Category - Family

Elijah and Jesus’s Birthday

October 25, 2015

Life in Lape Haven: Write 31 Days - Elijah & Jesus's Birthday. How excited would Jesus be if we kept as our focus all year long?

One year, a few days before Christmas, all four members of our little family came down with a fabulous flu, effectively changing all of our holiday plans to “quarantined.”

Despite not feeling well, being stuck at home, and missing both sides of our families’ celebrations, our boys were still very excited for Christmas Day.

We had done a very simple “Advent-style” daily countdown to Christmas using a nativity scene window cling set. Each day one of the boys got to pick out which character or scene piece we put on the window, leaving Baby Jesus for Christmas Eve. Each night we talked about how Jesus came as a baby to save us all.

On December 24, they added Jesus to the manger, and then we did our traditional reading of the Christmas story. With our version, the boys get to use the pieces of my Fontanini nativity set to act out the story while we read it.

From there it was up to bed to say prayers and get our little guys tucked in for the night.

After Josiah’s usual prayer of, “Sank you for mommy an’ daddy an’ ‘Jah-jah’ (Elijah) an’ ‘Benny’ (Vinny), Hep me seep well. Amen,” it was Elijah’s turn.

Here was the best part: “Jesus, thank You that it’s Your birthday tomorrow. You’re probably going to be excited tomorrow.”

Brad and I quietly chuckled. We’re used to at least one of our children’s prayers having an amusing element.

But, as I’ve thought about it later, why shouldn’t Jesus be excited for Christmas? It was kind of a big day for Him and all of mankind.

Yes, I know, we don’t technically know the exact day that He was born, and it probably wasn’t even in December. However, I’m sure Jesus enjoys that we celebrate His birth and all that it meant, even if it’s not the very same, exact day. I mean, I don’t mind when people have a party for me when it’s not my birthday.

And yes, I know that much of the world has made Christmas into something where Jesus is completely forgotten. That’s like people having a party for your birthday without you, and yes, that’s rather rude and uncool.

However, there are still plenty of us remembering to invite the Guest of Honor, and not just inviting Him out of obligation so He can sit in the corner with the nativity set all awkward while we hang out with our friends and family and Santa Claus, singing “Jingle Bells” and sipping eggnog.

(A side note: In Lape Haven, we like the true history of St. Nicholas and his focus on blessing others, but the modern idea of Santa Claus is just a minor part of our holiday, kind of like Frosty, Rudolph, Scrooge, and Buddy the Elf).

No, I mean a Christmas where we truly strive to keep Jesus as the central focus of our festivities, honoring the sacrifice He came to make and reveling in the love that compelled Him to become flesh and dwell among us.

I think that would be exciting to Him.

And honestly, we don’t have to wait for Christmas; we shouldn’t wait for Christmas to make Him our priority, our focus, and our source of celebration.

As Christians, our holiday season should be a continuation of our everyday walk of giving Jesus His rightful place as Lord in our life, of praying for His will to be done, and of allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us, correct us, and make us more like Him. Christmas should be a celebration of all He’s done in and through us throughout the year.

Every night we could pray, like Elijah, and be thankful that Jesus came to us. We could tell Him, “Jesus, thank you that I can celebrate You again all day tomorrow. Jesus, You’re probably going to be excited tomorrow.”

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come to His people and redeemed them.” (Luke 1:68)

Elijah & the Roller Coaster: A Lesson in Facing Fear

October 22, 2015

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Elijah & the Roller Coaster - A Lesson in Facing Fear. Life in Lape Haven. Our son was both excited and scared to ride his first ever roller coaster, but through it we both learned a lesson in facing fears.

Last updated June 6, 2018

A few springs ago, Elijah began a mission to save money toward a family trip to Kings Island, one of the amusement parks here in Ohio. Two summers in a row, when Elijah was 2 and 3, we had received free tickets from hubby’s work, and it became Elijah’s favorite place in the world (we’ve never been to Disney). However, starting that year, the company outings changed to a different venue, so a trip to any amusement park suddenly became a more expensive venture for us.

Elijah was determined to go that year, though, so we struck a deal with him. In an effort to begin teaching him about making good financial choices and the importance of earning something you want, we promised him that if he could save enough for his ticket, we would go.

Through learning memory verses every week, doing various special chores, choosing to save his change instead of spend it, and designating the majority of his birthday money to savings, Elijah was able to put aside more than enough very quickly.

So our family planned a trip in late July, and Elijah counted down the days.

Part of our planning including visiting the Kings Island website to see what rides in Planet Snoopy, the Peanuts-themed kids’ area, that Elijah would be tall enough for then. I’m not sure who was more excited, him or us, when Brad and I realized that Elijah was able to ride everything in the kids’ area, including my favorite ride in the entire park. Several years ago, I had ridden the family inverted steel roller coaster (now based on Snoopy and the Red Baron) with my nephews, so I knew it was a fun, smooth coaster.

