Category - Family

Elijah and the Lullaby

October 16, 2015

Oh, the glorious, miraculous hour of the day that is bedtime. Isn’t it wonderful?

After the often chaotic, frequently frustrating flurry of brushing teeth, washing faces, and all the rest of the stuff that goes in to getting two little boys ready for bed, comes the beautiful, snuggly settling-down time of day where my cuddly, pajama-clad children nestle close to my hubby and me for a bedtime book, a Bible story, and family prayers. Then it’s time for goodnight kisses and hugs, whispers of, “Good night” and “I love you, Mommy,” and tucking in our little ninjas.

Now, granted not every night is that idyllic. Some nights the boys are still hyped up from the day and don’t want to settle down, wiggling around and jumping off the bed to grab toys from around the room. Other nights they are over-tired, cranky, and fighting with each other over who gets to sit with Daddy or Mommy.

When we only had Elijah, bedtime was similar, with the exception of one thing. Every night right before we tucked him in, I sang to him. It was a carryover from when he was really little, and I sang to him while I nursed him.

With the arrival of Josiah, our bedtime routine got shifted around a bit. We’d read our book and Bible story, say our prayers, and tuck Elijah in, and then I would go feed Josiah before putting him to bed. Even after Josiah was weaned, the routine stayed the same.

Mommy and Elijah

Then one night last winter, as I was telling Elijah good night and tucking him in, he asked me, “Can you come back in and sing to me after you put Josiah in his bed?”

I realized in that moment that while I sang to Josiah once I took him into the nursery, I hadn’t sung to Elijah for quite a while. It made me a little sad to admit it.

So, I promised him I’d be back in as soon as Josiah was down.

That night I climbed up in his bed beside him, and he asked me to sing “Jesus Loves Me,” I think because he’d overheard me singing it to Josiah. Then after I sang, we talked, just a little, about our day. Then I kissed him good night, and left a very contented big boy cozy in his bed.

From then on, it became our thing. Every night, without fail, he would ask me, “Will you sing to me?” and I would come back in, cuddle up and sing him a lullaby of his choice. Some of his most requested songs were “Jesus Loves Me,” “Skinamarinky Dinky Dink,” “A Bushel and a Peck,” and “O Holy Night.” (Yes, singing a Christmas carol in the middle of July). He also liked when I made up songs about him, Josiah, and their cousins.

Always after I would sing, he wanted to talk. So we talked about all kinds of things. It’s where we talked about what it meant to be baptized, after he saw the story of John the Baptist and Jesus on the Kids Bible App. It’s where we talked about him starting kindergarten in the fall and all the fears and excitement and questions he was facing.

With all the transitions we’d gone through after bringing Josiah home, I hadn’t really been able to find much for Mommy and Elijah time, and clearly it was something that he was desperately craving. I remember telling him when I was pregnant with Josiah, that if he ever felt like he needed Mommy, all he needed to do was ask me for a hug or come sit with me if I were nursing Josiah. And he did do that, often. However, what we didn’t have was time to share with each other without the distractions of the house, dinner, or his daredevil little brother getting in to things.

Our new nighttime routine gave him his mommy back in a very special way.

Since he’s started school, we don’t get to have our Mommy/Elijah talks every night, just due to the fact that he HAS to go to sleep. On the nights we can’t, I sing to both the boys before we give hugs and kisses and tucks-in. However, on those days when we can, they are some of the most precious minutes of my day.

Oh, the glorious, miraculous hour of the day that is bedtime. Isn’t it wonderful?

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Elijah and the Sermon

October 15, 2015

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Elijah & the Sermon: The Good News of the Gospel is pretty simple, so simple that even my 4-year-old could preach it. From my Write 31 Days series, "Out of the Mouth of Babes."

When my boys are together, they are always playing pretend. Well, I guess that’s not 100-percent true. Sometimes they play with LEGOS, or color and make crafts, or fight. But a lot of the time, even their other play involves some kind of pretending.

Since Elijah is the oldest, he tends to direct what they’ll be imagining about that day. Lately there have been many sessions of “school” where Elijah is the teacher and Josiah is the student. It’s really cute to listen to, until Josiah doesn’t do exactly what Elijah wants him to, and they go from playing to fighting. (It happens so quickly, doesn’t it?)

