Mum in Zone One

Book Review: The Storm That Stopped (Alison Mitchell & Catalina Echeverri)

I’m hoping that a “normal” blog post will emerge soon, but in the meantime, here is a book review. It’s the school holidays, people!

I’d like to recommend a children’s book to you (spoiler alert): ‘The Storm that Stopped’

On a recent church weekend away, I took my two older children (aged 5 and 4) to a storytelling and book signing session in the “Book Café” (tent) with Alison Mitchell and Catalina Echeverri. It was actually the highlight of my weekend.

The children were mesmerised as Catalina read the enchanting The One O’Clock Miracle. Not only is it beautifully written and illustrated, but it’s such a moving true story!

So I was excited to read ‘The Storm that Stopped’ to my children when it arrived in the post today. It didn’t disappoint.

They (The Good Book Co.) aim to make an excellent picture book, and they’ve certainly achieved that. It’s quite long, building up the suspense, so contains page after page of illustrations which really capture a child’s imagination. It begins by explaining the context of the miracle, and as far as I can see it sticks closely to the Bible text. It also comes to a spot-on conclusion at the end: the whole reason Jesus did the miracle. (Sometimes children’s Christian books turn everything into a lesson in morality, don’t they? Sigh.)

The highlight of the book for me: when we got to the point in the story that read, ‘Jesus simply spoke…’ my 5 year old daughter, Miriam, said, “That’s what it says in the other book: ‘Jesus. Simply. Spoke’.”

If these books are only teaching my children that Jesus’ words have mighty power, then thanks be to God! You can find the book here at the Good Book Co.

To read this AMAZING story in the Bible, check it out here – it will take 20 seconds (plus pondering time, which could be eternal).

The Power of “Goodbye”

What’s the hardest thing about raising young children in the city?

I wonder what you think. The traffic, the rent, cramped living, the lack of grass? The noisy neighbours, the hit-and-miss schools, the on-street (and not even your own street) parking? How about the hours spent commuting, or the polluted air, or the lack of like-minded Christian families? These are all relevant – some more than others. (Grass is overrated, friends. Heaven is a garden CITY.)

For me, not one of these things is the hardest thing about raising my children in the city. The hardest thing is this: people leave. I’m trying to nurture a stable family in a transient city, which feels a bit like trying to make friends in the middle of Kings Cross station. Some people do stop, they say hello, they might even invest a little. But then they have to rush – they have a train to catch.

People leave for good reasons. They take the gospel to undesirable places, or their job moves them, or they go to Bible college, or they move nearer to sick parents. (Some people don’t leave for good reasons, by the way, but I’m not here to judge.) And I can cope with that – ish. I miss them, and I cry when they leave, but I can see the bigger picture. The West Country needs youth workers: I get it.

But it’s harder for children to see the bigger picture. My daughter doesn’t even know how long an hour is; my son doesn’t quite know the difference between London and Longnewton (my parents’ village). So how are they meant to understand that it’s actually a good thing that we’re waving goodbye (yet again) to another precious friend, because they’re meeting a need somewhere in South East Asia? My heart aches in a way it never used to before I had children, because I don’t like to see them sad. It’s as simple as that.

It’s not just church family members, either. It’s the teachers, the support staff, and the classmates. They can be here one day, and gone the next. And each time this happens, I feel like my child’s foundations are crumbling away, bit by bit.

But I need to learn some things. I spent last night and this morning in tears about this issue, by the way, so please don’t assume I have this figured out!

The more people leave us, the more we rely on the Lord. He’s my rock and my foundation. He will never leave me. Time and again the Lord reminds his people of this fact: ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’* Sweet, sweet words. (This is what I told my daughter the day her nursery teacher was dismissed without notice.) And of course, Jesus himself comforted his disciples with these words: ‘And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ (Matt 28:20). When friends leave, we’re forced to lean more on the One who never does. So if our weak foundations do crumble, by God’s grace they can be replaced by the true Rock.

When people leave to serve in God’s Kingdom elsewhere, it does help the children to have a more global perspective. This is hard for them, but it is possible. We’ve found that showing them maps and praying for people in other countries has helped them with this. And, similarly, they are learning that we all suffer for the advance of the gospel – those who go, and those who stay behind. These are hard but character-building lessons to learn, and I pray that by learning them my children will be blessed, and will be a blessing to the Kingdom as they grow up.

