mommy has realized that she can't parent alone.  Daily prayer, wisdom from successful parents, sermons, books, and Bible verses are giving Mommy the energy to keep going.

Parenting isn't as easy as it looks.  In fact, it's hard.  I guess it will be interesting to see how the child of two attorneys turns out.  Who knows, maybe he'll confront adversity head-on and be a mediator...