"don't want you for the weekend, don't want you for a night, i'm only interested if i can have you for life. i know i sound serious, and baby i am. you're a fine piece real estate and i'm going to get me some land. don't try to run, honey. love can fun, honey. ..i'm going to get you while i got you inside. i'm going to get you if it takes all night. you can betcha by the time i say go, you'll never say no. i'm going to get you it's a matter of fact, i'm going to get you don't worry about that. just like i should... i'll getcha good. "
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| first CD ever. |
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| yep. my childhood role model. i literally know all her songs. still. |
at age 11 (mom was i 11? can't remember. I just remember dad's face when he figured out what song I had picked out) for a little league fundraiser.
I played with Barbie, and in 5th grade me and my three best friends would cuss when no one could hear us because we thought we were so cool. I had a tooth fairy, an easter bunny, a santa clause, i went trick or treating and I grew up on Snow White and the Sword in the Stone (gravity).
Looking back. My childhood was spectacular. I want to give that to my child. I've encountered many odd rules and strange sheltering from Christian parents (ever heard of pluggedin.com? ). The heart-breaker however, is the many broken relationships between Christian kids and their parents. This saddens me. I love my parents. You can probably tell. I'm always holding daddy's hand, always hugging my mom. I can talk to them about anything and always feel supported. Their love is unconditional, and I know it.
So where's the balance. How can I share the precious treasure of faith with my children in an authentic loving way and still give them room to grow on their own. How can I love my child unconditionally and stand up for my beliefs? Where do I draw the line between secular doom and bringing glory back to God for the things he has given us? How do I let my children be a light in their world, and protect them? How do I be a parent and a friend? Do we bar up our chimney at Christmas? Are we going to have grandma create elaborate princess and pirate costumes and parade down the street?
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| look at my evil family :P dad's a wizard. mom's a witch. i'm a princess of course. |
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| mom made all our costumes when I was little. |
Honestly, this has been a huge part of my degree at school. I've been on this quest. How to teach my someday kids. A lot of you know I want to be a stay at home mom. Well I'm doing the stay at home mom degree. And learning lots! I still don't have all the answers... I won't. I'm not going to do parenting right. No one does. But I'm going to give it all I've got. Dad wants me to have 5 kids... so I better have a lot to give :P
So anyways. That was a huge intro. I got carried away with Shania Twain. As I've been learning, I've wondered what the first methods for parenting were. How did the Israelites do it? How would I even figure that out? Would it be a good model.. considering they didn't have "Halloween" or Shania?
Well this quarter I've been learning a TON about this. In the book "The Creative Word" by Walter (great name) Bruggemann we see the OT split up in three parts. Torah from the scribes, Counsel from the wise, and Word from the prophets. We can see a general pattern of:
conservative persons/church traditions being inclined to the Torah as their focus (law)
social critics, radicals and revolutionaries being inclined to the prophecies and "new truth"
humanistic psychologists and their like being inclined to the counsel of the wise
We need to work with each other a bit on that. I don't think we will ever get a 1 to 1 to 1 ratio in any church today (God will take care of that later), but I do know what we can try to be more open to. Each other. I used to really struggle because my best friend was very charismatic about faith, and I am much more conservative. I thought I was missing out on the Holy Spirit. After having a conversation with my Godfather, I understood that I wasn't missing something. I was a part of something bigger than me. We are the church, a body. We need all the parts, and can't function alone. I might be a hand ( I really like to help people) but a hand on its own can't do anything. I need an eye, a mouth, a torso, legs, arms etc.
1 Corinthians 12
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues[d]? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.