Also, waving goodbye to people makes us long for Jesus to return soon. I can tell my children that in the new creation, in the garden city, there’ll be no more goodbyes. There’ll be no unreached people groups, no sick relatives, no war zones, no more tears. It would be nice if my church family could be together forever, and that nobody would have to leave, but then we wouldn’t look forward to heaven enough. And one day, we will be with our brothers and sisters for eternity. In the words of that great Australian theologian of our time, Colin Buchanan: ‘Hooley Dooley Wop Bam Boom! Jesus Christ is coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on this. Click on the speech bubble, top right.

*Deut 31:6-8; Joshua 1:5; 1 Kings 8: 57.

Enjoy yourself (Just not in the same way you used to before)!

I used to look forward to, and enjoy, weekends away with church. Now I brace myself for them, and often feel I’m the worst version of ‘me’ when I’m there. Sad, I know. But I believe that through prayer and practical wisdom this, the “time away with church family, with a family,” can be conquered!

I’m going away today, so I thought I’d offer some tips on how to get through, I mean enjoy, your time away (it’s more fun than packing). I’m in no way the expert, but I thought I’d share what I’ve come up with thus far – you’ll see I’m learning from my mistakes.

Things NOT to expect:

Sleep – Time and again I make the mistake of arriving on a conference/camp/ weekend away already tired, and hoping for some rest. Go on, point and laugh, I deserve it. You won’t get much sleep. Things will prevent you from sleeping: probably your children. But while you can do everything in your power to encourage your children to have a good night’s sleep (blackouts, familiar bedding, nightlight etc.), there are always things you can’t control. Even if your children sleep wonderfully, you are still likely to be woken up by something else, e.g. someone else’s child; a fire alarm; a 5am delivery van; a 3am Pentecostal prayer gathering (this has been my experience, anyway).

Catching up with good friends – this is unlikely, because you will be busy with your brood and also there may be other people who need you more. You don’t want to end up resenting your children or anyone else who gets in the way of your nice long chat with so-and-so. Maybe think of this as an opportunity to arrange to meet up with that friend in the next couple of weeks! Then, if you do end up having a good chat: bonus!

Taking part in everything that’s going on – it might be the teaching you look forward to, or the social aspect, or praying together. But it’s likely you’ll miss out on something you’d really like to have been at. You might get trapped in your room with a clingy baby and no phone signal to beckon help, while everyone else is having a whale of a time doing “organised fun.” You might miss all of the talks because your 3-year-old is terrified of the unfamiliar surroundings, or you might have to take someone to A&E. Hopefully none of these will happen, but I’m just saying it’s good to be emotionally prepared to miss out.

Things to DO:

Be thankful. Sorry everything above is so negative. I think that if we “manage our expectations” (fancy phrase) then we’re more likely to be thankful for any fun/teaching/sleeping/encouragements that we do receive. I need to remember to be thankful, because I just won’t be otherwise. I’m like that, me.

Forget yourself. I find that at these intense, emotionally draining times I get too focused on my own “problems” (e.g. lack of sleep/missed the seminar), which is just a recipe for disaster. If I try to focus on making sure other people are OK, I’ll actually start to forget what I was so narked off about in the first place. Get over yourself, Catherine (or, you know, something less harsh).

Research – if you haven’t been to the venue before, try to find out what you need to take with you from someone who has been or from the venue itself. You don’t want to arrive and realise you were meant to bring bedding. Almost equally you don’t want to stuff five duvets into your boot (trunk) and then discover you didn’t need them. Especially if you don’t have a driveway, so loading the car is tricky, and you bought the duvets especially. Just saying.

I’ve now noticed that (maybe apart from the final one) these are quite good tips for life in general. Maybe that’s because time away with church is really just a more intense version of normal life. And I need to remember, too, what an AMAZING privilege it is to have the resources, the community, and the freedom to be able to do this. Would my North Korean sister be grumbling about missing the Saturday night karaoke if she were here? No, I’m pretty sure she’d think she’d died and gone to heaven.

Have a good weekend, folks!

Heaven Forbid

“What better way is there to celebrate my son’s 4th birthday than to write a blog post about the objectification of women in a post-feminist society?” I thought. It’s the cry of every mother’s heart, naturally! Happy Birthday, Ezra.

I grew up to the sound of The Backstreet Boys singing “As long as you love me.” Even Brit Pop bad boys like Jarvis Cocker were singing about their childhood sweethearts “I used to walk you home sometimes but it meant nothing to you.”

