because it will

(originally posted 4/21/08)

I think everyone knows by now that Doug & Jill, my longtime youth pastors and friends have accepted the District Youth Director position for the state of Oklahoma and are currently in the process of moving to Oklahoma City. They have accepted an offer on their house and so probably within a month or six weeks will be fully moved out of Ponca City. As you can imagine this is stressful. Not only is it stressful simply because they are leaving their home of 8 years and will be moving two hours from all of their close friends but they have the added stress of a new very busy career and 4 month old baby. I'm not even sure how they've made it this far but with God's help they have and they still have a long road ahead of them. They now have to find a home in Oklahoma City, pack their current home and move into their new home all before mid May when they again have to pack up their entire family and move to Turner Falls Youth Camp for 6 weeks to run the Assemblies of God youth camp's for the summer. WOW! Through all of this though the youngest member of the Everaard family has taught me an important lesson. Grayson Everaard, now just 4 months old, has taught me to "be still and know". How?...you might ask. Think about it, this little tiny man is under just as much of a time crunch as the rest of us and yet he is fully reliant on his mom and dad. He doesn't attempt to grow up too fast or rush through his days, he just takes things slow and allows Doug & Jill to tote him around wherever he needs to be. 

Lesson Learned? We should allow the same for ourselves with God. He knows how to pack up our homes and move us to another city (so to speak) and we don't have to worry about it. When it is time to go he will strap us into our car seats, make sure we have clean diapers and enough milk to drink and place us in our new home with everything we need to survive. Gray isn't worried. He's not stressed out. He hasn't attempted to learn how to make his own bottles and change his own diapers just so that Doug and Jill won't have to worry about doing it...NO! Despite the chaos around him and all the things on Doug and Jill's to-do list Gray simply is who he is and does what he can do. Why do we do the opposite with God? Why do we attempt to "change our own diapers" when we aren't ready for that? Do we think God has forgotten how to or that he won't remember we need a dry diaper? Do we think if we don't feed ourselves that God will just let us starve? Are we afraid that if we don't pack up boxes and put them in the moving truck that God won't use us anymore? Would Doug and Jill do these things to Gray? NEVER! They wouldn't leave him in Ponca City if he refused to pack up his own room...that's absurd. Try and apply this principal to your own life. I know I will. God knows what we can handle and what we can't and he will never ask us to accomplish more then he knows we are capable of. We should just lay back, take our bottles and trust that everything will work out...because IT WILL!!

play ball

(originally posted 2/25/08)

A couple of weeks ago, as I was playing with Maddox, I tried to get him to roll a ball back and forth between the two of us. I would place him on the floor and then walk away from him so that I could sit across the room, but by the time I could sit down a few feet away he had gotten up and was walking toward me. He would then sit either next to me or in my lap and roll the ball toward the spot where he used to be sitting. I tried to correct him several times repeating the process of placing him against one wall and trying to walk myself to the other wall before he could get up and follow me, but it wasn't working. Eventually we ended up where he would just sit in my lap, roll the ball to no one and then get up himself and fetch the ball. All I could do was laugh at the logic, or lack thereof, in my 19 month old. He wanted to play with mama and he wanted to roll the ball but he also wanted to be close to me and sit in my lap and he wasn't able to logically think through the fact that we couldn't do both. 

Lesson Learned? In order for rolling the ball back and forth to truly work Maddox has to do his part and he also has to allow me to do my part. Unfortunately, Maddox wanted to do both his and my part, which in the end only wore him out and caused us to have to stop playing sooner than we probably would have if we had split the "work". When we insist on "rolling the ball" both ways, between us and God we not only rob ourselves of what God has for us but we also wear ourselves out by blindly rolling the ball, running and getting it and rolling the ball again, when instead we could be sitting in one place rolling the ball one direction and allowing it to come back to us. By allowing God to do his part, and roll the ball when it's His turn, we not only won't run ourselves out of energy and excitement for the game, but we will also allow God to play a part in our lives. So...sit down, relax, roll the ball and wait for the ball to come back to you. And don't be afraid when you feel like the Lord is far away. He may just be across the room waiting for you to roll the ball so he can roll it back. 

uninhibited

(originally posted 2/17/08)

