Birthday Presents

I've always tried to impress on my kids that they don't need a lot of stuff. For presents I always request homemade things, and we put on invitations that go out from our house, "you don't have to buy me a present, but you might like to make me something nice, like a picture or some biccies." My daughter has developed a policy of making birthday presents for everyone now. Whenever she gets a birthday invitation she asks, "What can we make for a birthday present?" We've made flags with bamboo from the garden, biccies, pictures, mammoth cards, lavender sachets, given flowers from the garden, and this latest present is a wide headband made from our bag of material scraps.

I'm quite proud of it really. The pattern comes from Altered Cloth

Now of course, I've had to make one for all the kids, son included. His is narrow in plain brown. At least it keeps his hair out of his eyes. Although I don't think Dad is too keen on his boy in a headband. I might make one for me too.

Trying on wedding dresses

Emergent Kiwi tells about the grandkids trying on Granma's wedding dress and wonders if this is part of their formation, and exploration of how the importance of marriage.

Better than Bushells

Bushells is a brand of black tea that has been around for about 120 years. They have a little jingle that goes, "Is it as good as Bushells?" We'd heard the song, when no 2 daughter Miss5 said, "I know some things that are better than bushells." Hence our list.
It was just one of those spontaneous moments when you get to see God in your kids. One of those moments that should be noted, savoured, encouraged and stuck on the fridge.
When the other older children saw it, they added some notes too.

A house blessing

T is for Theophany by Kristinsdottir. Used with permission.

Last night our wonderful priest came for dinner. After our salmon and silverbeet quiche and roast sweet potato (my favourite food) he bought out his little bottle of holy water collected from the Theophany blessing of the water service a few weeks back.

We are blessed with a priest who takes an empowering approach to leadership, to equip the whole church for the work of service (Ephesians 4), who stands back, and lets us be involved as much as he can to let us grow and use our gifts and talents for the church.

He gave the girls the task of carrying candles, which they did with much care and solemnity, while the boy carried a bowl of holy water for our priest to dip his little branch of leaves into. The kidlies followed him as he prayed and flicked holy water into each room. Pretty soon they were leading him from room to room calling, "What about the bathroom?" "And the cupboard," "Now the laundry," "Don't forget the chickens."

So now we have all, cats, chickens, guinea pigs, land, house, wife, husband and children been blessed.

Theopany is one of those moments that I remember when I think of my journey to Orthodoxy. I was happily attending the Liturgy each week, learning so much about the symbolism and story behind every action of the priest and people. When a little table appeared at the front of the church covered in it's classy (I mean it, it was pretty fancy in a modern inner city way) white tablecloth, I always panicked a little. Here would be something new and strange that I would have to try to accommodate into my God view.

The first Theophany I attended, I just wasn't up for struggling to participate in things I didn't understand. Restless small children were my easy out (how often is that the case) and I 'had' to take them to the foyer.

The friend who had first invited me to the Orthodox church was there. He had rushed up to the priest after he had prayed for God to enter the water, to ask, "How can this be?"
The priest replied in his joyful, patient, understanding way, "the Orthodox believe that God can be present in matter." My friend was satisfied. I stood there, marvelling at his ability to so quickly accept that answer, as I continued to struggle, wondering just what was I supposed to do with a bottle of holy water.

The children on the other hand have no problem with it. When they're scared at night, I go and get the holy water for them to take a sip. I say, "We have asked God to be in the water, and now we ask God to be inside you, giving you his energies and protection." When they're scared of the darkness, we pray that God chains up the dark scary things and takes them away to lock up. Then we make the sign of the cross on their beds with holy water, or sprinkle it in the room.

"Mummy," they say going to bed, "bless us with holy water." So I make the sign of the cross on their heads with a finger dipped in holy water, asking God to bless them.

Theophany is the feast wherein the Church performs the ritual of the “Great Blessing of the Waters” in which we pray, “Grant to all those who touch, who anoint themselves with it or drink from it, sanctification, blessing, cleansing, and health.” The Church acknowledges that it is Christ himself who blesses the waters and all of the elements of our earth by extension. Through Christ’s Incarnation, all material things are made holy.