Let’s not be naïve. Our children live in a different world. We thought Sisqo’s Thong Song was controversial in the ‘90’s. The women from that video will be turning their blushing faces away from the Blurred Lines video now.

I have two very young sons. Here is a conversation I do not want to have with either of them in a few years’ time.

Mum, I want to be a CEO when I’m older.
Well I’m sure you can be whatever you want to be, darling.
Yeah I want to be rich, because when you’re rich you can do what you like.
That’s not true!
But Mum, the girls at school all love Christian Grey and he gets to do loads of horrible stuff to girls because he’s rich.
No, even if you’re rich you must still respect women. That film is unrealistic and immoral.
Oh. But the kids at school don’t seem to think that. Are you sure?
Yes I’m sure. Mistreating women is wrong, it’s not godly and besides it can get you into lots of trouble too.
OK but what about if I become a footballer? Then can I do what I want?
No! Of course not! Why would you think that?
Because my mate said that his team’s top goal-scorer once raped someone and now he earns loads of money playing football.
Well, that’s true but he went to prison for that. Rape is a terrible crime.
But now everyone loves him and he gets paid loads of money. And he said he did nothing wrong.
Well, yes that’s true but rape is still really, truly terrible. Why would you want to use women like that? Women are precious.
But sometimes women ask for it, don’t they? That’s what songs on Youtube say. Maybe I’ll become a musician because they get lots of sexy girls to dance with them and do whatever they want.
No, that’s not always true and that’s not a good reason to become a musician.. Also, there’s a lot more to women than how they look.
Is there?
Of course! How can you not know that?
Well the girls on TV and on the sides of buses and bus stops and the big pictures of girls in the shops, they all look amazing. Isn’t that why they’re in the pictures?
Yes they do but those pictures are changed to make those women look better.
Because they need to look amazing?
Well, no, they don’t need to but I suppose advertisers think it’s better if they do.
So what else is there about women? I don’t want to marry an angry, ugly woman who complains about everything. I want to marry a gorgeous woman who wears what looks good and does what I want and who’d do anything for me.
No, no, no. When you find the right woman for you, you treat her with respect, you love her and when the time is right you ask her to marry you and commit to her for better, for worse, for the rest of you lives.
Oh yeah, put a ring on it you mean?
No, not “on it”, you ask her to do you the honour of marrying you. Women are not objects!
OK Mum, I think times have changed since you were young. We’ve progressed.

This is obviously a caricature. But is it so unlikely? Which voices are shouting the loudest to my sons? As a child in the 80s and a 90s teen, the messages I was bombarded with about gender and sexuality were far from ideal, but I was at least taught that women should be respected and valued. The same cannot be said about my own children, growing up today.

I want to make sure I’m teaching my boys God’s view of women today so that in five or ten years’ time we are not having this conversation.

Let’s not assume our children will see that women are valuable by what they learn from films, songs, books, department stores, computer games or even their female peers.

Let’s get talking to our children now, helping them to process what they’re inevitably seeing and learning from the world around them. Don’t be coy, you can’t afford to be.

Happy?

Matthieu Ricard has been dubbed ‘the happiest man in the world.’ I heard him this morning on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show. He’s written a couple of books, and of course people buy them. We all want happiness, don’t we? Here’s a quote from Ricard:

“May every moment of my life and of the lives of others be one of wisdom, flourishing and inner peace!”

I expect we can all mumble an “Amen” to that! And if we’re parents, our priority might have changed from our own happiness to the happiness of our children. After all, what could make me happier than my child’s happiness?

I don’t know about you, but I think all of this happiness talk makes us Christians a bit nervous. Life isn’t about making myself happy: it’s about serving the Lord. And thus begins the dilemma: Do I make my child’s happiness, or his godliness, the priority? I feel sure it’s his godliness, but that goes against my maternal instinct. After all, doesn’t loving them mean doing my best to make them happy?

But what is happiness, anyway?

This week I heard a sermon on happiness. No offence to Matthieu Ricard, but given the choice I think I’ll listen to Scripture on the topic before I read his book.*

“Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever they do prospers.’ (Psalm 1:1-3)

Blessed means happy, but not in a clap your hands, superficial way. This is a deep-seated, contented happiness, like finally finding what you were designed for and doing just that, every single day.

