Object lessons

I'm really passionate about teaching deep spiritual truths.  I especially love it when I get a glimpse of the beautiful way God designed this world to work and for just a moment, I get it.  Instead of being distracted by my pride, worry or whatever sin is masking my view, I get to see what God intended me to see.

Those moments are rare but when they happen, I believe it's true worship.  They often include music, either with others or on my own. 

I love playing the guitar and singing songs of the faith.  When I do this I often go to my bedroom to not disturb others and will use my nice guitar.  (It lives in a guitar case and stays tuned).  When I do this, it's not uncommon for Boy #1 to get my "home guitar" (which lives on a hook on the wall beside my husband's banjo) and strum along with me.  I try hard to ignore the fact that his sounds horrible since he doesn't know how to fret the chords, and encourage him to sing and play along.  Those are sweet moments.  I like to think God is smiling at us as we sing our songs to Him.

Last night at kid choir, I was ambitious to teach 2 new songs in 30 minutes.  We have a musical coming up and in order for them to know the songs before we start teaching choreography, I need to get a move on.  The week before I had taught 1 song and had intended for them to really know it.  That was quite a bit to expect from a fairly young group.

This week, the first song was about the parable of the lost lamb.  I love that story.  I used to tell it to the boys when I would push them on the swings.  I brought a lamb puppet and acted out how loved the lamb felt by the shepherd.  I then got to tell this group of sweet kids that they are a beloved lamb of God and He wants to be their shepherd.  Wow.  Some of my students are in church regularly and are taught by their parents the love of God.  Others aren't.  They got to hear that last night.  I know God smiled on that moment.

I went on to teach them the catchy chorus and verse.  Fun song, beautiful meaning.

I then taught them that Jesus is the only way to salvation.  The songs is about shining Jesus' love to others.  What a beautiful thing to teach kids.

My own boys are really into military right now.  Boy #1 is having separation anxiety when I drop him off at kindergarten.  This is a new thing--he's never had a tough time with this before.  I asked him why the other night and his response broke my heart:  "I just love you so much it's hard to say good-bye to you."  This coming from a boy who runs around the house pretending to shoot everything he sees, including me felt a bit ironic, but welcome to the complex world of the emotions of a boy.

I typically walk the boys into school but on really cold or rainy days we do the drop off line.  Boy #3 loves the drop off line because he doesn't have to walk in and back out of school, but boys 1&2 really don't like it.  Yesterday we did the drop off and when #1 figured out we were doing it he started crying.  I took a deep breath and delivered a pep talk that was inspired by watching Band of Brothers (WWII miniseries my husband likes).  It went something like this:  "Let's pretend you're paratroopers.  Right now, you're in the airplane, just about to be in the right spot for you to parachaute into the enemy's territory.  It may be scary, but it's your job to take a deep breath, pray for courage and do your duty.  You can do it.  I love you.  Make me proud."  And they did.  No tears when I opened the van door and they waved good-bye to go in the school.

I asked Boy #2 how drop off went in the building and he said it was OK but he doesn't want to do it every day.  I guess my pep talk was good but not that good.  I love that I was able to take something that they're interested in and apply it to a tough situation.