Family Day
We took the kids hiking this weekend. Everyone took it somewhat in stride as I ventured us out on a new set of trails. It was a little hot and the trails a little longer than expected but all in all a good day.
We took the kids hiking this weekend. Everyone took it somewhat in stride as I ventured us out on a new set of trails. It was a little hot and the trails a little longer than expected but all in all a good day.
I had the honor of reading Proverbs 31:10-31 (The Wife of Noble Character) at the memorial service of a dear friend recently. She was 35 and after an almost 8 year battle with cancer fled the earth for the open spaces of heaven leaving behind a husband, a son (7) and a daughter (6). Following the scripture reading I read this prayer.
Father thank you for the time we had with Katie. Thank you for bringing our lives together, thank you for knitting our families together, thank you for allowing us to know and be known by Katie.
We know that you are a God of peace and so we pray,
When anger wells up in us for what seems so unfair, give us peace
When fear grips us for what the future holds, give us peace
When sadness and sorrow overwhelm us for those left behind, give us peace
When confusion and doubt overtake our thoughts, give us peace
When we’ve got nothing left, give us peace
As we try to make sense of it all and come to some understanding of what has happened here, give us your peace that passes all understanding and turn our grief to joy.
As we see Katie’s legacy lived out in her children, turn our grief to joy
As we consider where Katie has been and where she is now, turn our grief to joy
As we look forward to our reunion with her, turn our grief to joy
It is in the name of the one who hears our cries, who knows our sorrow, and who has the power to turn all grief to joy that we pray.
Amen
Caroline (our 6 year old) had to write down her new years resolution for a school writing assignment. Needless to say my wife and I were extremely proud when this is what she brought home. Caroline and Melanie had watched a session of the Atlanta Passion conference during which Louie told the story of a Hatian father and daughter and their need for a home. Obviously it touched her more than we realized, and it serves to keep me mindful that so often more is caught than is taught.
Her resolution reads "to build more house for Haiti and help the little girl"
During our date night tonight my wife received a phone call from our babysitter. She quickly answered the phone only to hear our son's voice on the other end. I couldn't hear him but I could tell by the look on Melanie's face and by what she was saying that something rather traumatic had taken place while we were away.
Apparently our dog, Cooper, thought that our Elf on the Shelf, Buddy, would make a good chew toy. Alex was in shock at the elven carnage and I believe he was overwhelmed with the thought that Cooper may have just ruined Christmas for the Trotter household. I mean why would Santa show up in a house with a elf eating dog inside? Melanie calmed him down as best she could over the phone and we sidetracked our date to begin the search for a replacement, all the while working up the story line for the next few days Buddy is away at the North Pole being repaired.
When we arrived home we found this note typed on my wife's computer. I love the imagination that my children possess. It is at times both inspiring and scary, and sometimes even a little awkward. I have to believe that the size of their imagination is a sort of precursor to the size of their faith. And not faith in the "adult" sense of the word, but in the sense that they believe anything is possible w/ God and big dreams are worth dreaming because they really can and do come true.
Just for fun I will leave you with the quote from GK Chesterton.
(download)
“My first and last philosophy, that which I believe in with unbroken certainty, I learnt in the nursery. I generally learnt it from a nurse; that is, from the solemn and star-appointed priestess at once of democracy and tradition. The things I believed most then, the things I believe most now, are the things called fairy tales. They seem to me to be the entirely reasonable things. They are not fantasies: compared with them other things are fantastic. Compared with them religion and rationalism are both abnormal, though religion is abnormally right and rationalism abnormally wrong. Fairyland is nothing but the sunny country of common sense. It is not earth that judges heaven, but heaven that judges earth; so for me at least it was not earth that criticised elfland, but elfland that criticised the earth. I knew the magic beanstalk before I had tasted beans; I was sure of the Man in the Moon before I was certain of the moon. This was at one with all popular tradition. Modern minor poets are naturalists, and talk about the bush or the brook; but the singers of the old epics and fables were supernaturalists, and talked about the gods of brook and bush. That is what the moderns mean when they say that the ancients did not “appreciate Nature,” because they said that Nature was divine. Old nurses do not tell children about the grass, but about the fairies that dance on the grass; and the old Greeks could not see the trees for the dryads.” ~ G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Chapter IV
Our 7 year old brought home some of his Thanksgiving schoolwork this weekend. You know, the kind of drawing and writing assignments that the teacher hangs in the hallway for all of the visiting parents to see. This assignment was pretty straight forward what-are-you-thankful-for writing project.
Now, when kids are at church you expect "church" answers to questions like "What are you thankful for?", however when they are sitting alone at their desks and they give the kinds of answers that Zach wrote below you realize that they mean it. Melanie and I were both brought to tears reading his responses simply because no one told him to write them, no one was pressuring him to be "Christian" in his answers, he wasn't at church or working on this assignment with a group of church friends. Zach's answers came from his heart and that is what I am most thankful for as I read this.
I am also thankful for our church because this is not just a parenting thing. The partnership we have with the elementary environment and Zach's small group leader is something that I am thankful for. I know that they play a huge part in leading him in to a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Testing my Posterous account posting & heading out for a night on the town
Today was the first day of school for the kids. Our 9 year old Alex came home and after chilling for a while went to his room to do his "homework", one of those get-to-know-you sheets that the teachers hand out during the first few days of school. He returned a little later and handed it to my wife to put in his return to school folder. Like any good parents we immediately read over it to see what kinds of crazy answers our son might have given that we would have to explain to the teacher later in a we're-really-not-crazy-people kinda way. As we read over the worksheet we were overwhelmed by his answer to the "I'll Never Forget..." question. You can read it in the attachment below.
I feel I owe a debt of gratitude to all of our friends, Alex's small group leader, the UpStreet team and our church for coming alongside us as parents and assisting us in growing our son and helping him to make that decision. It's a day I will never forget either.
I apologize for the poor quality of the scan
My 9 year old grabbed my Blackberry & made this Lego stop-motion movie. Look out James Cameron
--Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry...cause I am not cool enough to have an iPhone!