Sometimes it feels like being a Christian mum is defined by saying ‘No’ to lots of things that the crowd says ‘yes’ to. ‘No’ to watching certain films, playing football on a Sunday, blaspheming, avoiding unpopular people (we invite them for lunch), maybe going on amazing holidays because we’ll be on a Christian camp etc. Some of these things are different for different families, but you know what I mean. I find it interesting that Psalm 1, verse 1, the beginning of the whole book of Psalms, is about the negative – what the blessed one does not do. Sometimes we will be defined by what we don’t do, and according to Psalm 1, that’s OK.

But we have an alternative (v2) – the law of the Lord. Our children get the privilege of listening to brilliant Christian songs (as well as, you know, Queen and Coldplay), they get to learn about Jesus and spend time with church family on a Sunday, they learn memory verses, they’re learning to live out Jesus’ teaching, they’re delighting in God’s word. And God’s word bears fruit. When people notice that my child is kind, or grateful, or gracious, or patient, I know that the Lord is to thank for that. It’s certainly not genetic.

I found out on Sunday, but had never noticed before (despite meditating on this Psalm for years – just shows how dull I am), is that (v3) the tree is planted by streams of water. Someone (the Lord) has deliberately planted the ‘happy person’ in the best place possible. They have plenty to drink, so that they can flourish and prosper.

So as a mum, while I’m bringing my children to ‘the law of the Lord,’ I am planting them (or allowing them to be planted) by streams of water. I’m making them lie down in green pasture. I’m giving them living water to drink. I’m giving them happiness.

This sounds very impressive, but it relies completely on the Lord. He’s the one who blesses, but I can bring my children to him.

And it sounds impressive, but of course it doesn’t look it. It looks like ‘family devotion’ which i.e. trying to explain one bible verse to a 4 year old while the baby screams and throws fromage frais across the room.

Or it looks like standing your ground while your child has a tantrum over trainers you won’t buy them to please the crowd.**

Or it might look like living somewhere a bit grotty without even a balcony while all of your peers have bought detached houses in the country.**

But Psalm 1 says it is impressive. While magazine articles tell me that happiness is private school, ballet camp, designer clothes and drama classes, God’s word tells me that happiness comes through delighting in the law of the Lord. And it makes sense, because all of those other things will fade, but God’s kingdom will last forever.

With special thanks to Andy Mason for his talk on Psalm 1. My blog mostly consists of me listening carefully to what Andy says, writing it down and chucking in some illustrations about kids and mess.

*Several other things (involving cats ice skating in hot places) will happen before I read it too. I’m a busy woman.

** Of course, Christians can live in big houses and wear expensive trainers. I’m more thinking about the principles of living for the Lord and not for this world.

Asked and Answered

I’ve been watching The Good Wife – sorry to disappoint. If you’re blissfully ignorant, it’s a glamorous drama set in a Chicago law firm in which impossibly attractive people betray each other.

There’s a phrase that comes up a lot in the courtroom scenes: “Asked and answered.” It’s an objection which the lawyers use if their opposition is trying to emphasise a point by asking a question that’s already been answered, like this:

Lawyer 1:       “Who was with you in the car?”
Witness:         “The accused.”
Lawyer 1:       “So the accused was with you in the car?”

Lawyer 2: “Objection, Your Honour! Asked and answered.”
Judge: “Sustained.”

I said to Mike the other day that this “Asked and answered” objection is a phrase I’d quite like to use about a dozen times a day with my 5-year-old daughter. Conversations with her tend to go like this:

“When are we going to Grandma’s?”
“Friday.”
“Pardon?”
“Friday.”
“Friday?”
“Yes.”
“So, tomorrow’s Thursday, then we’re going the next day?”
“Yes.”
“I thought we were going tomorrow.”
….
“Mummy? Mummy? I thought we were going tomorrow! Aren’t we going tomorrow?”
“Miriam, we are going on FRIDAY!”
“Why?”

Of course, while this is going on I’m trying to negotiate a number of other things, such as London traffic, or a toddler tantrum, or packing for said trip to Grandma’s. Needless to say, I need more patience with these conversations. Lord, change me please.

So while I’ve been wondering why (oh why) Miriam behaves like this, one thought struck me (again). I’m probably like that, too. When I think about questions I ask my Heavenly Father, they’re usually questions he’s already answered. Don’t get me wrong, I know that He is infinitely more patient with me than I am with my daughter, but still it’s taught me a lesson that often I’m wasting time and worry on questions that don’t need to be asked.