One of the cutest pretend plays they have done, at least that I’ve overheard or seen, was the day Elijah decided to play “preacher.” I really wish I could have recorded their “service.”

Elijah pulled out a tall side table to be his podium, and he and Josiah took turns talking at the podium and sitting behind it in the rocking chair, which I guess was part of the platform.

Pastor Elijah began the service by introducing himself and taking attendance. (I’m not sure where he got the idea to take attendance, unless that’s something he saw in Sunday school.) Once he was warmed up, he led his imaginary congregation in singing both made-up and recognizable praise songs.

He spent some time writing stuff down, and when I asked him why he had to have the pencil and paper, he told me it was “because I’m the preacher.”

Elijah graciously stepped aside to allow Josiah to do their announcements. Of course, Josiah wasn’t as practiced at public speaking, so there weren’t very many announcements to be made.

Once Elijah was back at the podium, he was ready to preach, and preach he did.

This was his message:

“Jesus died on the cross. He died because He didn’t want YOU to die.”

Then he closed in prayer.

That was his whole sermon – two sentences. Short, sweet, and simple.

But then it really is that simple. My then-4-year-old understood the Good News of Jesus better than a lot of adults, who like to make things way more difficult than they need to be.

It reminds me of the scene in Mary Poppins where Bert had drawn lots of beautiful chalk pictures on the pavement and is trying to show the Banks children how to “do a bit of magic” to get into the pictures.

His instructions are, “You think. You wink. You do a double blink. You close your eyes and jump.”

When nothing happens, Mary Poppins takes over, scolding Bert for overdoing it. “Why do you always complicate things that are really quite simple?”

She takes the children’s hands, and all it takes is, “1…2…” and they are all transported into the chalk pavement pictures for a “Jolly Holiday” that is “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

The Gospel isn’t “think, wink, double blink, and jump.” It’s more “1…2…”

It’s “Jesus died on the cross. He died because He didn’t want YOU to die.”

It was so encouraging and precious to listen in on their play and see their foundations in God being so firmly established.

It was kind of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

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Elijah and the Laser Eyes

October 14, 2015

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Life in Lape Haven: Write 31 Days - Elijah and the Laser Eyes, red lasers

A few months ago, I saw this video posted on Facebook, and being a sucker for videos of kids answering questions, anticipating the cute and unpredictable things they’ll say (ahem…my series is “Out of the Mouth of Babes: 31 Quotes from My Children”), I watched it.

In this video, they ask 50 people – adults and children – one question: “If you could change one thing about your body, what would it be?”

I loved the children’s responses. I don’t want to spoil it for you, so do yourself a favor, and watch the 4-minute video below before reading the rest of this post. I promise you’ll be encouraged. 🙂

Okay, so you watched it, right? Ok. So, how cute were those kids? I love the mermaid tail answer. Oh, and the cheetah legs. And the wings. Actually, all the kids had great answers.

Did you notice how the adults went from smiling and curious about the question, to slightly insecure when they heard it, and then to just plain sad as they answered?

Not so with the kids. They saw the question for all of its fun, positive possibilities and ran with it, while most of the adults went straight to their perceived imperfections.

All except for one. The older lady at the end was comfortable, confident, and content with herself. Her thoughts were, “I chose to stay this way because it just wouldn’t be me if I totally changed the way I look.”

She was joyful and just a delight because of it, and almost as cute as the children.

After I first saw this, I was curious about how Elijah might answer the same question, so I asked him what he would change, if he could change one thing about his body.

It didn’t take a lot of thinking on his part, and his reply didn’t disappoint: “I would change my eyes, so they can do like Superman’s, shooting lasers.”

Awesome. Just what we need around here – a 5-year-old with laser-shooting eyes.

I guess we’ve learned yet again that kids can teach us a lot about being confident in who God created you to be and also to be always looking to the positive possibilities.

So, always be yourself. Unless you can be yourself with a mermaid tail, or cheetah legs, or laser eyes. Then always be that you. 🙂

Elijah and Heaven

October 12, 2015

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Life in Lape Haven: Write 31 Days - Elijah and Heaven. Elijah's conversation about meeting friends in Heaven.

