And the winner is...Ezra!

The quarter is yours, my good lad. I was very impressed that you did not want to hold that accomplishment over your older brother's head. You really didn't want me to give you the quarter in front of him. I am sure that you had your reasons. He may have weadled you out of it in some, elder brother sort of way. So, I am not making too much of it. How, oh how can I get you fellows to do well and work together is the dilemma? For now getting you out of the bed and seeing the gleam of competition in your eyes when you have beaten your oponent in the most basic of skills is thrilling to me. I don't want "one up manship", I want the thrill of victory to motivate excellence in whatever you are able to do and the yearning to go to the next endeavor. I do hope that you will get that from this exercise of the wake up drill. Happy spending your quarter!

At the very last second there is always something to distract us.

It is a delight of mine to watch my dear baby boy board the bus to go to school. Today, I thought that I had an extra second to get my coffee from the kitchen and get back before the bus pulled up. Something inside said, just wait a moment. I did and no quicker than I had said that the bus appeared and whisked my baby into his day. Just that blink of the eye, reminded me that we are readying ourselves for our Savior's appearing. One small thing, turning our head from His truth to our selfishness and we are left or missing it. Not the legalism of rites and rituals, but the settled loving expectations of His mercy and power over our sins and frailties. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, but we can be in Christ or not in Christ. We can miss what He is doing in our lives, for the selfishness of pity parties and grumbling. Help, dear Lord, that I not be going for my coffee cup, when the Heavenly bus appears.

Recipes for Rebellion, Talks about King David

We talked a little about King David this morning. He was his mommy's baby also. Sometimes that is an advantage and sometimes not. It wasn't an advantage the day the Reverend was coming to dinner. We laughed that the whole family knew that there was no way that God could have chosen David to be king. God had chosen their family, but there was no way that the baby could have been the one He was choosing. They sent him as far from the blessing as there could be. Don't even wash for dinner, you won't have to meet the Reverend at all, because you don't ever get that sheep smell off yourself, even after many baths. We big families have our own language of remembering and of forgetting. We have a way of showing and not showing love to everyone. David was close to God, if he wasn't close to the blessing of that day. God was showing us all something in and through David and the big family dilemma. Nobody slips out of God's fingers for lack of hands to care for them. He cares when mother is at the end of her strength. None of us are forgotten, in the morning or at any other time. He holds us all in the palm of His hand as only children and cares for us as specifically as the first child and babies us as surely as the eighth child. There is no limit to His show of love in the number of children. He alone is infinite and we can find His love in whatever family number we are. (Read the position in the family book by Kevin Lehman, if you can) Don't miss the similarities there are growing up 6th and don't miss any of the blessings of knowing God there.

Christmas Card Submission (late:()