Do you remember the story of Gideon? It’s in Judges 6 and 7. In some ways it’s quite a funny story – “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior” said to a terrified wimp who’s threshing wheat in a hole*. But Gideon himself is very frustrating. An angel appears and tells him the LORD is with him, but he still questions this very fact five separate times (v13;15;17;36;39). And of course, I must be no better than Gideon, I’m sure.

When I’m worrying about this and that, I really need to just go back to the fact that the Lord loves me, and he loves my family, and he loves my friends. So I can trust him. Instead of flailing around, asking him questions he’s already answered, I can go back to his promises and meditate on them instead:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8.

In my heart I often doubt that the Lord will provide for us, even though he’s clearly said in his word that he will (Matthew 6:25-34), and proven it by the way he’s always behaved:

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:31-32.

Related posts: (More Then Sparrows; The Bigger Gingerbread Man)

As always, I would love to read your comments so please click on the speech bubble in the top right hand corner if you’d like to chip in.

*You need the wind to blow away the chaff when you’re threshing wheat, so this is a bit like flying a kite in a hole, but more silly.

Familiar with Pain

It was mostly fear that had prevented me from reading this book sooner. Especially sensitive since becoming a mum, I didn’t think I’d have the nerve to get through a memoir of the holocaust. But I’m really glad I took the plunge, because never was an account of the Lord’s faithfulness more profound and strangely beautiful than The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. This isn’t a book review, friends, but I am sharing one of the lessons Corrie taught me.

I started reading this book with hunger – a hunger to know that God is still good, even when the unthinkable happens.

Injustice is a legal term, and the legal system is not known for its shows of emotion. But I think injustice is, actually, extremely emotive. Often when I’m most upset, traumatised, furious, it’s because of injustice. Child abuse; exploitation; oppression. Someone, through no fault of their own, is suffering at the hands of others. Our hearts cry out against it, don’t they?

It can make us angry. Not just angry with the perpetrators, but with God, too. Doesn’t he see? Doesn’t he realise? How can he let this happen? Is he sleeping? I want to wake him up.

Here’s an excerpt from The Hiding Place. I’ve chosen one which doesn’t spoil the story for you. Here Corrie writes about the little Bible she had with her in Ravensbruck camp, and the routine medical examinations she, her sister Betsie and the other prisoners had to endure:

I had believed the Bible always, but reading it now had nothing to do with belief. It was simply a description of the way things were – of hell and heaven, of how men act and how God acts. I had read a thousand times the story of Jesus’ arrest – how soldiers had slapped Him, laughed at him, flogged him. Now such happenings had faces and voices.
Fridays – the recurrent humiliation of medical inspection. The hospital corridor in which we waited was unheated, and a fall chill had settled into the walls. Still we were forbidden even to wrap ourselves in our own arms, but had to maintain our erect, hands-at-sides position as we filed slowly past a phalanx of grinning guards. How there could have been any pleasure in the sight of these stick-thin legs and hunger-bloated stomachs I could not imagine. Surely there is no more wretched sight than the human body unloved and uncared for…
But it was one of these mornings while we were waiting, shivering, in the corridor, that yet another page in the Bible leapt into life for me.
He hung naked on the cross.
… I leaned toward Betsie, ahead of me in line. Her shoulder blades stood out sharp and thin beneath her blue-mottled skin.
“Betsie, they took His clothes too.”
Ahead of me I hear a little gasp. “Oh, Corrie. And I never thanked Him…” p.182-3.

Throughout the book, Corrie and Betsie find impossible contentment and even see beauty in the overwhelming ugliness of their situation. But if you widen your lens and absorb the bigger picture of her situation, your heart bursts with indignation at the injustice of it all. They’re called prisoners, but their “crime” had been protecting people from genocide. They’re people, made in God’s image, treated like vermin. None of this should ever have been allowed to happen.

But there is a greater injustice even than this. There was an ultimate injustice, and it happened in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, give or take. Not only had Jesus, God’s Son, committed no crime, he alone had committed no sin. He suffered injustice through man’s justice system, and died forgiving the ones who tortured and killed him. More than that, he died so that they could be forgiven:

“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
“Crucify him!” they shouted.
“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate… had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. Mark 15: 12-15

You might be wondering – OK, but how does that help? I think it helps in many, many ways, but here are two (which I think, on reflection, are overlapping!):

There is the way it helped Corrie and Betsie in their situation. Jesus does see their suffering, and not just in a way that we see things on the news and know about them. He sees and knows, because he’s lived through it himself (“a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.”). Not just that, but he’s lived through worse. He suffered the ultimate isolation – being abandoned by God the Father – so that we don’t have to. So he can give great comfort in our time of need, because he’s been there. He’s actually been where we’ll never have to go: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 16:34). We’ll never have to, because he did.