The summer Elijah turned three, our family mourned the passing of both my paternal grandmother and Brad’s maternal grandfather. Elijah knew that they had both dealt with illness and poor health for quite a while, and we had been to visit them both as often as we could, so he’d become close to them.

Elijah has always been a rather mature child when it comes to spiritual things, so we didn’t hesitate to talk to him about it when his great-grandpa died. I explained to him that while we would still see Great-Grandpa’s body in the casket at the funeral, the “real” him had already gone to Heaven to be with God because Great-Grandpa had trusted in Jesus as his Savior and followed Him. We were able to say the same when his great-grandma passed.

Elijah still would have questions every so often, but the conversations we had with Elijah prior to the funerals and in the months following are what eventually led to him making the decision to give his heart to Jesus and follow Him. I know that my grandma and Brad’s grandpa rejoiced that day in Heaven.

: Great-Grandma with 2-month-old Elijah

: Great-Grandpa

: My beautiful sister-in-law, Nancy, with her mother, Deborah.

Then this year, not long before his fifth birthday, we had another death in the family, my sister-in-law’s mother, Miss Deborah.

When we told Elijah about it, we talked about how much Miss Deborah loved Jesus and how she was ready to be with Him.

Elijah said, “I wonder what she’s doing right now in Heaven?”

I replied, “I don’t know, but I bet she’s happy.” Nodding, he agreed, “Yeah, she’s probably talking to everyone.” (Miss Deborah was a warm, sweet, welcoming woman, and I could see her talking to everyone)

Then I had a thought I knew he’d like. “Maybe she said, ‘Hi’ to Great-Grandma.”

Smiling, Elijah clearly enjoyed the idea of them meeting each other again in heaven. “Yeah! She probably already saw Great-Grandpa, and she was like, ‘Who’s that?’ because she’d never met him.”

Then he added, “When I go to Heaven, I’m going to see Noah and Elijah.” (From the Bible)

I asked, “What about God?”

“I’d probably see Him all over. He’ll probably be popping up everywhere!”

While it was a sad time, and we still miss them all, it was sweet to be reminded of the joy that awaits us with God and think about how “He’ll be popping up everywhere!” 🙂

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” – Revelations 21:3-5

Elijah and the Ensemble

October 11, 2015

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Life in Lape Haven: Write 31 Days - Elijah and the Ensemble. Let's just be real and honest

As I’ve already mentioned this past week, Elijah and nap time/quiet time stopped getting along quite a while ago. Quiet Time was instituted when it became very clear that getting him to actually nap every single day was just a happy memory.

His naptime had actually been a futile effort for a few months before it was put out of its misery. I spent much of “naptime” hearing noises in his room, then going up to investigate, then telling him to get back into his bed, and then coming back downstairs until the bumps, squeaks, and thuds started again.

Sometimes, though, he was a bit stealthier in hiding his lack of napping. However, as he has learned, Mommy will always figure out the truth sooner or later, and usually sooner than you want her to. You can’t hide stuff from your moms, kids! (Especially not ones who are listening closely to the Lord. If she doesn’t find out on her own, He’ll reveal it to her. Can I get an “Amen!”?)

One day when Elijah laid down for his nap, he was wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans. He wanted to leave his clothes on, and I let him. After a book, a prayer, and a hug, I left him upstairs to rest.

Less than hour later, my child came downstairs in an entirely new, and decidedly unique, ensemble. One look at his outfit, and I knew he hadn’t even TRIED to take a nap.

When I asked him what he was doing out of bed so early, he claimed, “I took a good, long nap.”

It was hard to keep a straight face, especially with him wearing a silly little hat that was several sizes too small because it came off a stuffed animal! A stuffed animal that, I might add, was not anywhere near his bed.

When I questioned him, he denied any and all accusations that he might have been playing instead of napping. Uh-huh.

Standing in my living room, I studied his sweater and shorts combo accessorized with the giant Mickey bag, his face with its carefully serious and innocent expression, and did my best not to laugh at the ridiculousness.

He totally thought he could fool me.

