There ARE Options…

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My son has been extremely sick with the flu or flu-like illness since Friday. My daughter finished her antibiotics for strep on Friday only to have a slight fever and 24-hour stomach bug starting yesterday afternoon. Just when that seemed to be resolving itself, she spiked a high fever and is in bed with the flu. Apparently we are sampling all of the lovelies being passed around school. Awesome. Have I mentioned how much I loathe the numerous springs we have had this fall? BRING ON THE FREEZE ALREADY!!!!

Fevers freak me out. Especially ones that make my babies cry in pain. We are only at the beginning of what I’m guessing will be 48-72 hours of fever for my baby girl. (That’s how long it took for my son.)

Add to my freak-out the fact that it’s holiday party week at school… and I’m in charge of one party and have the party favors for the other one at my house. Hello OCD nightmare.

Of course, as I’m freaking out, I’m also beating myself of with guilt because at least we don’t live in Connecticut… my babies may be super-sick, but they are super-here. So I am desperately trying not to be desperate. I AM a problem-solver.  Now let’s solve the problem.

The solution: both kids are staying home tomorrow no matter what. No one wants us to give them this for Christmas. I’ve emailed the other room mom in my daughter’s class to see how I can get the goods to her. And on Wednesday, Pa will watch whichever sickies are quarantined to our house. Adam, my mom and I will go to my son’s school and throw a spectacular Holiday Party for his class. And if my son can’t be there, we will have another spectacular Holiday party at my house when we get home. Problems solved.

I’m telling you this to remind you that there ARE options. Even when things look bleak and aren’t turning out the way you planned, there are ways to make it work. Good thing I’ve been practicing being uncomfortable this year… now to work on not being so whiny ;)

Turn Off the News

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Since the Garden of Eden, mankind has had the insatiable longing for knowledge. So much so that it is what led to the entrance of sin into what was meant to be a perfect world.

Oftentimes we even claim that we are only seeking knowledge so we know how to appropriately pray for someone. It’s an ironic sentiment considering Romans 8:26-27:

Romans 8:26-27

New International Version (NIV)

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

People, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know how to pray. Why do we lie to ourselves about this need to know the details?

As the news unfolded on Friday about the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, I became hysterical. I stood in front of the television crying… needing to know what happened. After all, I have a kindergartener. This could have easily been happening to me. I wanted to know every detail. Why? Because somehow I convinced myself that if I knew what happened, I could protect my babies better. Ridiculous, but a fairly normal reaction

My hysteria wasn’t helping anyone and I quickly realized I needed to turn the news off. But I still wanted to know… Periodically throughout the day, I checked the internet for updates. Each time reading a statement that made me cry. I mean seriously, there are no words to respond to this insanity. How have we become a society where school and other public shootings are commonplace? Isn’t this America… the leader of the free world? What is happening?

Yesterday, I came upon a statement made by Morgan Freeman about why he thinks this keeps happening. But the statement was so profound that I am finding myself sharing it with you on this somber Sunday morning.

“You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here’s why.

It’s because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed People who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he’ll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.

CNN’s article says that if the body count “holds up”, this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer’s face on all their reports for hours.

Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer’s identity? None that I’ve seen yet. Because they don’t sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you’ve just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.

You can help by forgetting you ever read this man’s name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news.”-Morgan Freeman

So I implore you to turn off the news. Remember the victims. Let the Holy Spirit intercede with wordless groans as you pray. Pray for something to change.

**I have since learned that Morgan Freeman did NOT make this statement. Regardless, it's a statement that was thought-provoking enough to share. And I still believe we should turn off the news.

Something Uncomfortable: Day 208

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So I mentioned the other day that we are having family pictures done on Sunday. And I might have mentioned that I’m panicking a bit about what we are going to wear. We need to coordinate, but not be too matchy matchy. Of course, my kids are insisting they wear particular items. My poor husband has no say in the matter and I own NOTHING that coordinates with my kids’ choices. I am humoring them so they humor me by smiling and being cute for the pictures. I found a sweater and a scarf at Old Navy yesterday.

Here’s where we are at so far:

I say so far because our awesome photographer, Amy from Amy Joy Photography, is going to come over tomorrow night to give the final approval for the outfits. You are probably thinking, “Wow! Talk about a full-service photographer!” Amy is actually one of my former “kids” from youth ministry. She came to our wedding 12 years ago when she was in 8^th GRADE! Now Amy is all grown up with a husband and a toddler and a photography business. Putting that all into writing makes me feel super old, but whatever. Amy is awesome and so are her pictures. So consider this my shameless promotion of her work.

Anyway… we are doing the photo shoot after church on Sunday. This morning I started freaking out about things like: will our hair still look good after service? Will my children destroy their outfits before we even get to the shoot? Can I handle wearing a scarf around my neck that long? And I naturally concluded… Maybe we should skip church this weekend. Even though I don’t want to skip church.

In my frenzy, I could almost hear God say, “Hey, Sparky! Have we met? I’m God. I’m pretty sure I can handle getting you to the photo shoot without incident. And I’m pretty sure you’ll look fabulous. After all, I am GOD! How about if you let Me be in charge and you go to church? K?”

K.

Sigh. I hate when my OCD side wins. I’m so glad He reminded me who is really in control.

Are you living today like you are in charge, or like God is in charge?