And it also helps because of what he achieved for us. When we look at the cross, we see how much God cares about justice. He wanted to bring us into a world where there is only goodness and truth, where everything is fair, where there is no isolation and no grief. And there was only one way to make that possible, but it required sacrifice. Not ours, but His. So through suffering we can look ahead to that certain hope of a new creation where none of these questions will ever need to be asked again.

He was treated badly and made to suffer.
But he didn’t open his mouth…
He was given a grave with those who were evil.
But his body was buried in the tomb of a rich man.
He was killed even though he hadn’t harmed anyone.
And he had never lied to anyone.

The Lord says, “It was my plan to crush him
and cause him to suffer.
I made his life an offering to pay for sin.
But he will see all his children after him.
In fact, he will continue to live.
My plan will be brought about through him…

He was counted among those who had committed crimes.
He took the sins of many people on himself.
And he gave his life for those who had done what is wrong.”
From Isaiah 53 (NIRV)

Related links: Trust Issues; More than Sparrows; On your Knees

A Bloody Easter (you know… actually)

Hello all, it’s Easter soon!
I’d like to teach my children about the death and resurrection of Christ this Easter in light of the Old Testament substitutionary sacrifices (wow, big words). So just in case it’s helpful, here are my notes. I do plan to prepare some teaching for Good Friday and Easter Sunday too, but to give you a chance to use it I thought I’d post this now.
I hope to do these lessons next week, in the days leading up to Easter weekend. Am praying it will help them to see why Jesus died and why it’s wonderful news for us that he’s our sacrificial Lamb.
Let me know if you have any questions about it. Sorry about the formatting. I tried my best!

Memory verse: ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’
(Colin Buchanan, Romans 6:23 from Remember the Lord or Seeds Family Worship ‘Hey Man’ from Seeds of Faith (available on their website)) I will spend time explaining what this verse means. (P.S. After doing the first session, I was somewhat discouraged the learn that my 3 year old thought we were singing ‘a tunnel life’ which would be much less exciting than eternal life. Always good to check they understand what’s going on!)
I’m using the Jesus Storybook Bible, but I’m sure you could use another children’s Bible which include the relevant stories.

Bible story	Questions/Discussion & Activity
The Present – JSB p. 62 (Abraham and Isaac)	Remind them about Abraham, the promise and the son of the promise, Isaac. Read the story. 1. How do you think Abraham felt at the beginning? (Sad! Confused!) 2. Did he have to kill his son? (No!) When we sin, the punishment is death. Someone has to die for our sin. But in this story. Isaac didn’t have to die – what died instead of Isaac? (The ram) 3. BUT, Abraham had said God would provide a LAMB. So where is the lamb? Jesus is the Lamb that God provided. Jesus died for our sin so we don’t have to. He died for Abraham’s sin and Isaac’s sin too. We’ll find out more about that later in the week. Pray and sing the memory verse.Activity – Popcorn RamsUse picture of ram (I shall ask my husband to copy a basic one from a colouring page online) and write ‘The Lord will provide’ under it. Stick popcorn to the ram’s body (optional! Could just colour it in). And/or colouring page such as: https://craftingthewordofgod.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/abraham-offers-isaac-coloring-page.pdf
God to the Rescue! – JSB P. 84 (The Plagues, Passover and Exodus)	We learned last time about Abraham and his son Isaac. Isaac’s grandson was Joseph, and he and his brothers had loads of children so there were a lot of God’s people now. Let’s find out what happened to them. Read the story. 1. God wanted to rescue his people from Egypt – but did Pharoah want to let them go? 2. God punished Pharoah and the Egyptians by sending lots of plagues – do you remember any of them? 3. The last plague was the worst – God said he would kill the firstborn son in every family. But how could God’s people escape this punishment? (They had to kill a lamb instead and put its blood on their door frames.) 4. So if they killed a lamb and put the blood on the door frames, would they be safe from God’s punishment? (Yes! And we saw them all get out of Egypt in the end, didn’t we?) 5. Yesterday we looked at how Isaac didn’t have to die – what animal died in his place? (A ram.) 6. In this story what animal dies in the place of the sons of God’s people? (A lamb.) Yes! Do you see that God provides something to die instead of his people. They deserve to be punished and die, BUT because they trust God and sacrifice an animal instead, God keeps them safe. Pray and sing memory verse. Activity – Hand Lambs Make lambs by drawing round their hand on black paper or card. The thumb becomes the head and the four fingers the legs. Stick/draw an eye on! Cotton wool for the body! I recommend doing something with red paint so that the blood stays in their memory. (Nothing too graphic! My son was traumatised once by a Passover drama!) Paint a pic of a door frame red (see link below) – you could pretend to cut up your lambs first – or have a pre-made sacrificial one to cut up! http://www.biblekids.eu/anticotestamento/moses/moses_coloring_pages/moses-coloring-page-6.jpg
The Servant King – JSB p. 286. The last supper	Do you remember how God rescued his people from Egypt? (Recap on the Passover) God’s people would celebrate the Passover every year by having a meal together and telling the story. They would eat a lamb and remember how the lamb had died instead of God’s people. In this story, Jesus celebrates the Passover with his disciples.Read story. (Have props – bread and red juice – to talk them through this.) 1. What did Jesus say about the bread? (It is his body – it will break like the bread) 2. What did he say about the wine? (It’s like his blood – it will pour out) 3. Did Jesus know that he was about to be killed on the cross? (Yes!)Just as the Passover lamb died, now Jesus was going to die instead of the disciples. They wouldn’t have to kill a lamb and put the blood on their doors – Jesus would be their sacrifice instead. We are like the disciples – we can be saved from death if we trust in the blood of Jesus. Just like the ram was killed instead of Isaac. Just like the lamb was killed instead of the sons in Egypt. Jesus was killed on the cross, instead of you and me. Pray and sing memory verse. Activity – Sacrifice collage Colouring page – Jesus and bread/wine such as http://www.kidsplaycolor.com/jesus-raise-his-grail-in-the-last-supper-coloring-page/ On A3 paper (or two stuck together if you need them) stick their rams and their lambs and then draw arrows down to the picture Jesus with the bread and wine. Explain that Jesus is our sacrifice (write that underneath)

