Tag Archive - parents

Taking and Making The Time

January 14, 2008 in Ministry with 0 Comments

This Sunday morning I had a 1st grade Sunday School/Small Group teacher that was out sick. Since I got late notice I decided to go ahead and teach the class myself. It offers a nice opportunity to spend time with the kids on a more intimate level.

One particular little boy who came yesterday was NOT in a good mood. I could see the scowl on his face from across the room. I can usually tell right away which kids have fought with their parents on the way to church, and this kid fit the description well. I approached him and asked his parents if everything was okay, and was greeted with the usual, “Mind your own business!” response.

Fast forward 30 minutes later… The kid who is sitting next to the grumpy 1st grader tells me that he has been hit. I tell him to just go back, sit down, and try hard to not make him mad again. But secretly I’m watching my grouch to see if he does it again, and sure enough. I catch him from a distance popping this kid again on the head, for daring to talk to him.

Now usually hitting will get you on my bad side immediately, and often is met with an ejection from that day’s activities. (I know there are exceptions, but usually hitting and violence is not tolerated in any way.) I called the grouch over to me, and felt like I should just be as gentle as possible. I got down on my knees and asked him if something was wrong. It wasn’t 10 seconds later that my grouch was a crying, sniveling tear bag and rambling on about he didn’t get any sleep last night. I asked him if I could pray that Jesus would help him make some better decisions for the rest of the day, and he was genuinely excited that I offered to pray with him. I prayed a short prayer with him, and gave him a big hug. He slowly made his way back to the table and I didn’t have any more problems for the rest of our time together.

I got to thinking later, that I hope I haven’t missed the opportunity to offer a kind word or a gracious prayer to other kids that have acted in the same way. It’s so hard with hundreds of kids running around to always listen for the Holy Spirit’s prompting in such matters. I’ll be making a more conscience effort to let God speak to me regarding each and every kid I interact with. God willing, I can be used to bring some comfort to hostile situations.

Baby Name Remorse

January 2, 2008 in Links, Ministry with 0 Comments

CNN: Baby Name Remorse

Regret is common after any big decision, and few prenatal decisions these days are as open to debate as picking a child’s name. Rare are the parents who haven’t invested in a small library of baby-name books or trolled the Internet for a name unique enough to be usefully Googled, but not so weird as to cause ridicule.

“Today, there’s this perception that naming a child is almost like naming a product — there’s this huge national drive now to not be like anyone else,” says Laura Wattenberg, author of “The Baby Name Wizard” and founder of the blog BabyNameWizard.com.

That may be one reason some parents have second thoughts when they realize they’ve picked the present-day equivalent of Jennifer or Justin.

I work with kids, and because of this I am perfectly familiar with the popular names of children. When I worked in the inner city area of Dallas, the names were of a certain variety. I won’t share examples; but let’s just say there weren’t a bunch of names like Pierce or Kaitlyn. In Lubbock just about any girl names that start with the letter K are popular; as well as any variation of Alyssa (and trust me there are about 100 different way to spell that name.) My favorite are the names that are spelled incorrectly for how they are pronounced. I will NOT be listing these names in case I offend any interested party…

Is My Wife Jealous?

November 14, 2007 in Links, Personal with 0 Comments


Silicon Valley’s richest bachelor to Wed

How excited are her parents about this marriage? Wonder if there’s a prenuptial??? I’ve always wondered if when you are unfathomably(sic) rich if you can ever truly trust that someone loves you for who you are, and not for what you have. I’m sure it’s possible, but wouldn’t it always be in the back of your mind?

Which leads to a really excellent question: Why does a Billionaire Marry?

Bedtime Frustrations

August 24, 2007 in Links with 1 Comment

It’s a little long, but parents everywhere will appreciate the idea.

Stolen from Bag of Nothing….

#1 Children

August 20, 2007 in Links, Personal with 0 Comments

Came across some excellent research regarding the importance of children. As a parent, my response to this is, “Duh!” Of course children are the most important. Their well being, future, education, everything about them is of the utmost importance. It’s baffling to me that most candidates for political office are more concerned with the things we parents care little about. Speak to me about my children’s future, and you will have my attention!

Americans Are Most Worried about Children’s Future


With the 2008 presidential election campaign well underway, a new survey suggests that the biggest issue of them all may well be one that leaders do not seem to be focused upon: the well-being of America’s children. When asked to indicate which of eleven changes were “absolutely necessary” for the U.S. to address within the next ten years, the issues that emerged as the frontrunners were “the overall care and resources devoted to children” and “the quality of a public school education.” Each of those challenges was listed as changes that were absolutely necessary within the coming decade by 82% of the adult population.

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