He was also tall enough to bump along on my very first coaster, a wooden contraption once named the Beastie. In keeping with the Peanuts branding, it is now called the Woodstock Express, but it is still as jostling as it ever was.

When the big day arrived, Elijah was both excited and nervous about his first real coaster ride. He decided to start his day slowly, enjoying familiar, tamer rides to build up his courage.

In previous years, he hadn’t been a big fan of even the mildest kiddie coaster, but being two years older, he tackled that one easily. He was ready to face a “real” coaster when it began raining. The downtime gave him a chance to vacillate and worry again while we enjoyed some yummy blue ice cream.

Had it been Josiah, he would have been in the front car of the biggest possible coaster as soon as he could. Elijah, however, has a bit of his mommy’s cautiousness to him, so I knew he would need a little coaxing to face something new and unknown. (I am very familiar with the feeling) We wouldn’t make Elijah ride the coaster, but we did encourage him to try it, even if he were a little nervous. Had he said he really didn’t want to, we would have gone on to something else.

After things dried out, he said he was ready, and Elijah and I found ourselves in line for the steel coaster, his little face betraying his anxiousness even though he was smiling.

He watched the other riders ahead of us, which I’m not sure helped, but the older girls talking about how fun the ride was did seem to give him the extra incentive to get strapped into the chair when our turn came.

I was proud of him. He was going to do it, even though he was a bit afraid.

Then he gripped my hand. And I knew.

He was scared, but he was trusting me. He knew I was right there with him. I had done this before, and now we were going to do this together.

He was okay for the initial “chugga-chugga-chugga” up the hill, but when the cars topped the incline and started to circle down the first hill, his handhold with me became a death-grip.

When he squeaked out, “Mommy!” I could tell he was NOT loving this quite as much as we’d hoped he would.

I squeezed his hand and told him that it was okay. I continued to reassure him through the remaining 60 seconds or so of the ride, and toward the end, he relaxed a tiny bit. However, he never let go of my hand.

Helping him down, I asked him what he thought, and he told me,

“I didn’t like it, but it was fun.”

My poor conflicted little guy. We’ve been working on “doing hard things” this past year, and this was definitely one of them.

Facing a fear is NEVER something we want to do. We don’t like it. It is, after all, scary. Most of the time, when we step outside of what we know, out of our comfort zone, we’re not overly thrilled to be doing so. It’s called a “comfort zone” for a reason – everything beyond those borders is uncomfortable.

However, it’s in the uncomfortable places where we grow, where we learn to be brave, where we learn to trust. And usually the reward for facing our fear is worth it. It might even be fun.

Life in Lape Haven: Write 31 Days - Elijah and the Roller Coaster

On the Woodstock Express – that face!

And we don’t have to face our hard things alone.

As I was describing how Elijah held my hand on the ride, I couldn’t help but see God in my spot and me in Elijah’s.

We all know that life can be a roller coaster, and who better for me to be holding onto than God?

There will be parts that scare me, that jostle me, that make me disoriented even. But I know Who is right there with me. I know that He knows where the ride is going, when it dips and when it rises. I can hear Him reassuring me the whole time.

Even in those seasons when it’s fun and exciting, I still hold tight to His hand because I need Him then, too, to share in the joy and to prepare me for whatever’s coming next.

I asked Elijah tonight what he would say about that ride now.

He told me again, “I didn’t like it. But next time I want to do it again.”

And I’ll be right there with him, holding his hand.

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Elijah and the Dream Job

October 21, 2015

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You know when you’re little, and someone asks you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Most kids give a pretty standard answer, “A policeman,” or “A ballerina,” or “Superman,” and they stop there.

Not my child. And I bet, if you’ve been reading faithfully over these past 20 days or so of the Write 31 Days (or if you just read the title of today’s post), you can guess which one.

Oh, Elijah. My bright, imaginative, curious, optimistic dreamer.

Do you know what HIS standard answer is when he’s asked what he wants to be when he’s older?

“Everything.”

I’m serious.

He tells people that he wants to be “everything.” And this has been his standard answer for the past 2 years, at least.

Of course with that answer, he always expounds a bit, clarifying his “everything,” in case anyone wonders what that means exactly.

He says something like this, “I’m going to be everything. I’m going to be an astronaut, a firefighter, a preacher, a farmer, a zookeeper, and a daddy. I’m going to be everything.”

These are just some of the occupations that he says fairly often, but it is by no means a definitive list. He adds new ideas regularly to his “everything” dream job.

