Hopscotch

I was quite surprised to find that Elisabeth can no do the entire hopscotch board without extra little jumps!

I think I need some onion food

On Monday, Elisabeth had her first filling. We went to the pediatric dentist a month or so ago, and were horrified to learn that she had several cavities. So we scheduled an appointment to have them filled as quickly as we could, and Monday was the big day. She was very brave, and the filling went really well, although her lip is swollen from the procedure.

On the way home we were talking about good foods to keep her tooth healthy and she announced,

"I think I need some onion food."

[She hates onions!]

Where did you get your name?

Last night as I was putting Elisabeth to bed, she asked me,

"Daddy, where did you get your name?"

I asked her who she thought gave me my name. She guessed and aunt and uncle before settling on Granddaddy and Grandmummy. Of course, that prompted another question:

"Who gave Mommy her name?"

Again, I turned the question on her. The same aunt and uncle topped the list as Mommy's name-givers. But eventually she figured out that Pop-pop and Grandma had given Mommy her name.

After I had tucked Elisabeth in, she wanted Mommy to tuck her in as well, and continued the same line of questions:

"Mommy, where did you get my name?"

Mommy explained that we had chosen the name because it means devoted to God. Elisabeth persisted:

"But how did you know how to spell it; you know, E-L-I-S-A-B-E-T-H?"

We still have a little ways to go on teaching phonics . . .

The Call of Stories

The Call of Stories is a powerful call to stories and through stories. Robert Coles, a pediatric psychiatrist and prolific author, writes brilliantly on the role that stories play in shaping character. He writes from the experience of teaching literature at Harvard to undergraduates, and in almost every one of Harvard's graduate schools. Time and again he recounts how stories affected his students in ways that challenged and changed them - in a way only stories can do.

Although Coles isn't dealing here with children's literature, the implications are clear. We engage in stories in a unique way, identifying with the characters, feeling outrage at wrong, and even coming to see our own hypocrisy. Stories, both oral and written, can and should play a significant role in the education, and moral and spiritual formation of children. To neglect great stories is to dispense with the most powerful and vital tool of education.

For parents interested in children's literature, this is an excellent book. I'll warn you in advance that for all its merits, the conclusion is decidedly lacking. Coles clearly perceives the powerful role that literature plays, but doesn't have a larger framework of purpose within which these forces make sense. Even with first rate insight, he comes up lacking because he doesn't see the ultimate purpose behind moral formation. However, for those who see that purpose, this book will be immensely helpful.

What is the 'earth'?

Elisabeth asked a question about geography recently, and I began by answering, "We live on planet earth . . ."
She quickly interrupted me, "What is the earth?"
I explained that the earth is the planet on which we live.
She stopped me again, "What is a planet?"
I said, "It is shaped like a ball."
"Where we live is like a rectangle [meaning flat], not a ball!" she retorted.
Apparently I'm going to have to pull out the simple activities through which we see evidence that the earth is, in fact, a sphere. I love teaching science!

That's the book I was looking for

I found a book of poetry in the "reading room" at our local public library, and immediately had to find out if they had the book in the lending collection. Favorite Poems Old and New is an anthology of excellent poetry for children that includes poems of Longfellow, Wordsworth, Keats, Kipling, Emerson, Eliot, and Dickenson among hundreds of others. After being so long frustrated with poorly written poetry for children, I was delighted to find an outstanding anthology of fun poetry!

Elisabeth's zoo

Elisabeth has taken an interest in painting animals in the past month or so, and the collection of them has come to be referred to as "Elisabeth's zoo." It is amazing to me how her intrest in animals has helped her learn to control the brush far more than she does when painting free form.

The Easter Story

Yesterday I read aloud Lilly's Big Day in Elisabeth's class. I also gave her teachers The Big Picture Story Bible to preview the sections on the Easter story. I explained that I wanted to be able to share with the class what Easter is about through a book written for children. I want them to understand that it isn't about bunnies and eggs.

After previewing the book, they declined (although the teacher's aid was riveted by The Big Picture Story Bible and I left it with her to read). It was a good reminder to me of where tolerance ends. As Lesslie Newbigin states:

"But if we are talking as the Bible talks about God, who is Creator and Governor of all things, who acts in specific ways, and whose purpose is the criterion for everything human, whether in the public or the private sectors, then there is an inevitable conflict." (Foolishness to the Greeks p67, emphasis mine)

The death and resurrection of Jesus call the entire modern world into question. I could not read it to the kids as a nice story (it can hardly be called 'nice'), or even merely a good piece of literature (and I think it is excellent children's literature). I would be reading it as the true story about the defining event in the history of the world - and that is a dividing line.

So I look forward to sitting with the teachers privately, away from the kids, and talking about this event that defines all of human existence. And I pray that the nonsense of the Gospel will penetrate their hearts, and give them life.

The end of an era

Today Elisabeth had her first ever haircut!

