Category: Building Christian Character

Our church will host our annual Vacation Bible School next week. We are not alone. If you drive anywhere around the Southeast, you will see banners in front of churches inviting all to come and giving a sneak peek at this year’s theme. It was a much simpler affair when I was a kid. We had a daily Bible lesson, Kool-aid and those little round flower cookies with a hole in the middle for a snack. We worked on a week-long art project, like gluing bird seed on a plaque, inside jars made of string, to be displayed as kitchen art. We sang “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “The B-I-B-L-E.” For recreation, we ran around playing tag and red rover.

Those are memories I will treasure for a lifetime. Those days touched my young heart so much that I have been involved in running VBS at my own church for the past nine years. There are themes now and special music. There’s video involved and the snack coincides with the day’s Bible point. The kids still love it and so do I.

A few years ago, we came up with the idea of making VBS week extra special for the fifth graders. It’s their last year and as sixth graders, they are allowed to come and volunteer. We end each day having the fifth graders come up in front of everyone and tell what the Bible story of the day was about, and then they recite the daily Bible verse. They end by leading a song with all of the motions for all of the other kids. On the last day, they are presented a shirt by members of the youth group, that has VBS Staff on the back.

They love it. The very first year, they were very reluctant to participate. The fifth graders felt they were “too old” for VBS, by the next year, they were intrigued and now, five years later, they can’t wait to be fifth graders and graduate. That leads me to the phone call I received last night.

Our children’s pastor called to tell me about a young lady who would be coming back to help. She graduated last year. Her grandmother takes a week off from work every year to bring her grandchildren, and to volunteer at VBS. She told me one time, “That it was just that important.” Her grandchildren lived in North Carolina. Their dad lost his job this year and the family moved to California for a new job.

Well, it seems that the granddaughter felt a deep calling to come back and help this year. She just wasn’t able to shake it. She got special permission from her school and is flying all of the way across the country to help with our VBS.

My eyes filled with tears at the news. She’s twelve years old and is listening to her calling. Our little brain child of growing future volunteers is working and God was good enough to show us through this child. I was moved beyond words.

Vacation Bible School is a very special program wherever it is held. I have started making a point of saying a little prayer every time I see one of those banners out in front of a church. I pray for the volunteers. I pray for the children that will attend and I pray for all of the seeds that get planted. Who knows, the next Billy Graham could be right in front of us, just waiting to hear the truth.

Remember, all the mighty oak trees started from one seed. Vacation Bible School is a great place to plant them. If you have the opportunity to volunteer, I encourage you to do so. You will be blessed.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Naval Admiral William H. McRaven recently gave a graduation speech at the University of Texas at Austin. It was fabulous and has gone viral on YouTube. You really should check it out. He is a Navy Seal and gave a list of ten things he learned from his Seal training that anyone can do if they want to change the world.

The very first one, gave me pause. It made me smile and made me teary at the same time. The very first suggestion was, “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.”

My granddaddy was a dictator when in came to bed making. When he came upstairs in the mornings, our beds had better be made. It didn’t matter whether or not we were on school break either. Every now and then if we were running late for school and didn’t have time to make them, (a very rare occurrence),  he had us make them when we got home. I would try to reason with him that I was going to be getting back in it soon, to no avail. The bed had to be made.

I never understood his reasoning, but when I went away to college, I made my bed every morning and found myself quite annoyed when my roommate did not. I insist that my own children make their beds everyday. I don’t know why; I guess because that’s the way I was raised.

Admiral McRaven says that making your bed is accomplishing a task first thing in the morning and accomplishing one, will lead to another. I never thought about it that way, but that makes sense to me. Maybe just getting up and actually doing something productive leads to being productive all day. He also says that making your bed will reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.

Now that’s a huge concept from simply making a bed, but one that we should all probably spend a little more time considering. Jesus tells us in Luke 16:10, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”

It’s the same concept. The little things matter. They always have. They matter to God, so they should matter to us. Small tasks from making your bed to saying good morning to your co-workers when you walk by them in the office. Small gestures and small tasks can make a huge difference in the world around us.

I never thought about what granddaddy was trying to teach me, but I passed it on to my kids. There are a million ways to make a difference in the world. Maybe if we begin each day with a prayer as we make the bed, our entire perspective may change. Maybe if we passed that idea on to our children, they will pass it on too.

We have to start somewhere and making the bed seems as good a place as any to me. What do you think? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

My grandmother used to tell my mother, “Don’t hurt my car;” every time she let her drive it as a teenager. My mother finally questioned her why she cared more about the car than her own daughter. Now my grandmother was known for being a feisty lady and she quickly replied that if my mother didn’t hurt the car, then she certainly wouldn’t hurt herself. Those were wise words from an older generation who didn’t believe in a lot of coddling, but still loved their children.

When I began driving, I was often responsible for driving my younger siblings. My mother would always say to me, “Be careful; you are carrying precious cargo.” I would ask her if she cared about me. She would tell me that if I didn’t hurt them, I wouldn’t hurt myself.

While we still have teen driving issues in today’s world, we also have the cyber issues. There are cameras everywhere. Almost everyone has a camera on their phone and pictures are being plastered into cyberspace at every moment. (If you are over 40 and reading this, take a quiet sigh of relief that those weren’t in existence during your teen years.) My hubby always tells my daughter before she leaves the house, “Don’t do anything to embarrass me.”

He means of course, that if she doesn’t do anything to embarrass him that will end up on Instagram or YouTube, then she won’t do anything to embarrass herself either.

I heard our pastor tell a youth Sunday school class recently, that they should take a day and think of Jesus sitting next to them all day. Think of Him in the desk beside them, next to them while walking down the hall, next to them while eating lunch, next to them on the bus ride home and next to them while texting and talking to friends. Would they behave differently?