The Lord has blessed me not only with a 3 1/2 and 19 month old...but He made them BOYS!!! Having two boys has taught me a lot of things I never learned in my first 21 years of life, especially growing up with two sisters. Some lessons have made me laugh, some have made me cry and others I've just had to walk away from and take a deep breath. One of the biggest "laugh worthy" lessons I have learned is that the male species is born with an abnormal amount of pride for their "bodies"...if you know what I mean. Even as infants they prefer to be naked and once they are old enough to walk and talk they are more then excited to show off the "goods" to whoever is willing to look!! I'm still not sure why God gives them this uninhibited sense of pride, but He does! Tonight, as we were putting the boys in the bath, Ashtyn disappeared into his room looking for a particular toy he wanted to play with in the bubbles. As I went to look for him, I rounded the corner to his room and there he was sitting buck-naked on his floor digging through a basket of toys. He then stood and walked down the hall toward the bathroom ready for his bath. As my 3 1/2 year old son walked completely nude throughout our house, casually picking up toys and talking to me all at the same time...I realized that this uninhibited pride isn't so bad after all. It is God given and maybe, just maybe, it's good!

Lesson Learned? Just as my son so willingly and pridefully prances about in "all his glory" in front of me casually chatting about his day...I could and should be this same way with the Lord. Now...stay with me here. I'm not saying that during your daily quiet time or while listening to praise and worship music on your I-Pod that you should "bare all" physically, what I AM saying is that you should "bare all" spiritually. Why is it that as children grow they develop a sense of people looking at them and tend to become more embarrassed and more "covered up" in order to hide things they don't want others to see or know? We do this very same thing with the Lord. We think that we can somehow hide things from the Lord. Well, we can't. He created us. He knows what we look like completely covered and completely stripped down. Why waste our time attempting to cover something He already knows is there. Walk and talk and parade yourself to your Lord...good, bad, ALL! Bare your soul to the Lord and open up to Him. Don't lose that innocence and pride in who you are before your Lord, stripped down and yourself. Just be you to your father.

icy patch

(originally posted 2/11/08)

As often as I can, I try to do my grocery shopping on Friday mornings because Brandon has Friday's off and so, if I want, I can go grocery shopping by myself! But also from time to time I try to take  one of the boys with me. It's fun to spend that time with just one of them and plus whoever goes usually gets to pick out a new toy! It's a fun little thing that they enjoy and so do I! This past Friday it was Ashtyn's turn to go with mom and so we loaded up early that morning and headed to Wal-Mart. It had snowed on Thursday and so there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground and even some ice too. When we got out of the car at Wal-Mart and began walking across the parking lot I told Ashtyn to walk carefully because I could tell that some spots on the ground were still pretty icy and slick. As we approached a particular patch of ice I gripped Ashtyn's hand tight in mine. As we crossed the icy patch it struck me...Ashtyn never squeezed my hand or held on to me tighter. Why, I wondered? I didn't have much time to think about it but the Lord spoke to me in that split second as we walked through the doors of Wal-Mart.

Lesson Learned? I was protecting Ashtyn, my son, and he trusted me. As the adult and parent, I saw the icy patch from quite a distance away. Ashtyn was blissfully unaware of any form of danger or uncertainty approaching but I was on the lookout and knew ahead of time that Ash might have a hard time crossing the ice, thus me holding a tighter grip on his hand as we began to cross the ice. At the same time Ashtyn didn't think twice about crossing the ice with his mom. He didn't protest or whine that he "couldn't do it" he just held my hand and trusted me. He didn't even feel the need to hang onto me any tighter than he was before. In fact, he didn't have a reason NOT to trust me. Without a second thought, he walked confidently over the ice and into Wal-Mart! This can be totally related to our relationship with Christ. Sometimes, we as God's children, spend so much time looking ahead for the "ice" in our lives that we don't live our lives to their full potential and worse we don't allow God to do His job. God can see what is up ahead and He will take care of us. He will hold us closer when need be and He will tell us to walk carefully when we need to. Think about it, we have NO REASON to doubt that God is looking out for us so why do we? Has He EVER let you down? Has He EVER let you slip on the ice? We should trust like a child. Trust like Ashtyn did that icy morning. He was just enjoying his day, imagining things like dinosaurs and Star Wars and never once thinking that today might be the day mom lets him fall. Trust God. Trust that He can see what's ahead and live in your own world. Imagine your day away...daydream...who knows, maybe you'll get a new toy out of the deal!!!

hot pink in a grey world

(originally posted 2/3/08)

