Deuteronomy 911

Our small group started a new 5 lesson DVD study series, last Sunday evening, called In The Dust of the Rabbi-Becoming a Disciple. We studied Bible passages such as Deuteronomy 6v4-7, "4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."

And passages such as Luke 14v27-33; "27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

These words are tough stuff to live up to and as you can imagine provided lively conversation in our group. In our society and culture today, many times we are like the man building a tower toward following Christ, teaching our kids to love others more than themselves, to not be so concerned with worldly possessions, and then we get derailed or side tracked, and have to start over. If we had to rely on building that tower to reach God, we would never make it on our own. Christ stands in the gap and provides the only way to eternal life with God.

So on the way home, we were feeling pretty good about the study and discussion. It was another little boost to the fight the daily economic doom and gloom news. We arrived home to a quiet house with the babysitter greeting us. Soon after Abbie came running into the kitchen proclaiming, "The police were at our house!" Okay, so now all euphoria from the study has lifted and we are now looking for blood or other evidence of a future home project. Seeing no blood, all three kids, and no signs of obvious destruction, which usually they aren't obvious and I find them weeks later by accident and by then, no one remembers doing anything, we started to get the story of what prompted the police to think stopping by our house would be a good idea.

Julia was crying for something and Abbie in her playful way to help her said she was going to call the police. She dialed 911 and then hit the 'off' button. Jacob saw that and decided it would be fun to try too but this time he dialed 911 and hit the 'call' button. He hung up but the 911 operator called back to the house. Jacob being in shock that they knew it was him, said nothing and hung up. So, the 911 operator manual says when that happens, they need to send someone to the location. The policeman came to the door and the 13 year old babysitter had to answer a bunch of questions. She said the kids were terrified that he was going to take them to jail. The policeman looked around and saw that everything was fine and just a little kid mistake and then left. Abbie said he was a nice policeman.

We paid the babysitter a little extra and let her go home. Seeing the kids were still in a little shock was enough to learn their lesson and all received extra hugs. They all went to bed really well that night, too. Maybe an occasional house visit by your friendly local policeman would help with carrying out the Deuteronomy 6v7 passage, above.

Calvin's 'Bail Out'

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Valentine Box

It's February and that means celebrating a ground hog, some dead Presidents, sending flowers to your loved one, and the ever popular, valentine box. This is the second year that Jacob's vision of combining the world of sports with the joy of candy has produced an unconventional Valentine collection receptacle. Last year he went with a football field. This year he is starting to feel the itch for swinging the bat. We built a Metrodome replica complete with a 30'x60' (not to scale) Daktronics ProStar Video Display system and a ProFence display scoring system.

Abbie went with a more conventional approach and decorated hearts with glitter glue on a bag.

Happy Valentine's Day

Political Interest vs. Economic Interest

I found this interesting video of an interview between Milton Freidman and Phil Donahue from 1979. Or is this 2009?

Question: Is political self interest (government control) better than economic self interest (self ingenuity)?

LOST

Very few things in a 5 year old's life are as exciting to lose than that of a tooth. From the first sign of a wiggle, there is great anticipation of making the step of surviving the 'tooth fairy' visit and living, temporarily, with a gaping hole along those neatly placed candy smashers. For about three weeks now, Abbie has been testing the tooth's ability to hold ...taking it to the edge and back...each day a little more and a little more. But that little sucker was holding on for an unusually long amount of time.

So finally, on Sunday afternoon at about 2:30pm, I decided to take an extra look at it for her. I placed my finger on the top of the tooth and pushed it back with a little more force that usual. There was a little snap. Abbie flinched but hung in there for more. I asked her if it hurt and she said no. I brought the tooth forward and snapped it out. And with a little blood starting to ooze, the celebration began. Abbie's first tooth. Immediately, Julia proclaimed that she now had a loose tooth. She didn't.

Abbie's only concern with the tooth fairy coming, was that she was going to take the tooth away from her. She wanted to take it to 'show and tell' in her Kindergarten class. So mom wrote a nice note on the zip loc bag that politely asked the fairy to not take the tooth and just leave the money. 'How much money am I going to get, Mom", asked Abbie..."probably a million dollars?" she followed with. I said, "Oh, I don't think a tooth is worth that much, honey. Maybe 2 quarters"

Abbie was ecstatic to find 2 whole dollars under her pillow right next to the tooth, the next morning.

Isn't there something in the Senate's economy so-called "stimulus" package that earmarked money for tooth fairies?