As Bishop Kallistos Ware explains,“This, then, is part of the meaning of Theophany: in the eyes of one who is a Christian, nothing should ever appear trivial or mean, for the redemptive and transforming grace of the Savior extends to all things, however outwardly despicable.” from byzantineimages.com

Ten Lepers Sunday

Image © Henry Martin.
Free use for ministry purposes.
Not to be used for publication or profit.
www.sermons4kids.com/ten-leper-ppt-slides.htm

My kids love stories. I've been telling them stories for about two years now. Fairy stories, stories of my childhood, their childhood, other people's childhoods, bible stories, stories I've read. If you listen carefully, people are always telling stories. I collect them all up to tell. My kids are turning into very good listeners.

I told this story to the girls a few days before Sunday so they'd remember it when they heard it in church. I told it to my big boy on Sunday night.
As soon as I mentioned 'the spot,' he said he'd already heard it, in church that morning. Hooray! He is listening.

When I mentioned the word, "temple," the penny dropped for the girls. "This is a Jesus story."

There once was a man who had moved with his family to a new town. He left his home and his friends and his job and he moved to a new town to build a better life for his family. It was hard at first. There were so many new things to learn, new people to meet, a new way of life to learn, but they did it, and they were very happy.
One morning while the man was eating his breakfast he looked down and saw a white spot on his hand.
"What's that?" he thought. He tried to brush it off, but it didn't go. He tried not to worry about it too much, and off he went to work.
At lunch time, one of his co-workers saw the spot and stared at it. "What's that?" he asked slowly.
"Oh, nothing," said the man.
But his co-worker looked at him suspiciously. He said nothing more, and didn't go near him for the rest of the day.
That night at dinner, the man's wife asked, "What's that white spot under your chin?"
"What white spot?" the man asked, and he bought his hand up to wipe it away.
"There's another one on your hand," she said.
"No there's not," said the man. His wife said no more about it, but she put the children to bed herself refusing his help. She stayed away from him all night, and after her husband had gone to bed, she slept near the children.
In the morning, there was another spot and the man could no longer deny them. "You'll have to go to the temple," said his wife, and she didn't kiss him goodbye.

"You are unclean," said the priest. You will have to call out, "unclean, unclean," everywhere you go so people know to stay away from you."
The man left the temple and walked down the street. Every time he came near people, he quietly said, "Unclean." Everyone moved away from him, and women gathered their children and pulled them close, and then over to the other side of the street. He went home, but his family stayed away from him also. He couldn't bear it, so he left, but everywhere he went people ran away. He walked out of the city without looking at anyone, calling "unclean," without even looking if there were any people to move away from him.
Out in the desert he saw a group of people gathered around a fire cooking. The food smelt so good. He hadn't eaten all day. He approached, hoping the people would leave him a piece of bread to take. He called out, "unclean," but the people just laughed.
"We are unclean too," they called. The man relaxed and joined them.
They all tried to look after each other, but sometimes it was hard if someone was very sick, or when someone was sick themselves. They missed their families, and their jobs, and their homes, and being able to walk down the street without people running away.
They had heard about Jesus. He was the man who healed people, and forgave sins. And they saw him, walking into the town. They called out, keeping their distance, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."
Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests."
As they went, they were healed. Their skin was clean and smooth and soft, better than before. One of the men, seeing that he was healed, turned back while the others ran on to the priests and to their families. He praised God in a loud voice, and fell down at the feet of Jesus thanking him for making him well.
Jesus said, "Where are the others? Didn't I make ten people well again? Only you who comes from another land came back to praise God and thank me."
"Come," he said, "stand up and go on your way. Your faith has made you well."
So the man ran into the city, back to the temple, and his friends, and his home, and his family because Jesus had made him well.

Welcome

Last week I was really kicking parenting butt. I was great. I was happy my kids were happy, I was full of creative ideas, and ready to share them. That's when I decided to start this blog.

This week things are not going so well. Now I'm wondering what I should do with my three lovely children who are failing to appreciate that I think this week should be the same as the last.

That's the thing about kids, and so parenting them - always changing. But I'm not alone. Other people have gone before me. Other people are going through similar joys and struggles right now.

Here I, and hopefully some others, would like to share some of the joys and struggles in bringing up kids to love God and love people.

Please feel free to share your own stories.

Welcome.