Have you ever seen the movie Legally Blonde 2? Well, if you haven’t…you should. The main character is Elle Woods. A bubbly stereotypical Sorority sister with platinum blonde hair and perfectly manicured nails graduates from law school, to the surprise of ALL who know her, and moves to Washington D.C. to take on Capital Hill in the attempt to pass a bill to stop cosmetic testing on animals. When she first arrives in Washington she is assigned to work in a specific office for a specific Congresswoman. The other interns she works with on a daily basis quickly get annoyed with her over-the-top, bubbly personality and unconventional way of doing things. Her so-called colleagues try to bring her down by personally insulting her and making fun of her behind her back. They believe in the tried and true way of politics…going “by the book” as they say. One character in particular, Grace, is especially mean to Elle. She feels threatened by Elle’s catchy tactics and fresh perspective. Both Elle and Grace are attempting to get their own bills passed. Elle’s, of course, is the animal testing bill and Grace is after a homeowner’s incentive bill. When Elle gets a meeting with the Congressman she needs to persuade to make headway on her bill long before Grace does on her own bill, Grace confronts Elle and tells her, basically, to back off and stop trying to get through life on a good smile and pink lip gloss and instead give in to the way that has made this country run for over 200 years. This makes Elle a bit sad, but instead of letting Grace bring her down she allows Grace’s comments to give her the extra drive she needs to see her bill pass! The main difference between Grace and Elle is Grace plays by the “rules” and Elle paves her own way…a new path! 

Lesson Learned? We are this way with Christianity. Grace represents a Christian who is “stuck in their ways”…someone who can’t see, or make room for, change in the church or in methods of reaching the lost. Elle, on the other hand, is a new convert or a Christian who is on fire! She is so excited and passionate about what she is doing and her ultimate goal that she will stop at nothing to see it come true…even if that means using unconventional tactics and things never seen before in order to get that done. Elle is a “hot pink sweater set” in a sea of dull, black and grey suits and ties. We should be the same way. Why not stand out? Why not be the Christian who is so over the top excited to share what we have that we don’t follow the “rules” to make it known? Why not be “hot pink” in a dark world? Elle also got things done by not signing up on a waiting list to see the important people. Instead she sought them out in their real world. She found Congresswomen at the salon and talked them into meeting with her, she found tough Congressmen at the dog park and spoke to them from her heart…she used relationships to get what she wanted and SO CAN WE!!! Get out there where the people are instead of signing up and waiting for them to come to us! It may take an extra smile and an extra “walk through the dog park” but in the end it’ll produce faster and longer lasting results!! Taking this lesson a step further, and maybe even making it more relevant to more people, if you find yourself stuck in the dull gray world of Christianity and aren’t sure where to go next…put on some hot pink lip gloss and dye your hair platinum blonde. Okay…maybe not literally, but what I mean is, get involved in something new. Fall in love with the Lord and with ministry all over again. Carve your own path and your own way of witnessing into the world and go for it! And DON’T let those still stuck in their dull grey suits bring you down. If need be, separate yourself, smile, sing, even gallop through your day! Be a little goofy and a little bubbly and a little giggly even…bring joy back to your life and to your ministry!!! You’ll have a better day for it and so will all those who come in contact with you!

mister independent

(originally posted 1/27/08)

If you know me, you know I am the mother of 2 boys. Ashtyn is 3 1/2 and Maddox is 18 months old. Ashtyn is growing up fast and is getting to the age where he wants to do EVERYTHING himself. He loves to put shampoo in his own hair, brush his own teeth and has recently started dressing himself (or attempting to anyway!). He does very well with his pants but still has a hard time with shirts and socks, which is understandable, but he's getting the hang of it! Maddox on the other hand has absolutely no desire to do any of these things. He's still part baby (I like to think ALL baby) and so likes for mom to do these tasks for him. And when you really think about it, even if Maddox wanted to brush his own teeth and dress himself it probably wouldn't go too well. I could literally put him in his room and say "Maddox get dressed!" and walk out and even if I didn't come back for 3 hours he wouldn't be dressed. He simply doesn't possess the skills to open his drawers or reach into his closet, pull out clothes and put them on. At his age, even if I picked out his clothes and laid them in his room and put him in there he still wouldn't be able to put them on. In the years to come, though, he will learn everything he needs to know and before I know it he will be dressing himself and proudly boasting about it to mom and dad. 

