Cultivating Childhood

My life right now is a paradox.  Physically, I'm here.  Sitting in my comfortable chair. Writing on my laptop.  Gazing out my window at a beautiful sunny Seattle day.  My heart, though, is half a world away.  It is torn for the people of Burma.  The Rohingya .  The Kachin .  The Karen .  IDPs.  Migrants. Victims of trafficking.  My hands feel tied as I live my life here in the States.  I'm so eager to GO. What is it I can do now?  How can I be the hands and feet of Jesus from here? I can pray. I can't believe how often I forget the most obvious.  Prayer.  God uses prayer to turn our hearts toward Him and to bring more people toward His Kingdom.  Luke 10:2 says: He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. [NIV] We can pray for the people there.  Their plights.  Their struggles.  The...

I began this month complaining about my first-world problems .  And yet, as I continue to look at all the injustice in the world, I realize just how blessed I am. This month has been filled with a lot of reading and researching and praying about the plights in Burma and Thailand, and I've found that my thoughts are often a half a world away.  And yet, there are still needs here.  My children still need me.  I have a wonderful community here that I can't ignore.  Life goes on, and I strive to continue to look for the beauty in what this last month has brought. The month began with Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent.  The boys and I have been reading Amon's Adventure , and I think we are on track to having it finished by Easter.  They have really liked it and I like the response thoughts at the end, and I think they will be even more appropriate for the kids as we do this year after year.  We've also colored our Lent Calendar daily that we got ...

On this Palm Sunday, I'm reminded of St. Francis' Prayer of Peace.  I have a postcard of it on my fridge from when I visited Assisi at the end of high school, but it is always a good reminder. Prayer of Peace St. Francis Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.  O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life. <source>

We are totally into the superhero stage right now with the boys.  They want to dress up like the Avengers or Superman or Batman or whoever!  They pretend to have superpowers, and they love to vanquish the bad guys. I've tried to kindle in their hearts a spirit of courage and not of fear.  And yet, as they get older, I see that many times their courage is unfounded, and they think that they are unstoppable.  N, especially, seems to have no fear.  He runs around like he is a superhero, and unfortunately, this happens in public too.  I don't want to scare him into staying with me with constant worry, but I've realized that he needs to have a healthy respect for the dangers that do exist in our world. Recently, I decided that we needed to have a good talk about safety.  There have been a couple of attempted kidnappings in our area in the last year, and I need to be able to trust my kids to stay within sight at a park or not to take off at the groce...

Virginity is a luxury.  In our world of promiscuity, safe sex, and birth control, we can easily forget that our bodies are something to be protected and consecrated.  We throw away a greater treasure for a one-night stand.  We sub intimacy for immediate gratification. I was raised with the godly view that I should save my body for marriage.  I was taught that I had value and that I shouldn't go after cheap imitations of love.  I should wait until I've said my vows, and give my husband the greatest gift I could give him on our wedding night - my virginity.  It's a beautiful dream, and one that I was blessed to have come true in my own life.  I traded my purity ring for my wedding ring. I am blessed. However, as I look into the plight of the thousands of women in Thailand, I realize that my virginity was a luxury.  I had my choice on how I was going to use my body.  Many women around the world are not given that same choice.  They ha...