He then challenged them to set a place for Jesus at their dinner table. Would the dinner conversation be any different than usual? The kids squirmed a bit at the question and this adult did the same.

We really like to think of Jesus by our side when we are standing up for what we believe in or when we are praying for healing, forgiveness or strength. We like to think of Jesus being with us when we are doing what we are supposed to, but what about when we are not?

What about when we are gossiping? What about when we are watching television instead of participating in that Bible study we just didn’t have time for? What about when we speak unkindly to someone for no good reason? What about when we model bad behavior for our kids? Are you squirming a little too?

I think we all have those times when we’d like to ask Jesus to stay out in the car while we handle the business at hand, but it doesn’t work that way. Jesus is with us all of the time and when we get out of bed each morning and thank God for another day on planet earth, it might be a good idea to ask Him to help us remember who we are in Him and to help us to act accordingly.

I think I’ll give that a try. What do you think?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Well, it’s official, we have survived another school year. School ended for us yesterday and as always, my entire family breathes a collective sigh of relief. We are a family that prefers a slower pace of life. We don’t really like to rush. We are not super competitive. We speak kindly to one another.

And school, well school can be the complete opposite of  our ideal lifestyle. So, my kids work hard and get good grades. They struggle through group project after group project, where they are forced to do most of the work. Didn’t you just hate group projects? I mean, everyone you ask hated group projects, yet the teachers continue to assign them.

They have to study a lot. They get their grades through hard work, not because they have some super intellectual gift. School is not fun for them, but it’s necessary. If they want to go to college and follow their dreams, they have to get through school. It’s just a fact.

And the subjects that don’t interest them? They have to study them anyway. They also have to obey teachers that they may disagree with, (you know, the ones who keep giving them group projects.)

There’s a new trend among high school students. If the subject doesn’t interest them, they don’t give it much attention. They barely squeak by or fail. I have a friend who teaches a college class who reports the same trend. If they don’t like the assignment, they either won’t do it or put in very little effort.

I’m not sure where this attitude has come from. Life is full of things we don’t want to do like paying he mortgage and cutting the grass, but we do them. We pay the mortgage because we want to keep our house. We cut the grass either out of pride in our yards or perhaps, respect for our neighbors.

I think we have lost the entire idea of respect, as a society. We don’t respect our leaders. Many children don’t respect their parents. Ask a teacher how respectful their students are these days.

Here’s a scarier thought: If our children don’t respect the adults standing right in front of them, how in the world can they learn to respect a God they can’t see?

I’m all for standing up for what we feel is right and I encourage that in my children as well. But, there’s also a time and a place for protest. When a teacher gives them an assignment, they are expected to complete it to the best of their ability, whether they like it or not. I expect them to do what I tell them to do and I pray that teaching them to respect authority will pay off when one day, God gives them an assignment.

I don’t think He would really appreciate a lot of whining and complaining and the story of Jonah tells us He doesn’t appreciate downright disobedience either.

Summer break is finally upon us. It’s a season to slow down and rest. It’s also a good time to reflect on things like respect. Are we modeling respect for our kids? Are we insisting on respect from them? We have elections coming up in November. We could pray for leaders we can respect. We can vote for leaders we can respect.

We can make an effort to make respect a part of our lifestyle as well as a part of our society. What do you think about respect? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

My son picked up the scrap of wood pictured above, while he was cutting grass at the church a couple of weeks ago. When I asked my husband what he planned on doing with it, he said that he wanted to use it to make some kind of sign. I smiled. This child is always picking up something that most people would consider trash. He sometimes uses his treasures to create art. He sometimes uses them as some type of prop in a movie he is making. He sees potential when others don’t.

I suppose that’s the innate artist in him. I’ve heard that potters and sculptors sometimes have no idea what they plan on creating when they begin to work, but that the clay, stone or wood takes on a life of its own. I’ve heard the same happens for some painters. They open themselves up to the creativity that lives within them and art and beauty are born.

There have been times in human history when society as a whole, has been incredibly creative. If you have ever known someone who lived during the Great Depression, you know that they saved everything. They figured out ways to use things over and over. They made clothes and quilts out of discards like flour sacks. They also repaired what was broken. They rarely threw anything away.

Skip ahead to 2014. Our landfills are full. We create so much trash. We are a throw away society. We waste food and resources. We don’t value our material blessings. When something gets worn or breaks, we simply toss it and buy new. We don’t give much thought to the child working in a sweat shop halfway around the world for a dollar a day, so we can buy cheap new clothes every season.

We don’t value life as much as we used to either. Look at all of the orphans and children in foster care. Look at all of the animal shelters.

Mother Theresa once said, “Live simply so others may simply live.” That’s really food for thought in our throw away society.

Another point to ponder is, has the fact that it has become so easy to acquire things and throw them away, made us less creative as people? Does abundance stifle creativity? Do we appreciate beauty less? When I see an old handmade quilt,  I see art. There aren’t many people who know how to quilt anymore. It’s very time-consuming, but it also created community.

Women used to gather together and quilt and when their daughters reached a certain age, they were invited to join.

Knitting is enjoying a huge come-back and many celebrities have been seen knitting. Is it because the economy has been bad for so long? Perhaps. Adversity seems to always bring out creativity.

But perhaps, it’s also tied with our innate need to create something beautiful. You are simply not going to find that on a shelf at Wal-Mart. We are created by an incredibly creative God. Just look around you.

So when my son brings home yet another item that most people would consider trash, I just smile. He is honoring his creative side and that’s a good thing. He reminds me that I need to work on honoring mine and by doing that, honoring the creative God who made me.

How about you? How are you doing with your creative side? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