Lesson Learned? I would never ever ask Maddox to dress himself and I definitely would never FORCE him to dress himself. It would be ridiculous of me. I know his limits, I know what he is capable of and dressing himself is not one of those things...yet. Just as I am with Maddox, the Lord is with us. He knows our strengths, He knows our weaknesses and He will never ask us to do something that we cannot do. Now, Maddox may "want" to dress himself and he may throw a fit if I try to help Him but I know how much to help him and when to let him go on his own. There may even come a time when I have to let him go at it alone until he asks for help...and even if I see he is struggling I must let him figure it out and struggle until he either gets it or until he asks for help. Sometimes if you feel like you are wallowing and flailing and you are all alone in your situation, God is just allowing you to figure it out...or He is just waiting for YOU TO ASK FOR HELP! What a novel concept! Why is it so hard for us to ask for help? Especially from the One who created us??? The bottom line is, God won't ask us to do something we can't do or are incapable of doing but when the time comes for us to learn that "thing" He will allow us to do so, even if it means struggle for us...but, remember, He is always right there willing and ready to help us through it! Oh...and we can have as many "tries" as we want.

silent treatment

(originally posted 1/20/08)

Last week I was having an “emotional” week. One day in particular, I was short tempered and little things were making me upset and even making me cry. After the boys were in bed, Brandon and I were sitting on the sofa watching TV and something happened (I think maybe something Brandon said) set me off again. I was crying and ranting and just letting it all out. I guess “letting Brandon have it” is practically what I was doing. It had been a long day, I was tired and I just had to explode…poor Brandon just happened to be there. Well, earlier in the day Brandon had rented a couple movies for us to watch but the boys had been difficult to put to bed and when I finally collapsed onto the sofa I just wanted to veg out and watch 20/20 (it was a murder mystery….my favorite!!). So, I had turned on the TV and whatever Brandon said had set me off and so the TV was running and I was sobbing and just as I poured my heart out and told Brandon how I was feeling he turned to me and said “So, are we going to watch this movie or not?” If you’re married you know that this was not a smart thing to say. I think I turned bright red. I was so mad. It was as if Brandon was tuning out every word I had said and was only concerned with watching his precious movie. I, in turn, gave him the silent treatment (okay, so I reverted to high school, dating style fighting habits) and sulked. Brandon tried to recant and climb out of the HUGE hole he had just dug himself into but I wasn’t having it. We eventually made nice and went to bed on a good note but it wasn’t until the next morning that the Lord spoke to me. 

 Lesson Learned? We treat the Lord exactly this way. This is a double lesson because, in this scenario, both Brandon and I can represent the Lord. Assuming that I am the Lord in this situation, we sometimes have no idea that God is pouring Himself out to us. He is seeking an intimate moment of conversation and closeness and we in turn respond with something way off base. We aren’t in tune at all to the point and focus the Lord is trying to make with us. We are on a completely different plain and it can appear, and maybe even is true, that we aren’t even paying attention to Him. We think we are having a conversation when in reality we are on totally different pages. On the flip side, assuming Brandon is the Lord in our scenario, we as people can be totally pouring ourselves onto the altar and looking for a specific response and when we don’t get the response we were hoping for or striving for we get so angry that we give the Lord the “silent treatment”. We walk away and refuse to even talk through what the Lord is saying. He is taking us in a specific direction but we refuse to follow. The Lord is looking out for us. He wants what’s best for us. We have to strive to be in tune with Him and in our prayers and conversations with Him make sure we are not speaking on a surface level and assuming we’ve spent quality time with Him. We also can’t assume we know what answer is coming and when we don’t hear exactly what “we want” refuse to listen any further. Like I said “how childish." Instead, any time we seek the Lord, we have to prepare our hearts for any answer that might come. And regardless of what we hear, we must trust the Lord and believe that He knows exactly what we need. Let’s not forget, the Lord lives in tomorrow, next week and even next year. He sees the BIG picture! Let’s be thankful for that instead of resenting it in a moment of immaturity.

completely in the moment

(originally posted 1/12/08)