Even as I laugh at this silly picture of the boy who tried to lie to Mommy, I can’t help but think about how many times we try to do this as Christians.

No matter how clearly our lives are showing one thing (struggle, difficulties, bad habits, lack of time with God), we can pretend like the best of them. We’ll smile, tell people “I’m fine,” and raise our hands in worship while our mind is anywhere but on God. We hope that the people around us are fooled.

It’s kind of like when we try to take those “Pinterest perfect” pictures to post online. You pick the least messy part of the house to take the picture to make everyone believe that your home is really clean, not realizing that stray sock is smack in the middle of the floor in the background.

The Bible tells us, though, that “the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). God is never fooled by what we say, how we act, or what we look like. He knows us as we are – our flaws, our mistakes, our hurts, our motives, our potential.

Let’s just be real. Let’s just be honest. Let’s be repentant. God isn’t fooled, and chances are, neither is everyone else. Being real gives God the chance to extend forgiveness (If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9), help us correct our errors, heal our wounds, and encourage us in our purpose.

If Elijah would have been doing what he was supposed to, he may have had bedhead, but at least he wouldn’t have had to wear that goofy hat to hide that he didn’t.

Elijah and Two Funny Quotes

October 10, 2015

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Life in Lape Haven: Write 31 Days - Elijah and Two Quotes. Celebrating the silliness of what my little boy says

Sometimes, my kids say stuff that is just plain funny, no lesson attached. Sometimes, their innocence, lack of experience, or a simple miscommunication gives us a chuckle, and that’s enough.

Today, for Day 10 of the Write 31 Days challenge, you get two quotes. Two quotes with stories that I’m sure we’ll be retelling over and over again all throughout our kids’ lives.

Elijah and the TV

Last summer our family enjoyed a slightly extended vacation down South. Since I lived in Georgia for about six years (from the end of 9^th grade to a couple years after graduation), I was very excited to see familiar places and visit some friends as well.

We first spent a week near Beaufort, South Carolina, sharing a huge vacation rental with my hubby’s family. At the end of the week, his family headed back up to Ohio, and our little crew headed down to Georgia, where we would be staying in a home owned by my former youth pastors’ family.

The River House, as they call it, was just that – a small home along the river in southeast Georgia where their family members go to spend time with friends, do some fishing, or just relax. After the adventure of finding the dirt trail road (beside the cotton field – no, not that one…not that one…maybe this one…no…) that led to the house and driving down that bumpy road for over a mile, we carried in luggage and started getting ourselves settled. Our two boys wandered through the rooms, exploring their new surroundings, while my friends answered any questions we had.

Suddenly, from across the room, Elijah exclaimed, “There’s no TV!”

Glancing over into the living room, all of us adults laughed. He wasn’t very far from what, to him, must have seemed to be just an odd piece of furniture, a very large, old console television.

Once we pointed out the television to him, his next question was, “Where’s the remote?”

Elijah and the Wookie

My hubby is a nerd. He is. But that’s okay because I, myself, have some geeky tendencies, so we get along really well. Because of this, our boys are exposed to the coolest parts of nerdiness regularly, such as Star Wars (we’re a Star Wars family, not a Star Trek family).

My boys haven’t managed to finish an entire Star Wars movie, but they still love it. (Josiah’s favorite is “Darka Bader,” so you can tell he doesn’t know the story.) We have to see every commercial, toy aisle, or t-shirt that features a Star Wars character. If it’s combined in anyway with LEGO – well, their day is just complete.

So when I found Elijah a Chewbacca t-shirt at the thrift store on New Year’s Eve a couple years ago, he was over the moon (“That’s no moon.”). He was so proud of it.

That evening we celebrated the new year with the traditional kielbasa and kraut.

The next day, when I asked Elijah what he wanted for lunch, he said, “Chewbacca.”

I laughed and said, “You can’t eat Chewbacca!”

Sometimes he can be so silly, so I thought he was just playing. However, he kept insisting and got upset. I finally realized that he was serious and that what he was trying to say was “kielbasa.”

Apparently introducing Chewbacca & kielbasa on the same day can lead to some confusion.

Category - Family

Elijah and the Lullaby

Elijah and the Sermon

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