Mr. Mom

As I write this today the kids are busy making silly sounds and entertaining each other. Natalie is gone for the weekend leading a young girl's purity retreat in Sunriver. Its called "Power of Purity".

The weather has been beautiful lately, so we took advantage of it today by going for a bike ride. I had Joel in tow, but Charis rode her new (to her) bike. The neighbor girl just got a new bike that is bigger, so she gave Charis her old bike, which is bigger than the one Charis had. Its been a challenge for Charis to learn to ride this one, though, since its bigger. She has been without training wheels since last summer, but this bike is bigger, and so she has a hard time starting and stopping. She did very well today, though. We rode 5 1/2 miles, with lots of rolling hills, and she was having a blast.

We've all heard the saying, "kids say the darndest things." I thought I'd pass a few things on to you that Charis has said in the last week.

We had a bug (cold or something) going through our house last week. Charis had a fever of 101.5 when Natalie put her to bed. She woke up fine in the morning, though, and it never took hold. A couple of days later Joel was running a fever, just the same as Charis. As we got the kids ready for bed, we were all in Joel's room saying our prayers before the kids went to sleep. As Charis was praying, she prayed, "thank you Jesus that you'll make Joel better..." He woke up in the morning with no fever! The prayer of faith.

Today as we were riding our bikes, Charis was wondering who we could give her old bike to. She said, "Dad, who are we going to give my bike to?" It was very matter-of-fact. Now that she had a big bike, she didn't need her old one. I was humbled by her attitude. My tendency is to think, "now I have two" or, "now I can sell one and get some money for it."

I know those aren't sayings that will be repeated for years to come, but to me they were challenging. Do I pray that way? Do I hold my possessions so lightly? I hope so.

By the way, the picture at the top is what happens when Mr. Mom leaves Joel in his room too long at nap when he's no longer in a crib!

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