Sunday Musings

We recently have been going through a series of teachings Sunday mornings entitled "imprint" which have spurred much thinking. I really do want my life to make an impression on those around me and I often find myself struggling to make that a reality. As I sat and listened to the core values of our community being presented again...it hit me. It is not my job to make an impression. It is my job to have my values in line so that He can make the impression. That takes so much of the pressure off. Okay, it doesn't take all the pressure off. But it does help.

I find myself getting my values mixed up so easily without even realizing it. I cry out over having to purge my life of stuff...but what do I want to value more - things or souls. Even more, what example do I want to give the kids.

My pr@yer for today is for Him to help me get my values in order.

So those are my musings of the day. I need to stop making it all about me and make it all about having Him in the right place in my life. (Hey that almost could be a song.)

For the record, our Sunday morning community is going to be one of the things we miss the most as we move away from Lansing.

by tammy

Where do they come from?

Growing up in a small all white farming community, my eyes were blinded to many things. I really thought that being racist meant not allowing black folk to sit at the front of the bus. I knew shipping everyone with Japanese decent to a "camp" was wrong, but that stuff doesn't happen any more. I thought that as long as you know that everyone is the same you are doing your part in the battle of race. Man, have I learned how wrong that is.

I now have been exposed to folks from all over the world, people from different ethnicities, varying religions, cultures and backgrounds. And above all I have learned that we are not the same and to say that we are actually is as ego centric as saying that as a white person I have more right to a seat on the bus than someone who is brown.

So I struggle often knowing how to help my children and my community embrace differences in a more educated way. I really think the fight is with ignorance.

An Asian American university student attended church with us recently and was greeted by several kind and loving people in our congregation. The number one question they asked, "Where are you from?" For someone who grew up in mid-Michigan the question was completely offensive. Rather than a greeting of welcome, the message was clear to this student. "You don't look like us, so you must be from 'somewhere else'". Rather than greeting her they actually were saying you don't belong.

I haven't decided what my part is. Can I really change any of this? What I can think of right now is passing on what I learn. There is a great article in PARENTING magazine that talks about the struggles of a mom of a bi-racial daughter. Read it. Talk about it. Live with it and see how you and your family can help.

The article can be found here.

One more thought....
Last year Sam and I were picking up a family from Africa to take to our weekly playgroup. We don't have many African students involved with our group so Sam was a bit surprised. "Why is his skin so dark?" Sam asked me as we helped him into the car seat. I started to explain that people from around the world all look different and people here look different depending on what their parents look like. "For example you don't look like you friend Tom who is from China." Sam's reply..."I don't?"

That is the type of ignorance that bring joy to my heart. I hope that my children grow up not thinking that we are all alike, but thinking that all people are equal.

A big lesson

We had a big scare with Ruthie Roo this past week at my mom's house. I was helping Sam clean the wax out of his ears (too much info? hmmm....)in the bathroom when Ruthie walked in. I noticed that she was headed for the cleaning supplies that had been left on the counter and I firmly told her not to touch. In the space of oh about .5 seconds she had decided to disobey and give the bottle a good squirt. The problem - the bottle was facing her. The next moments, which felt like hours, were filled with her screams and my panic over the Clorox in my 2 year old daughters eyes. Mom and I held her over the sink and rinsed her eyes out with luke warm water and listened to her screams. We gave her (and ourselves to be honest) a break about 10 minutes into it. I held her in a towel and cried with her...hoping no permanent damage had been done. We went back to the sink for round two and she started to scream again. But this time she was screaming a different tune. At the top of her lungs she screamed, "this is why you don't disobey! You get your eyes washed out." If the whole thing hadn't been so intense I know that I would have burst out into laughter. Hopefully it will be a lesson for both of us.

It really is moments like those that I learn about myself from my kids. I wonder how often HE looks down on me and wonders why I don't obey the first time. I can almost hear HIM..."don't touch. You will burn your eyes. The consequences aren't worth it." Yet I forge on and do what I want to do anyway. Then I scream over the pain that it caused me.

I have been tempted in the past week to disobey HIM in regards to our big move to China. Sometimes it just feels too hard. Like when we have strangers walking through our house and I remember everything that I love about our home and I don't want to give it up. Or when I am going through trunks of baby clothes I have been saving. I know that I don't need to store all of this stuff. It is just stuff, but it is sad none the less.

I even find myself pitching a fit in moments when I am trying to be obedient. I was reading a book about helping kids transition into other cultures and I literally freaked. "My kids won't be normal. What if moving to China emotional scars them for the rest of their lives." I cried...hard...screamed actually and then remembered the screams of my sweet little girl. At times disobeying seems easier, more fun, or better, but deep down I know that it isn't.

It is hard to obey...almost impossible at times. But worth the effort in the long run.

"What is impossible for man, is possible with HIM"

Inspired

The following quote really inspired me so I thought that I would share it with all of you.

"Those who try to keep their lives will lose them. But those who give up their lives will save them. There is a rawness and wonder to life. Pursue it. Hunt for it. Sell out to it. Don't listen to the whines of those who have settled for a second rate life and want you to do the same so they won't feel guilty. Your goal is not to live long; it's to live. JC says the options are clear. On one side there is the voice of safety. You can build a fire in the hearth, stay inside, and stay warm and dry and safe....Or you can hear the voice of adventure - God's adventure. Instead of building a fire in your hearth, build a fire in your heart. Follow God's impulses. Adopt the child. Move overseas. Teach the class. Change careers. Run for office. Make a difference. Sure it isn't safe, but what is?

- Max Lucado in "Grace for the Moment"