As a mom, I’m both amused and amazed.

He could totally be a lot of those things at once. In fact I know someone who has been a daddy, a preacher, a firefighter, and somewhat of a farmer, all at the same time, so it’s possible.

But to shepherd a heart that dreams so big is kind of intimidating. All I can do is pray that God leads his steps and gives Brad and me wisdom as we raise him. Pray that we lay the foundations solidly for his own relationship with God so he can follow God’s leading closely. Pray that we notice his talents, giftings, and strengths so we encourage them and pinpoint his weaknesses and challenges so we can help him overcome them. Pray that he does his best to reach his full potential and fulfill all the plans that God has for him, even if they differ from Elijah’s own ideas or ours.

Of course, that’s really the same thing I’d be doing if he only had one answer instead of every answer.

Parenting is all about doing your best, learning, and growing while you depend desperately on God for guidance and discernment, trusting that He can still work through all the mistakes you make, and simply trusting that His love for your child is even greater than your love for that child, that His plans for your child are “to give him a hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Trusting can be hard. But God has never failed me, and I’m choosing to trust Him with my boys. After all, He’s the One Who gave them to us and trusted Brad and me with them in the first place. (It reminds me of Hannah with her Samuel in 1 Samuel 1:27 & 28)

So while I work to embrace the overwhelming ambitions of my little visionary, I am also excited at the possibilities.

Sure he most likely won’t be an astronaut AND a zookeeper. But with that kind of expectation, confidence, and determination, it’s kind of fun to imagine what he really could be, to wonder at what God has in store for him.

As much as I want him to be my little boy forever, I’m also excited to see the “everything” he’ll be when he grows up.

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Josiah and Colossians

October 19, 2015

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Life in Lape Haven: Write 31 Days - Josiah and Colossians. In teaching my children Bible verses, they reminded me that I also need to be remembering what God's Word says.

Over the summer, I began giving Elijah some Bible verses to memorize. I tried to have a new one picked out for him every Monday morning, and then we would go over it throughout the week. If he could say it by himself without help on Sunday, then he earned a dollar toward his King’s Island fund.

It only took the first couple of days of going over the first verse for me to realize that Josiah was not going to be left out of this. He wanted his turn to repeat the words after Mommy. That was fine with me. Whether he could really remember them or completely understand them, he would be learning God’s Word. I searched for the most kid-friendly translations, and we always talked about the verses as we learned them.

Elijah memorized them easily and eagerly, but Josiah’s determination to learn them really surprised and delighted me.

Some of the verses we studied were John 3:16 (of course), Proverbs 1:7, Philippians 2:14 & 4:13, Luke 6:31, and Colossians 3:20 & 3:23.

One day during breakfast, as we were going over our verse for that week, which was Colossians 3:20, I recorded Josiah working on his verse. Here it is:

For just over 2, he was doing a really great job, but did you hear what he said at the end?

“Now yours turn.”

Hmmm.

Most people probably equate Memory Verses with Sunday school or Children’s Church, and thus, children. However, we are reminded continually throughout scripture of the importance of knowing God’s Word, of having it before us, around us, and in us. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9, for example).

Josiah’s words challenged me. I was teaching scriptures to them and remembering those verses as I taught them, but when was the last time I had purposely set out to memorize God’s Word for myself?

Having been in church all my life and having attended a Christian school from 6th grade through 9^th grade, I’ve had plenty of Memory Verses, whole chapters of Psalms, and even the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish (Thank you, Mrs. Bolds). Then, of course, teaching children for several years means that I’ve helped them learn many of the same verses I learned.

So, I know some scripture. But I definitely don’t know it all.

Now I understand that some people just aren’t good at memorizing. Some people can remember the words, but not always the reference (I’m there often).

However, having even a basic familiarity with what God has said makes it so much easier to find those Words when you need direction, encouragement, or even correction.

I don’t think God is looking so much for us to be able to perfectly recite the entire Bible, but He wants us to WANT to know it. To NEED to know it.

If we are serious to know His Word and do our best to study it, then He’ll help us recall what we need to when we need it.

Sometimes we just need a little reminder of all we need to remember.

“Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You.” – Psalm 119:11

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Elijah and His Wife

October 18, 2015

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Life in Lape Haven: Write 31 Days - Elijah and His Wife. Praying for your spouse before you even have one.

As a little girl, I remember my dad telling stories about how, as a young teenaged Christian, he had begun praying for God to bring him the right wife. Knowing that the answer to those prayers had been my mom and seeing how God had used their marriage to bless them and those around them, I was inspired in my childhood to begin praying for my future husband.

I had to pray a little longer than my dad did, though, because while my parents got married the summer after Mom graduated high school, it wasn’t until I was 26 that I even met the man who would be my hubby.