In order to fully portray this week's lesson, I am going to have to open up and be a bit transparent. Lately, I have been dealing with a lot personally. Life has delivered a lot of "surprises" and along with those "surprises" have come tears, fear, stress and tons of self reflection and prayer. As I come through this time in my life and try my hardest to keep my faith I am beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Not all issues are resolved and some answers haven't come (and some answers that did come weren't the ones I wanted) but I am constantly reminding myself to "turn it over to the Lord" and doing my best to actually do that! While in the midst of this time in my life, I have been reminded of what the Lord says about children. All throughout the Bible the Lord encourages us, as Christians, to be like children...to worship like children with full abandon, to love like children unconditionally and, particular to my case, to trust like children without fear. As I was giving my boys a bath the other night, on a day that had been particularly hard for me, I was allowing doubt and fear to creep into my mind and cloud my thinking. I was struggling. As I watched my boys in the bath I noticed how they laughed out loud and danced and spun in circles. I watched them crack each other up simply by putting bubbles on their heads and how they yelled "Mom watch this!" at the top of their lungs. I couldn't help but smile. The Lord spoke to me in that moment and reminded me to "be like a child". As my boys took their bath they had no fear that I would walk out of the bathroom and never return, they had no fear that their wouldn't be a snack waiting for them after they got on their pajamas and they had total confidence that when they woke up the next morning mom would be there to make them breakfast. They were living completely in the moment and having fun doing it.

Lesson Learned? I re-learned at that very moment that the Lord, just as I want for my boys, wants me to live in the moment and not worry about next week, tomorrow or even this afternoon. He wants me to laugh and smile and dance and spin circles until I fall over. He wants me to crack up over the small things and know, just know, that in life's next moment He will be there to provide exactly what I need. I know, as a mother, that if my sons were constantly asking if they would eat today or worrying if they would have clothes to wear or milk to drink it would break my heart. I hope that they will always trust their mom and dad enough to provide for their needs. I believe God feels the exact same way about us. We are HIS children, I am HIS daughter, and He WANTS to take care of me. All I have to do is enjoy His love and rest knowing He is constantly working to take care of me.

lean out

(originally posted 1/6/08)

This week I watched Elia, my niece, for a few hours while her dad helped Brandon set up the boys’ swing set that their grandparents got them for Christmas. All three kids (Elia and my two boys) were playing very hard and had gotten out nearly every toy from every room! They were each sort of playing separately from one another and Elia had attached herself to this rocking horse pony that belongs to Maddox. It is a rocking horse but the body of the pony is more realistic then just plain wood, complete with hair and a mane and everything! You can even push the pony’s ear and it sings this song about “being a pony” and “jumping and running”. So, Elia was sitting in the living room petting the pony when she accidentally pushed the pony’s ear and made him sing. She obviously couldn’t figure out how to make him sing again and so she started fussing. I didn’t notice at first what she was doing until her fussing got so loud that it made me go over to her and find out what was wrong. She was whining and wrinkling up her nose and pointing emphatically at the pony’s mouth. I finally figured out that she wanted him to sing again. So, I pushed the pony's ear and walked away. The pony sang his little song and then again the whining and fussing started up. After repeating this process two or three times, Elia eventually quit crying when the pony would stop singing and instead would simply lean over and stare at me until I would come and push the pony’s ear again. She figured out that she didn’t need to cry to get her way, she just needed to let me know she was ready for the pony to sing again. 

Lesson Learned? We act this very same way with God. We know that He will come through, we know that He is aware of our needs and yet we still cry, whine, snot and throw a fit every time He doesn’t respond to us immediately. But just as Elia eventually learned she didn’t have to act out this entire scene to get me to help her we have to learn that all we have to do is turn our eyes upon Jesus and he will meet our needs. If we will just “lean out” and make eye contact with him He will answer us. No whining necessary.

follow the leader

(originally posted 12/16/07)

This last week I was asked to lead Praise & Worship on Wednesday night. The Wednesday night band is very small consisting, normally, of just Jill, me, Brandon and a guitar player named Kent. So, this week it was just Me, Brandon and Kent. As we were practicing, I was trying to get through the songs fairly quickly and so I wasn't singing each song as long as we normally do. (For Example: where we normally would sing the chorus twice I was only doing it once) As the lead, I have to signal to the rest of the band where to go in the song with hand gestures. Each part of the song has its own signal. As we were coming out of the bridge and into verse 4, I was signaling verse to the band but when I went to sing the verse the band continued playing the bridge another time through. I turned around and made eye contact with Brandon. He stopped playing and I said "I was signaling verse." He said, "Oh sorry, we normally play the bridge through again and so I wasn't even looking for a signal yet."AH-HA! I think you know where I'm going with this. Brandon wasn't expecting a signal yet, to change what we were doing in the song because we "normally" didn't do it that way. Lesson Learned? Always keep your eyes on the One giving the signals. We may not be expecting a change in our path and even may think we know where we're going, but the one giving the signals is the only one who truly knows and He is in control. Keep your eyes on Him and you will always know where to go and what to do next!

it bit me!