Prayer of Confession

On Sunday, I was struck by how true our opening prayer was:

Lord, some of us walk home on these streets,
and some of us call these streets home.
We are a community of struggle.
Some of us are rich people trying to escape loneliness.
Some of us are poor people trying to escape the cold.
Some of us are addicted to drugs, and others are addicted to money.
We are a broken people who need each other and God,
for we have come to recognize the mess that we have created of our world
and how deeply we suffer from that mess.

We come before you asking you to help us work together
to give birth to a new community within the shell of the old.
We believe that another world is possible.
We believe that another world is necessary.
We believe that another world is already here. Amen.

Palm Sunday

I love holy week. Until yesterday, I had forgotten how much I love it.

At our Palm Sunday service, we began the service outdoors with the Gospel reading and then walked around the block singing worship songs. Where I live, that's just plain weird. It is more acceptable to be gay than to be Christian. I couldn't help but think that our procession was a proclamation of another reality that our culture treats as a myth.

When we returned to the steps of our church, we had a second reading outside the church. I knelt on the sidewalk next to Elisabeth as I heard these words:

'And when [Jesus] drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”' (Luke 19:41-44)

I couldn't help but shudder at the phrase "you and your children within you" as I held Elisabeth. These are solemn and terrible and fearful words of our Lord.

We entered the chapel together and continued in worship, which included a lengthy dramatic reading of the betrayal and denial in which we, the congregation were the voice of the throng asking for Barabbas. When offered Jesus, we said, "Let him be crucified!" and "His blood be on us and on our children!" More shudders.

This is the reality of the crucifixion. It is not simply a nice "Bible story." It is a gut-wrenching tale of betrayal, denial, and death of the One who is utterly faithful and kind, who went willingly to the cross.

I love holy week not because it is full of happy feelings, but because in it I see the invincible love of Jesus over our sin by the cross. The heights of resurrection morning are more pronounced for having seen during the week our sinfulness over which he triumphed.

God's love and ours

I love reading John Owen. I found this gem yesterday:

"The love of God is like himself - equal, constant, not capable of augmentation or diminution; our love is like ourselves - unequal, increasing, waning, growing, declining. His, like the sun, [is] always same in its light, though a cloud may sometimes interpose; ours, as the moon, has its enlargements and straightenings. (John Owen. Communion with the Triune God p120)

You're not a child!

Elisabeth turned to me yesterday in worship and said,

"You're not a child!"

Several times when we have talked about being children of God, she has been confused and said, "You're not a child. You're a grown-up." Her perplexity is understandable. Where else do we ask grown-ups to be children? Yet this is precisely where I am humbled in her presence and have to say,

"The only way for Daddy to enter God's kingdom is to become like you. There is no room for grown-ups in the Kingdom. God only accepts people who receive His Kingdom like children. That's the way that I need to be a child - and the way that you need to stay a child."

New tumblon feed in the sidebar

I'm going to be more actively blogging on the tumblon founders' blog on items that may be of interest to my readers here. So I've added a feed to the sidebar of this blog, or you can add it to your own feed reader here.

The great news is that before long, I'll migrate all of my blogging and photo sharing to tumblon! I'll let you know when that happens.

She's reading!

This morning on the bus, Elisabeth and I looked at her latest issue of Highlights, which just arrived in the mail. It contains an array of simple poems, stories and visual puzzles for young children. One of the pages was a very simple, six-sentence story about a dog. I encouraged Elisabeth to sound out the words and read them.

She took the sounds one at a time, put them together, and read word after word! We kept reviewing the phrase of each 5-6 word sentence, because by the time she reached the last word, she had already forgotten what the first two words said, and had to sound them out again! However, I was amazed, because this is the first time that she has read a story. She has been decoding simple words for some time now, but hasn't shown interest in decoding even simple sentences - until today.

What a world of fun is just around the corner!

Unkindness of unbelief

"'He himself loves you' . . . . Resolve of that, that you may hold communion with him in it, and be no more troubled about it. Yea, as your great trouble is about the Father's love, so you can no way more trouble or burden him, than by your unkindness in not believing it."

(John Owen Communion with the Triune God p109) I love reading Owen's writing because of sentences like that. In one sentence he captures how faith and love intertwine - and how unkind (and therefore wicked) it is not to believe God's great love for us.

"Chunky Cheese"

Elisabeth looked forward with great anticipation to her first trip to "Chunky Cheese." (We tried consistently restating it as "Chuck E. Cheese" for her to hear the proper pronunciation, but she hasn't picked it up yet.) The highlight of the day was when she accidentally threw a ski ball into the pool of the water pistol game!

Wipe clean books

Elisabeth received two wipe clean (dry erase) books for Christmas that we have been using frequently. This is one of the first times that she has written her name with only the first letter capitalized.

My parents' names

Recently when Rebecca picked Elisabeth up from school, the teacher greeted her at the door and said,

"Today Elisabeth told me that her father's name is Graham, and her mother's name is Mommy."

Turn off my imagination

Two nights ago Elisabeth was up frequently during the night. One of those times, she called me into her room and said to me,

"Daddy, can you stop my imagination?"

I smiled and said we could pray, and we did. Then she looked up at me and said,

"Can you turn off my imagination?"

We prayed again, as I tucked her in, and she was soon back to sleep.