Cluck, Cluck, Sew is hosting a {perma}link party for online quilting tutorials --- there's already 121 entries and I'm happy to see some of my favorites popping up... This is going to be a great reference, thinks me!
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Since I haven't done this in awhile, I thought perhaps an installment of 'Our weekend in REVIEW' would be appropriate, especially given my lack of picture taking and sewing:
- The Olympian LateNighter on Friday was fun if not a bit, well, late for me. Ordinarily I don't have difficulty staying up, but for whatever reason the combination of staying up 'til midnight, chasing down 15 energetic kids, bowling for what seemed like hours on end, pulling together cookie pizzas in record time, running late picking up 'real' pizza for dinner, doing dishes and setting things straight for church on Sunday morning ---- all after putting in an 8 hour day at the office --- made me a bit sleepy. *grin* I'm sure proud of the kiddos who've worked so hard to earn their club membership. We participate in Word of Life's Local Church Ministries program and I do really enjoy it. I'm an AWANA kid myself, but Word of Life is excellent for Bible verse memory, developing and encouraging spiritual habits (such as prayer, Christian service, and a daily devotional time), and applying the lessons of Scripture in real time.
- Saturday I {subconsciously} determined to sleep in until 11:30 ---- I didn't stir once, despite our east-facing bedroom window. *grin* A mid-afternoon memorial service for my mother's uncle took up much of the day. My mum's family is in many respects non-religious, but Uncle George's eldest daughter {a devout Catholic} asked my dad to perform the service. We're not Catholic and my dad is not a pastor, but he was willing to speak all the same. He focused on the brevity of life and the reality that death is not the end ---- the Bible teaches that there is life after death and we need to be ready to meet God face-to-face. Dad spoke in particular from Psalm 90 --- which is a prayer of Moses. "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Ps. 90:12). He talked about the will of God for each of us ---- of putting our hope and trust in Jesus Christ and what He has done on our behalf in dying to set us free from sin.
- Sunday = teaching Junior Church --- I had been thinking a lot over the past week about the 1st Amendment and our Freedom of Speech as Americans. In preparation for Junior Church I decided to do a study on what God says about 'free speech' in the Bible. I zeroed in on Matthew 12:34b for the meat of my lesson --- "...out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks" --- and challenged my kids to consider what God says we should and should not say. We had quite the list going and one on the "don't" side of things that we found repeated frequently throughout Scripture is God's command not to lie. My kids came up with all sorts of instances where people lie --- telling half-truths, lying to spare someone's feelings, lying to avoid being punished, lying so others will think better of us, embellishing the truth --- my goodness, the list seemed unending! Talking about lying led us to James' discussion about wrangling the tongue. The Bible teaches that our tongue needs to bridled and brought under control (3:3) --- it likens the tongue to a tiny spark that sets a forest ablaze (3:5), or the rudder of a ship...how such a tiny part steers the entire vessel (3:4). God directs us to tame our tongues! Yet, He also tells us many good things that our tongues can do... We talked about being witnesses for Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8; Mark 16:15); teaching the commands of God to others (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 28:19-20); offering up praise and thanksgiving to God (several of the Psalms - 71 in particular); speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15); and using our words to encourage and build others up (Ephesians 4:29-32). I used a megaphone as my object lesson --- yes, our actions often speak louder than words (we touched upon hypocrisy, too), but our words are awfully LOUD, too! It was a fun lesson, but it was also sobering --- I need to be on guard that what comes out of my mouth reflects what is in my heart.
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