The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. Psalm 16:5-6
It is true that God may have called you to be exactly where you are. But it’s absolutely vital to grasp that He didn’t call you there so you could settle in and live out your life in comfort and superficial peace. Francis Chan, Forgotten God
XS has started this thing: HEY! He’ll yell at me. When I serve Elam apples first. When something has been moved since he’s been in the room. When Brian has left for a meeting and he hasn’t seen the transition.
By the end of the day I’ve had it with “hey!” No one talks to me that way, and lives to tell about it. Unless you’re adopted and still don’t trust that yes, I will in fact treat you the same as the older kids. Unless you probably have never had your own space and now that you do, you don’t want anyone messing with it. Unless you’re still confused about this parenting gig you seem to have stumbled into. I mean this guy leaves for days at a time!
“Hey!” reminds why I am home full time. I gotta be honest: lately I have re-entered IVCF turf and found myself deeply lonely for those staff, retreats, book assignments, teaching gigs and even the travel. I’d love to punch a ticket, ride a plane and get out of here!
But instead I am called: here. I get wanderlust, dream of more and then someone (or I) get sick. I get the idea maybe we could handle it and then we have a day like today when XS had a lot of “hey!” moments. When I asked if he’d peed. He said no. Then I made him go. Then he cried “I already did!” Argh. Just answer me the first time!!
The boys were at each other today. They have 50 cars but fought over the same 2. They fought over a chair at the table. Yesterday we discovered we had two copies of a Spider-Man book and yes, they fought over which copy was theirs.
But then I am grateful for my calling at home when these moments happen:
After school, we sat down for snack and “home school.” XS learned ABC’s. Calista worked on spelling words and 2 challenge words “accomplishment” and “interrupted.” Elam had Chinese. We got our writing boards out and went to work.
It was super fun. I felt like I was a good parent.
Or moments like this morning when the 3 kids put on a show “Ninjas in Space” (there are dragons in space you know!)
