Thursday, June 16, 2011

Mr. Tom

Because it has been Bible School week, our kids have been REALLY cranky. Last night when we were headed back to church, Ben asked who his teacher was going to be. Jeremy told him Mr. Tom. Ben adores Mr. Tom and loves to go to Rainbow class with him. Ben started to cry and said that he didn't like Mr. Tom and didn't want to go to Rainbows.
Jeremy and I encouraged Ben and reminded him how much he loved Mr. Tom and all of the fun that he had. While we were sitting in the Cafe eating dinner, Mr. Tom came in and sat at the table next to us. Ben looked at him and said, "Mr. Tom, I said 'I don't like Mr. Tom,' but they [he pointed at my mom, Jer and I] said, 'Yes, I did like him.'" Then he turned around and kept eating his dinner. We are so grateful for a gracious Mr. Tom who loves our Ben!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The big question

So, Ben's devotion talked about how we are miracles. It showed a picture of a group of kids with a baby and talked about how God creates us in our Mommy's tummies. Not even thinking, I said, "Did you know you were in Mommy's tummy once?"
He kind of looked at me and said, "Did God have to break you to put me there?"
I said, "Nope, he just puts babies in Mommy's tummies."
That was really not a satisfactory answer for him though! He said, "But Hooooooow?"
So, I said, "Well, he just has a special way of putting babies there. Isn't that cool?"
I guess adding the word cool to the explanation makes it better because it worked. He smiled and said, "Yeah, it is!"
I'm really glad that the conversation ended there and he didn't add some thing like, "Well, how do they come out?"

Monday, June 13, 2011

Pastor Benjamin

This morning was the first day of Bible School (such a great day)! I was sitting in the foyer at church working on some name tags. Ben was in Jeremy's office (to my right and up some stairs) and my mom was in her office (to my left). The phone rang, which usually makes me panic because a call before VBS starts is usually someone cancelling.
I heard Ben talking and my mom talking. Somehow, he called one office from another. He talked to Mom for a minute. Judy, the treasurer, whose office is next to Jer's, told Ben he wasn't talking to anyone. Ben said, "Yeah, I'm talking to Grammy Pastor!"
Mom got him to hang up the phone. He ran down stairs to me and said, "Mom, I just talked to Grammy on the phone. I told her, 'This is Pastor Benjamin!'"

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Spiritual conversations

Since it has been so long since I've posted a blog, I decided to post two stories tonight. Hopefully now that summer is here I can be a little more faithful!

We are working with Ben on memorizing the 23 Psalm. He's good a memorizing songs and stories that we read a lot. After reading the book Faith Training (which I recommend for anyone with kids), I decided that he could start learning small passages. So far he "knows" the first two verses: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters.
We tried to practice tonight and he got out, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" with a little help. Then he decided that he was going to say it to us so that we could repeat it. This is what we got:
God is my life.
God is everything.
Quiet waters.
He got two really important points... and part of the verse!

Our game at bed time right now is pretending that Ben and Jer are lions and I hide. It ends in Jeremy "attacking" me and Benjamin saving me. This usually results in Jeremy, or me, getting some sort of injury as Ben flails about.
Tonight, Ben got a little out of control and kicked Jeremy in the face. After Jeremy's recovery, he tried to talk to Ben about it, which was slightly unproductive. After prayers, Ben hugged him and said, "I love you, Dad. I'm sorry I kicked you in the face."
Jer: "It's okay, Ben. I forgive you."
Ben: "No, Dad, I forgive you. (hugging me) Mom, I forgive you, too. (arms extended) I forgive ALLLL the people."
We need to explain forgiveness soon!