Boot Camp

There once was a handsome, overlooked shepherd boy called David.

Shepherds were hardly the centre of attention, or the most respectable people in society. You might remember that when the prophet Samuel asked David’s father, Jesse, if he could meet Jesse’s sons, he didn’t even bother to call David in from the fields. Shepherds were nobodies. Lonely, half-forgotten and looked down upon.

Can you sympathise?

Maybe you feel respected and admired as a mother. I hope you do. But I think it’s fair to say that in the UK at the moment, stay-at-home mothers are often unnoticed, ill-respected or ridiculed. Do you know that a housewife can’t countersign a passport application? How can she be trusted? We recently applied for car insurance, and putting me down as the main driver rather than my “professional” husband more than trebled the premium. Mothers are risky individuals. And how about the reactions at parties?
“So what do you do?”
“I’m a mum.”
…
Tumbleweed.

So I for one can relate to David the shepherds (although I’m sure in many ways I have it much easier. I sleep under shelter, for one thing). Not just the social outcast side of things (I know it’s not that bad for us), but the mundane repetition of the job. I’m not sure what exactly shepherds did, but nobody is sure what exactly I do all day either.
Keep sheep/children alive; sleep; repeat.

So why bring this up? Am I about to tell you that one day, you too will be a warrior king? Sorry, no. Jesus Christ is the true David – he’s our King and Victorious Warrior – Hallelujah!

You’ll know the story of David and Goliath. Goliath is a big bad beast of a man who nobody dares fight – nobody except David. David goes to see King Saul and volunteers to take the giant on. Saul, naturally, has reservations. David is young and inexperienced – he’s not even a soldier.

But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.’ 1 Samuel 17:34-37.

In the past I’ve always skimmed over this bit. I didn’t really want to hear about all the ways God had been preparing David for this moment. I wanted it to be all about the miracle of the stone in the sling. God didn’t need David to have practiced on wild animals – of course not. But the truth is, He did prepare David for this historical fight using his everyday battles. (A lady I met at a wedding recently pointed all of this out to me – she happened to be a mother of eight.*)

How irrelevant those tussles with bears and lions might have felt to David – he knew he was doing his job, but nobody was even there to see it. He was doing great things for his sheep – but his sheep would never thank him for it.

People might think all you do is watch daytime TV. In the news this week a male reporter claimed that being a stay-at-home parent was easy. People might not see the value in what you’re doing, or see the daily battles you face. But God is training and shaping us, and we might not realise it but he’s giving us remarkable skills.

