Category: Different Moments

Posted in Different Moments, Different Thoughts

unwrapping presence.

Posted on by Wick

This past Saturday, my girls and I took a walk to the local park for a picnic lunch.  It was incredible weather, they were in great moods, and we had peanut butter – so why not?  Looking back I noticed something phenomenal about a picture I took, that I wanted to treasure as the years roll on.  Look carefully, and see if you can notice what is unique here:

Give up?  Notice that none of my daughters are holding a cell phone, or an iPod, or an electronic device of any sort.  This is something I’m guilty of myself.  Even when I get to the point where I leave the iPod at home.  Even at the point where I can turn the phone off (or on vibrate).  I still suffer from the illness known as “I-need-to-watch-for-things-I-can-share-with-others.” syndrome.

This is not one of those posts saying “I’ve figured this out, and conquered it, and you should too.”  This is a post confessing my illness from in the midst of it, and saying you might be where I am too.  How many times in the past week have you quickly grabbed your cell phone in order to snap a picture of something incredibly cute that’s happening?  How many times have you had a thought, or heard a quote and said “I need to tweet that right now!!”   With our increasing ability to be connected, and share real-time updates, we forget – we don’t always need to.  Let’s work together against this.  Why?

1. Because we have these moments.  Sure, remembering is important.  Being able to share moments with others are important.  But if I’m sacrificing being 100% present to take in this moment, so that I can snap a cell phone picture or condense my experience into 140 characters or less….is it worth the sacrifice?

2. Because our children are watching.  Our patterns of behavior will become their patterns, multiplied.  You may have already seen it on the news:  When an accident happens, or someone is attacked on a subway, what is the popular response of those nearby?  “I better grab my cell phone and start recording this!!”  It’s almost humorous, to watch footage on major news networks, captured by someone a few rows back on a plane – seeing several other phones in front of them recording the same incident.  We are training our brains, and the brains of our children – that capturing footage/information is more important than being able to fully experience/respond to what is happening in your present environment.

3. Because we can be made new.  As we grow, our brains grow.  They form patterns, and synapses grow stronger or weaker with use.  This continues even as we become adults.  Scriptures tell us over and over again that God wants us to be made into “New Creation”, and talks about us “being transformed by the renewal of our minds”.  This isn’t magically going to happen simply by praying before bed.  We believe there are things God does to transform us, but we also believe God has created us in such a way that we can become transformed as we walk with Him!

So what does this look like? I’ve come up with some goals.  The tricky part will be, when we achieve these goals we’ll want to collect them somehow to be shared later.  That defeats some of what we’re working against in the first place!!

1. Don’t snap it!!  At least once a week/day (depending on your addiction), when something happens and you feel the urge to capture it on camera, and send to your flickr/facebook friends – DON’T.  Keep that phone in your pocket.  Enjoy the moment, soaking it up selfishly.  Allow yourself to be fully present, and respond accordingly.

2. Don’t tweet it!!  At least once a week/day (depending on your addiction), when something happens/is said and you feel the urge to share it with your twitter/facebook friends – DON’T.  Keep that phone in your pocket.  Enjoy the moment, smile at your own witty comment, share it with someone next to you, or call a friend if you absolutely have to.   Allow yourself to be fully present, and respond accordingly.

I don’t want to see any cell phone pictures or tweets about the outcome of your experiences…but if you’d want to share what you can remember after some time has passed…feel free. 🙂

Posted in Different Moments, Different Scriptures

beyond peer pressure…

Posted on by Wick

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”  Deuteronomy 6:5-7

Recently I took a walk with my youngest daughter, Ruby.  She’d grabbed a magnifying glass before we left the house, but for the first bit of our walk she just kind of walked at a normal pace – once in a while looking down through the circle as she walked.  At one point, I picked up a twig, and asked her to use her magnifying glass so that we could look closer at it together.

Looking back at this picture, I’m reminded of the verses above.  Many times we hear parents today not wanting to “force faith on their children”.  Maybe they had a bad experience of being forced to sit quietly in church, or getting yelled at for inappropriate words, and not wanting that to happen to their kids.  This approach to faith gives very little value to what exactly we mean when we say “God”.  After all, we buckle our kids seat belts, get their vaccines up to date, and keep them from swallowing poison, right?  How much more valuable is the purpose/source/future of all things that ever/will exist, and being a part of it all the way we were created/invited to? 🙂

Sometimes our kids will take initiative and discover some amazing things we never would have on our own.  The number of times my kids have stopped to watch an insect, or a bird, or a balloon….etc…grows daily.  But many more times, it’s part of our identity as parents to direct our children toward things/experiences that matter.  To pray with them.  To read scripture with them.  To talk about things that matter in the same way we examined that twig together above.

Of course, that may make us want to know a thing or two about twigs before we examine them with our children.  (speaking figuratively there, of course)  May God be with us, as we examine/experience twigs, and as we impress them upon our children and families…

 

Posted in Different Moments

like father like daughter…

Posted on by Wick

I over-analyze things.  I used to blame it simply on the fact that “I’m a guy”, and we love being right all the time, and being critical about things that we hear.  But my daughter firmly put me in my place a couple days ago, and made me realize I may be passing on more to my daughters than I realized.  🙂  It was pretty cute, really, and I think I’m okay with the results so far.

We were sitting at the breakfast table, talking about the Bible verse our whole church is memorizing this week.  I’m thankful for the giant chalk board my wife Sarah acquired for just such purposes.  Sidenote: I’m even more thankful to be blessed by a wife/mother of our children who sees a chalkboard as a functional piece of dining room decor.  What would be better, a generic painting of flowers and a french cafe….or a chalkboard to teach our kids scripture during the everyday moments? 🙂  Take that, Martha Stewart.  I love my wife.

Back to the story:  This weeks’ verse is incredibly easy: “Pray Continually” from 1 Thessalonions 5:17.  I’m pretty sure we’ve got it all memorized.  The difficulty comes in explaining what the word “continually” means to a 5 year old and 3 year old.  So I talked a bit with them about breathing.  We breathe continually, often forgetting that we’re breathing.  It’s not something we’re always aware is happening, but we are always breathing in (deep breath), and breathing out (deep breath out).  I sat back and smiled at how clever I was, watching my girls take deep breaths, and making the connection.  Until Addie finally spoke up:

“Daaaad, we don’t always breathe.  You can NOT breathe when you go underwater.  That would not work.”

I was surprised at her response, and nodded. “Well, you’re right Addie, that would definitely not be good.  But we do breathe most of the time, right?  So you can see how God wants us to be praying all the time, so it becomes part of who we are?”

She was still thinking. “Well, I guess if you had a snorkel, you could keep breathing.  Then you wouldn’t have to hold your breath.” She closed her eyes and nodded to herself, as if she’d not only proved me wrong, but fixed my statement all in one conversation.

Whoa.

And she’s only 5.  Look out world, my daughter is coming, and she’s listening to every word you say. 🙂