mepastormike

This evening has been a fun time as my son, Christian, and I have been finishing up work on his 5th grade science project. We now both know a whole lot more about wet cell batteries and how you can generate electrical power from lemons. He called his experiment "Lemon Power"... I still think my name was better - "Pucker Power." But all Christian would say was, "Daaad... I'm not calling my experiment that!"

This has been a learning process for me... I've enjoyed giving him some guidance and then watching as he took off with the experiment; incorporating his own ideas as he went. I like seeing my children thinking for themselves... at least sometimes (when they are thinking in the positive ways). There are other times that I agree with Bill Cosby that kids are 'brain damaged.'

My reading took me to Colossians, chapter 1. Paul is offering praise and a prayer of thanksgiving because of the faith displayed by the church at Colossi. In this letter Paul mentions a person named Epaphras who had been responsible for teaching/modeling to the Colossians the Christian life. Paul calls this person a "dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ...". This helps put into perspective for me the importance of my teaching and modeling of the Christian life to my family. It's the little areas... the little things that often times gets me off track. I'm reminded of an example given from the book Fantastic Families - "...It's not the great storm that destroys the giant oak tree - it's the little bugs! It's ironic that we weather the great storms and crises in life and then allow insignificant, trifling irritations to destroy our happiness and health."

Lord Jesus, help me to recognize and take care of those little things that bug me before allowing them to destroy the gifts you have given me with my family and my ministry. Thank You for the victory! - Amen.