Her First Ball

So part of the crazy speed of things in my life happens to be my daughter's first ball.  She was asked, Jane Austen style, by her cousin to accompany her to the Winter Ball at her church and serve as charming conversationalist and dance partner should the need arise.  However, very un-Austenesque, she did wear her hair up (although she is not of age).  She is beautiful and growing up so fast.  The above picture I caught between dances.

A second ticket was procured so that I could chaperone and act as partner to my sister.  We had a wonderful time.  My sister and I danced most dances together trading off who was to be the boy or danced with our daughters.  The Fairfield Fancy was my favorite even though I sat out.  I developed a cold half way through the ball and if I were a Bennett would have gone home early much to the chagrin of my sister.  I toughed it out knowing that my friend Acetaminophen was waiting at home for me.

The whole evening was fabulous.  I think that there is nothing so magical as a true Ball filled with beautiful dresses, chivalrous men, great conversation, laughter, music, and traditional dances (as a nod to this side of the Atlantic we did dance the Virginian Reel.)  It has got me thinking of putting on my own Spring Ball, hence life at the speed of cheetah!!!!

cheetahs, childhood, and other things that move way to fast!

With my younger dancers I play game of Fast/Slow to teach them how to listen to music, recognize different tempos, and practice gross motor skills.   We skip and gallop to the fast music and tiptoe to the slow music.  It is lots of fun and always results in lots of giggles.  Unfortunately my life seems to be stuck on the fast music with no slow down in sight.  And, unlike the 3 year olds, I am no longer giggling at the chance to gallop full speed.  I am winded and my legs are beginning to ache.

I want to slow down but the music isn't cooperating.  Life seems to be moving at the speed of cheetah and I am doing all I can to keep up.  The first month of 2014 has flown by at record speed which leaves me wondering what the rest of this year will look like if in fact I can slow down enough to see more than a blur.  It also leaves me wondering if God even wants me to slow down at this particular time or if this crazy pace is part of His plan for me...

The un-resolution Resolution

I am not into New Year’s Resolutions but God has been showing me something (and you all know that I am a slow learner) that I need to put into practice this coming year.  In the past I haven’t called it judging but really labeling people is a nasty way to rename and justify judging others in a socially acceptable way.  Labeling (judging) others is harmful to adults and detrimental to children.  For example, a child hears they are a trouble maker as a child enough times that they soon to believe that a trouble maker is what they truly are.  But God doesn’t see them as such.  He sees His own wonderful creation struggling under guilt and shame or anger and hatred and His heart breaks for them knowing that is not what He had planned for them.  

I think if we all dig a bit we can find something similar in our own pasts.  I know I have struggled to break the lies of Satan that I swallowed as a child so that I could be free in Christ.  Not all but many of them were begun or reinforced by words of others.  Arrows used by Satan to sting that stuck in my little heart.  God has removed them gently one by one healing the hurt places, allowing the garden to grow.  Can you imagine what this next generation could do if they grew up knowing the truth of who God made them?  If they grew up without the twisted lies of the evil one tainting their self image?  

“Important in any community of faith is an ever-renewed sense of expectation in what God is doing with our brothers and sisters in the faith.  We refuse to label the others as one thing or another.  We refuse to predict our brother’s behavior, our sister’s growth.  Each person in the community is unique, each is specially loved and particularly led but the Spirit of God.  How can I presume to make conclusions about anyone?  How can I pretend to know your worth or your place?”  Eugene Peterson

So this year I am going to strive to bring to fruition this truth and look with God’s eyes on everyone I meet.  For children especially, to look for what God has placed in them that is special and tell them about it so that they will hear the marvelous plan of God for their lives at least in part.  What an amazing generation of children we have growing up before us!  Let’s help to make them realize the truth about who they are in Christ.

“No recorded cultural system has ever had enough different expectations to match all the children who were born within it.”  Margaret Mead

Advent Series 301: Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning is finally here!!!!  All the expectation and preparation has come to an end.  The gifts all wrapped, the cookies all baked, And we light the center white candle.  

Everyone has their own Christmas Morning Traditions.  This is how we start our Christmas Morning.  Unfortunately it starts with a rule...the kids aren't allowed out of their rooms until we tell them it is time.  So that Daddy and I can get up and make a fabulous breakfast and set the table and have a cup of coffee before the craziness begins.  (It's funny but that rule has not once been broken.  Maybe they fear loss of presents?  No stipulation has ever been made but stay in their rooms they do, although we hear the impatience of childhood down the hall.)

Once allowed out of their rooms we have a feast of a breakfast which always includes some sort of eggs, bacon, Monkey Bread, and fruit salad along with a cookie tray of whatever is left.  During breakfast we read the Christmas Story out of Luke 2 and, generally read some devotional type reflection. Lighting the candles is exciting because the kids get to recite what each represents and then we light the center candle.  I use a three-wick candle to represent the Trinity and we talk about how God sent His Son and then later the Holy Spirit came for all believers.  This year we finished out with Christ in Christmas:  A Family Advent Celebration.

After a leisurely breakfast we move to the living room.  The leisure part of breakfast was the hardest to enforce when the kids were young.  But they both realized that 1. Mom and Dad aren't giving in, 2.  The gifts aren't going anywhere, and 3. Time with family is a better gift.  

First on our agenda this year was sponsoring a child through Compassion International.  As a family we decided to forgo some of our gifts so that we could use that money to sponsor a child.  We picked Christon from the Philippines.  He had been waiting for a sponsor for over a year.  His birthday is in March. The kids were excited that they get to send him cards in a bit!!!!  

Then we open our gifts one at a time.  We don't tear into them but open each one and enjoy the time and effort it took to pick it out.  The kids open toys if they were given any and play.  Then we remember there are more and open another one.  It is such a fun time to take our time.  My kids amaze me each and every year.  Even this year with fewer and smaller gifts they are always amazing grateful.  I think because the gifts are a byproduct of Christmas not the real thing and we have always made an effort to enforce that truth.  

We give gifts because God gave the best gift to us - His Son.  The real gifts of Christmas for my family are the special time we get to spend together, the slowly built traditions of years past that help us focus on God and on family.  The wrapped stuff under the tree is like the sprinkles on a sugar cookie.

Christmas Night we pull out The Advent Book and read it all the way through.  We talk about our day before we fall into bed, happy and exhausted!