Surrender the Flag

I have put together a puzzle or two in my life. I don't think I ever actually start one, but I always stop and help someone else with theirs. I can still remember my parents rules if we were working on a puzzle together. "Always start with the edges! Corners first!" Now let's be honest, if there are a thousand puzzle pieces on a table and all of them are the size of a toddlers fingernail then finding the four corners can take a while! 

My three preschoolers and I were visiting at my parent's house recently, and I watched as my mom tried to enforce these same rules with my kids. I made sure my snickers weren't audible. My three year old would lose interest rather quickly and just leave. My 4 year old daughter understood perfectly, but you can't tell her anything right now. She has to do it her way. While she is very analytical and does well with the puzzles, its slow progress because she has to use trial and error instead of your help. 

On the other side of the table, I could see my four year old son's confusion at the concept of flat sides and corners. He's used to the pieces you slide around on the wooden frame until they accidentally pop in place. Once my mom helped him with the outside pieces, he decided he would do the rest of the 30 piece Spiderman puzzle on his own...without help. Saying that to his sister, as nosy and bosssy as she is, is like throwing gasoline on a fire.  When he says, "Don't help me", she automatically starts creeping over next to him. As soon as he looks down she starts instructing him as to how he should be doing it. "I said leave me ALONE!" Once I make her leave the table completely I watch my son put his puzzle together with his Mammaw (who is "not" helping). She hands him a piece to "try". Now my mom and I could both see that the piece needed to be turned just a little. My son lays it down and starts beating it with his fist, trying to force it in. I think my mom picked the puzzles up for a few years.

Since we're talking about puzzles (most likely against your will), have you ever watched someone work on a puzzle? It is the dullest thing...EVER! Why? They are doing it too slow.That piece doesn't go there. You're doing it the wrong way. Bottom line, it's because we aren't in control.

1x1x1=1

Have you ever tried to explain something to a preschooler? With four kids, I have tons of stories of them trying to understand something that is way beyond their little minds. Some of the time they are hysterical, other times their questions have a ring of simple truth, but sometimes they can't hope to understand. Right now they are going through one of these times. My oldest son is 8 years old and right now he and my wife are in Bethesda, MD going through the beginning stages of a bone marrow transplant. They left June 1 and are hoping to be back around the first part of October if everything goes well. My other three children are 4, 4, and 3. They look at their dad and say, "I miss momma..." or "I miss my brother...".Because of the distance and because of the risk to their brother, they won't get to see them for at least three months and that's only if he is doing well enough for them to visit. As a father I understand all of this. I can see that this is necessary and that good will come out of it, but they can't. I've tried my best to explain to them that their mom and brother will be back, but that it will be a long time. The hardest time for them, and for me, is when I have to leave them some place. Whether it's daycare, babysitter, or grandparents, they don't want me to leave. My four year old son is the strong type. He gives me a hug and then walk resigned into the daycare. He'll stand at each window and wave to me as I walk to the van. He doesn't cry, but he doesn't smile either, he simply  accepts that I will be back. His four year old sister gives me a hug and is gone though I can tell by her eyes that she doesn't like this any better than her brothers; she seems to adapt the fastest to all this. My little one is not as big as his siblings. "But I miss you dad", is all he'll say as he clings to my neck , or leg, or hides behind me. So we hug and talk and give lots of kisses. I try to remind all of them that I will be back, it's just for a little while. I remind them of the things they do understand to help them accept the things they can't. Yes, I'm tearing up as I write this, but emotion is not why I began with this. There are some things about God that we cannot understand, we just have to accept them. One of those things is the idea of the Trinity.

Mood Rings and Offshore Phone Calls

Do you remember mood rings? I never had one, but I had a few friends who did. The basic premise is that our body temperature changes depending on how we are feeling. The crystals in the ring are extremely sensitive to heat changes with different colors representing a higher or lower body temp. There is some correlation between stress and body temperature, so there might be some truth to the mood ring. I wish my wife had worn a mood ring before we started dating. If she had, I might have had a clue that she was interested. By her account, she waited for me to ask her out for over a year. She's even told me how irritated she would get when I would go out on dates with another girl during that year. Deep down I still believe she should have said something. Maybe she could have passed one of those notes from the third grade during Sunday School...(Circle yes or no if you'll be my boyfriend). Maybe not, I probably would have fallen off my chair if that would have happened. I bring all this up to say that I had no clue what was in this young lady's heart. God, however knows the hearts of all men. 

Fire Detectors and Fish Prayers

I have the privilege to work with some fantastic preschool teachers and aides. They love kids and do a good job teaching them, much better than I would do. There is very little for me to do except stay out of the way of their well-run school program. However, sometimes things happen to mess up our carefully made plans and you just have to go with it. Last month our school had a visit from the fire marshal. Apparently the building that was put up in the late 50's was never inspected for educational purposes. Now, we are working to resolve all matters with the State Fire Marshal, but it's been hysterical in the mean time...mostly because I don't have to do it. The main problem we are facing is that there is no fire alarm system in the building. We have smoke detectors, but not a building wide fire alarm system that an educational building in Louisiana is required to have. To compensate for this while we install one, someone has to do a visual check of each room in the building (I stopped counting at 18) and then call it in to the office that there is no fire...every thirty minutes. I know it's mean, but I actually snickered out loud when the fire marshall was sitting in my office telling me this. For the most part I'm a "by the book" person, so I typed up a form and organized our aides into a temporary fire watch team (I almost got little fake badges). It took about two weeks for the aides to get it straight, because they still had classroom duties to attend to. They eventually had to work out a rotating schedule because they could only be in one place at a time. The aides were limited by space and time. God, however, is not.

Tracking Hurricanes

Growing up in South Louisiana, you learn things you don't necessarily learn everywhere else. Some of it is practical experience, like what size alligator you can hit with your car and it not do damage. How fast a water moccasin can swim in flood waters. What is a  nutria exactly?(Google it; so nasty!) One of the things you learn in school is how to track hurricanes on a tracking map. Now, I was lucky that I've never experienced a major hurricane, but like you, I have seen the devastation that a hurricane can do. In the last few months, the US has seen out breaks of tornadoes that have done massive damage to people and property.  When viewing the aftermath of one of these storms, I would dare say it is impossible to not be awed at the power of wind.

The last few weeks we've been exploring God's character. We've looked at the attributes that make Him who He is, but we won't have a complete picture of who God is until we look at His capabilities.