(originally posted 12/10/07)

A week ago, I was watching Seth for a couple of hours and I also had Ashtyn and Maddox. Doug & Jill were at a meeting and Brandon was at a board meeting at the church. Maddox was winding down for bed and Seth and Ashtyn were playing in his room, so I took the opportunity to get some housework done. I was in the kitchen doing dishes when Seth and Ashtyn made their way into the kitchen and were playing behind me. Suddenly, I hear Ashtyn screaming at the top of his lungs and turn around to see tears streaming down his face. He was bright red and was holding his hand up toward me through blood-curdling screams. Seth had backed up against the wall and was standing wide-eyed staring at what was happening. Of course, I immediately picked up Ashtyn and started asking over and over "What happened?" "What's wrong?" I finally composed myself enough to actually look at the hand that he was still reaching toward me and noticed a brown substance covering his fingers and hand. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what had happened and could only understand Ashtyn repeating "It bit me!" over and over while still screaming and crying. Only then did I look over where the boys had been playing and noticed there was a lit candle close to the edge of the counter. Apparently, Ashtyn had reached up onto the counter and stuck his entire hand deep into the melted wax of the candle...I felt horrible. I rushed him to the bathroom and soaked a washcloth in cool water and wrapped up his hand. I already felt like a horrible mom and the biggest fear running through my mind was that I would pull away that washcloth to find that skin had been burned or, even worse that skin would be peeling off or blistered. Luckily the only thing I saw when I removed the washcloth was a perfect little hand. I held Ashtyn for several minutes, in my lap, stroking his hair and whispering that everything would be alright. He slowly stopped crying and eventually got down to go play again. Later that night, after Seth had gone home and I was putting Ashtyn to bed, he looked up at me and said "Mommy, when my hand was hurting you said everything was fine!" and he gave me a hug. My heart melted. It meant so much that my little son had so much faith in me. He hung on every word I said. When I told him "everything was okay" he believed me and didn't question me. Simply because I'm his mom he knew that I was telling him the truth and that I would protect him no matter what! 

Lesson Learned? As soon as Ashtyn said to me "you said everything was fine" it hit me like a ton of bricks...that's how I should be with God. When I'm hurt or something goes wrong in my life it's okay to crawl up into my Father's lap and let him stroke my hair and hold me and whisper that "everything will be okay". I further realized, later, that Ashtyn never did understand what had happened to him that night. He kept repeating "It bit me!" not that he had stuck his hand in a candle. He knew only that he felt pain and needed his mommy. It doesn't matter sometimes what has happened to us and it further doesn't matter if we understand what has happened to us, what matters is that God sees the problem and knows exactly how to fix it. Even if the only "fix" is some "lap-time" with the Lord.

work in progress

(originally posted 11/19/07)

We've recently been doing some minor renovations around our house. You know, the things that you've been "meaning to do" ever since you moved in, but 2-years later they are still left unfinished. For example, we finally replaced the light fixture that was in our bathroom. We found this really nice fixture at Lowe's and couldn't wait to put it up...well, when Brandon replaced the fixture the new one didn't line up exactly on the wall where the old fixture did, so now there are spaces on either side of the new fixture that we have to paint because the old color of the bathroom is peaking through. What I'm saying is that this minor change with a beautiful new fixture has created yet another task that hopefully won't take us 2 years to accomplish! Lesson learned? In life, or in your Christian walk, small changes (even the most exciting and "beautiful" ones) usually create more work and responsibility. We are a work in progress and can expect new challenges even during the best of times.

bumps and bruises

(originally posted 10/22/07)

My son Maddox is 15 months old. He is ALL boy and likes to play rough. I've noticed over the past few months that he enjoys running full speed down the hallway from his bedroom and into the living room. The only problem is as he rounds the sofa he usually loses his balance and falls head first into the coffee table. This has resulted in MANY bumps and bruises across his forehead. What's funny is Maddox seems to forget that bump or bruise and the next time he comes down the hall, he comes running full speed and rounds the sofa only to hit his head once again. What a lesson we can learn about life from my 15 month old son. Ignore that bump on your forehead. Forget the failure or mishap of yesterday and live life full speed. If we approached everything as if we couldn't fail...what would we accomplish?? Lesson Learned, silence that bruise and run full speed!