However, no matter how long we had to pray, praying for and following God’s leading to our spouse and continuing to pray for them and follow His leading throughout marriage has been crucial to the success of our unions. My parents have been married for 40 years, and Brad and I have been married for over 7 years.

A couple of years ago, when Elijah was only 3, he and I had a conversation that encouraged me to hope that our family’s legacy of trusting God to direct us to our spouse would continue into the next generation.

One night Elijah was talking about how he was getting bigger “like Daddy,” and he said, “I wonder who my wife will be when I’m bigger?”

Before I had a chance to reply, he continued, “Hmmm…I’ll have to ask Jesus about that.”

My extremely pleased and impressed answer was, “Yes. That’s a great idea.”

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

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My Boys and the Letter B

October 17, 2015

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Life in Lape Haven: Write 31 Days - My Boys and the Letter B. Three amusing quotes from my boys that came from misunderstandings or miscommunication.

It’s Saturday, and time for another round of simply amusing quotes from my boys, Elijah and Josiah.

Today’s quotes are brought to you by the letter “B” and by the number “3.”

“B” starts such words as “bark,” “Band-Aid,” “bleed,” “bite,” “Brown,” “bid,” and “buy.”

They are average, every day words, right? Nothing bewildering or befuddling about them. However, in these next three quotes, you can see that those words are all mixed up in a few funny misunderstandings or miscommunications for our boys.

1. Josiah and “Bark”

Until Josiah was over a year old, he stayed in the main sanctuary at church on Sundays with Hubby, my parents, and me. It wasn’t that he couldn’t have gone to the nursery, but since he was still nursing, it just made it easier to keep him nearby.

One Sunday when he was about 10-months-old he was sitting happily with his head on my shoulder as we listened to the message. Suddenly Josiah got very excited, lifting his head, looking over my shoulder at something behind us, and saying, “Ba! Ba! Ba!”

“Ba” was a recent addition to his growing baby vocabulary, and I knew that it was his word/sound for “dog.” (He was basically trying to say, “Bark.”)

Since I doubted there were any dogs at the church, I glanced back to see what he saw. Sitting behind us, smiling and cooing at my son as he “barked” at her, was a lady wearing a brown fur-trimmed coat.

I quickly turned back around, trying to contain my laughter, thankful that the lady behind us had no idea my child was trying to say she was wearing a dog around her neck.

2. Elijah and the Band-Aid

One morning, around about the same time Josiah had confused fur coats with living animals, my boys were playing in our living room, doing what they did pretty much every day for me: emptying all the toys out of the toy box and scattering them around the room.

Since Josiah was still perfecting the art of standing and was flirting with the idea of walking, it was no surprise when he tripped over a toy. When he fell, somehow he cut his finger enough to make it bleed just a little.

Elijah suggested that we put a Band-Aid on Josiah’s finger (they always love a reason to break out the Band-Aids).

Considering that Josiah still liked to put everything in his mouth, I answered, “I don’t think he’d leave it alone. He’d probably bite it off.”

Elijah looked at me in horror and replied, “His FINGER!?!”

In case you’re wondering, I meant the bandage.

3. Elijah and Alton Brown

From the time Elijah was little, Food Network has been a channel staple in our home because it’s generally a bit more family friendly than other main stations, including some of the kids’ cartoon channels. It teaches us all how to cook (mostly with ingredients we’d never buy), so it’s educational. Plus a mom can only take so much Caillou before she wants to reach into the TV and slap some sense into both that whiny little kid and his parents (one episode will do that easily).

This means that Elijah and Josiah have grown up watching Good Eats, Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives, and one of our favorites, Cutthroat Kitchen.

For those unfamiliar with that show, Cutthroat Kitchen is a cooking competition hosted by our favorite Food Network guy, Alton Brown. During the three-round competition, chefs attempt to cook a specified dish within a given timeframe. To make things interesting, before and during their cooking time, Alton offers various cruel and unusual sabotages in an auction for the contestants to bid on to give out to their opponents, such as taking away the chef’s ability to taste the food he is cooking or having to use a child-sized kitchen as their kitchen.

Last summer, my grandparents’ church held a fundraising auction, and Elijah was surprisingly excited to attend his first auction. He was determined to take some of his own money with him to buy something.

Can you guess what he was planning to bid on?

When I asked him what he was going to do at the church auction, he told me, “I’m going to buy sabotages.”

So, too much Cutthroat Kitchen, maybe… sorry, Alton.

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Category - Family

Elijah and Jesus’s Birthday

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My Boys and the Letter B

1. Josiah and “Bark”

2. Elijah and the Band-Aid

3. Elijah and Alton Brown