Waiting

By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)

"Last year I used to think that maybe I didn't believe in God, but now I know I do." He announces it at the dinner table, and I pause, a spoonful of lentil curry soup poised halfway to my mouth.

"You thought you didn't believe in God last year?" I ask, trying to keep my voice light and bouncy.

"Yeah, but I'm good now. I feel better again," my ten-year-old son Noah says.

"So what made you change your mind?" I ask, soup spoon still steady in mid-air. "How did you come back to believing in God again?" I need to know how he did this. I want to be reassured it won't happen again. I need to know that my son won't spend his childhood mired in fear and unbelief, like I did.

"I don't know. I guess I just sort of waited," he answers. "And then, after a while, I felt like I believed again."

There is much wisdom in that little-boy answer.

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Summer Changes

By Ginny (MAD21)

I just can't believe how fast this past school year has come and gone. Over the years I've heard that once your kids are in school that time flies even faster than it did when they were babies and toddling around, but I had no idea how very fast it truly does go by. My heart is aching (big time) as our family slowly leaves this phase of life. But we are all growing and learning as we search to expand our boundaries while still protecting our time together.

My friend Billy wrote last week about similar sentiments as he is also getting older and watching his young kids grow up way too fast. He says, "In the end, that was what made me weary—knowing I was fighting time. And that’s a war I cannot win." Like him, it doesn't matter how much I don't want things to change. They will whether I want them to or not. So, I have to do what I tell my girls on almost a daily basis and that is to enjoy the journey. We need to do the best we can not to squander the time we have, and don't wish our lives away by looking only at the destination.

Therefore, in light of wanting to spend more time with my family over the summer months, and wanting the same for the others who contribute here, we are going to a three-day posting schedule. All of our usual topics and authors will still be here, just on a lighter schedule.

During the month of June, we are challenging everyone we know to make a difference in the lives of many by donating to charity: water and have already begun a series of posts from people regarding this ministry. We will also continue with our One Word carnival, devotionals, Tasty Bites, Fingerprint Fridays, and in July we will begin a new series on Mondays that will continue throughout the summer.

We pray you all have a fabulous summer. Work hard, play hard, read a lot, and remember, no one at their end of days is ever going to say, "I wish I had spent more time at the office and less time with my family." Be sure to take every opportunity to enjoy your family. That investment will last an eternity.

The Cheering Crowd

By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)

The sun beams warmth even as the wind whips straight through fleece and long sleeves and windbreakers as we stand on the curb, arms crossed tight, shoulders hunched, hoods cinched.

Rowan takes his place toward the back of the pack, green number pinned squarely to the front of his tee shirt. Hands over ears as the gun cracks loud, they shuffle and stumble and then finally break into a jog. The front runners sprint, stampeding like a herd of wild mustangs, and it’s nothing short of a miracle that no one gets trampled as the pack thunders by, hundreds of kindergarteners bent on finishing first.

Brad and Rowan pace themselves, sticking to the strategy they’d formulated earlier that morning. “We start slowly at the back,” Brad advised, “and then when the runners start to tire, we pick them off one by one, passing the ones that started out of the gate too fast.” Rowan had nodded solemnly, a good plan.

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The Misfit

By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)

It didn’t take long for me to realize that Noah is not an ordinary kid. When other two-year-olds were repeating words like “cookie” and “bye-bye,” Noah’s favorite word was “awning.” “Look at that fancy awning,” Noah would say, pointing at striped fabric as we drove past Roper & Sons Funeral Home.

When he was five Noah developed a love of plants, particularly succulents, those funky, Zen-looking plants that belong to the cactus family (or maybe cacti belong to the succulent family, I’m not sure – clearly I haven’t listened carefully enough to Noah). While other kids his age collected Pokémon cards and Spiderman figures, Noah collected euphorbia and crassula, aloe and agave. At last count he had 31 succulents in his collection.  

I’ll never forget the time Noah sat on Santa’s lap and requested Designing with Succulents, a garden design book he’d spotted at Barnes & Noble. I could read the look on Santa’s face: not only did he not know what a succulent was, he suspected it had pornographic connotations.  I stood behind the rope and yelled, “It’s a plant book! It’s a plant book!” in the hopes that Santa wouldn’t think my son was a miscreant.

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Leftovers

By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)

Launching the Shop-Not Project felt good. When I embarked on my year-long hiatus from shopping last September, I felt noble…until a few months into it, that is, when I realized the flaw in my plan:

I was giving God the leftovers.

The Shop-Not Project works like this: My husband and I agree on a monthly personal cash allotment for each of us. I don’t spend any of that cash on clothes, jewelry, shoes, makeup or accessories – I don’t shop for any personal items for twelve months. At the end of each month, I take what’s left from my personal cash and tuck it into the envelope marked “Shop-Not Money.” At the end of the year, I donate what’s been saved to Compassion.

Sounds like the perfect plan, right? Like I said, noble and good. But read that second to last sentence again: At the end of each month, I take what’s left from my personal cash…

I take what’s leftover and give it to God. 

What I give to God depends on my spending habits for the month  – how many times I eat dinner out with friends, how many “necessary” items I purchase for home décor, how many low-fat grande mochas I sip. Some months I give most of my personal allotment to God; some months only $10 or $20. One month I gave nothing at all.

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