On our church weekend away last year, several burly men spent about an hour trying to get a campfire started. Then a mum, originally from Eritrea, sauntered over and started it up in about three minutes.

I’m no good at campfires, but if someone in my church wants to know how to live off a tight budget then they can always ask me, since I’ve been feeding an ever-growing number of hungry mouths off one salary for about five years now.

If a role requires remaining calm under pressure, multi-tasking, patience with dawdlers or the ungrateful, planning ahead for the needs of others, doing something with one hand at double speed, prioritising, keeping things cheerful, encouraging, being hospitable, creativity with limited space etc. then perhaps the mothers in your church should be the first port of call. Of course, they might be a bit too busy at the moment, but in the future, when their children are a little more independent, then they might be the unexpected warriors your church family is looking for.

As mums we might not enjoy being isolated and repeating the same mundane tasks day after day, but let’s be encouraged that the Lord is teaching us many useful skills. These very skills enable us to keep serving the Lord and his people, and being a blessing to our families and church families. Who knows how he might use these skills in us in the future, for his glory? Thanks be to God for today’s battles, which may just give us the training we need for tomorrow.

*With special thanks to Caroline Hubert

No Expert

When I was sixteen, my cousin was knocked down and killed in the road outside his house. That night, a doctor arrived at the house. Someone had called a doctor. When my newly-tragedy-torn aunt explained that her son had been killed, the doctor said, ‘Oh you don’t need me then. I’m no good in situations like this.’ As my aunt told us about this exchange she said ironically, ‘Of course, we’re experts!’ No-one knew what to say to the family, but they didn’t know what to say either.

I found a similar thing when my brother had a benign brain tumour a few years ago (from which he’s now fully recovered). People felt very awkward because they didn’t know the protocol. But if there is a protocol, we certainly didn’t know it! We were just as surprised, confused and dumb-struck as everybody else.

Being in a situation in no way makes you an expert. Perhaps you’ll become an expert as you live through it, but certainly in the midst of it you often haven’t got a clue what you’re doing.

An unusual introduction to a parenting blog, I know. And actually I’m sorry if I’ve misled you because I’m not about to break some terrible news to you all. Thank the Lord, we are all well. And also, I know that those are both terrible things, whereas being a parent is a wonderful thing. So please bear with me as I make this comparison!

I was reminded of these incidents this week as a friend who is expecting her third baby said, ‘I can’t really cope with two, so how am I going to manage three?’ You may have said something similar yourself:
‘I can barely cope with one, how will I manage two?’
‘I can hardly look after my husband, how will I look after a baby?’
‘I can’t even look after myself, how will I cope with a baby?!’

But mums with more children than you aren’t (necessarily) experts at having lots of children. They may have chosen to have lots of children, or they may not have done. Either way, God makes babies. And God gives us grace to parent them.

We (the Brookses) haven’t made it easy for ourselves. People say that to us. It’s true. But we certainly didn’t say ‘Oh having two toddlers is such a breeze! Let’s go again!’

I love learning from other mums. It’s a wonderful gift of God that we can share wisdom with our brothers and sisters. But let’s remember that it’s only by God’s grace that any of us are breathing in and out, let alone standing upright, with babies on our hips and toddlers pulling on our legs and children skipping in circles around us. None of us is an expert. We’re all much, much less able to cope than we think we are.

But God’s grace abounds. He takes what we have and multiplies it. He takes our mistakes and turns them around for our good. He overlooks our mess-ups and rewards our little triumphs.*

Let’s stop wishing we were experts, or looking forward to the day when we’ll become them. I’ve got news for you, love. It’s never going to happen.

And incidentally, the mums who we think are coping brilliantly might actually appreciate an extra pair of hands. I for one am particularly guilty of assuming other people are fine and not bothering to ask if they want me to hold a baby or fetch a wipe.

So if you’re finding it hard today, know that it’s not because you didn’t read enough textbooks about this job before you embarked upon it. The Lord gives you just what you need for today. God gets the glory when we, ill-equipped and fallen though we are, are able through His strength to do things we never thought possible:

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinth 12:9-10.

Related posts: Push, Push, Glide; Supermum; How was your day?

*The Lord chooses to overlook (forgive) our sin because he has punished Jesus for our sin on the cross. It’s not that the sin doesn’t matter, but that it matters so much he has dealt with it fully at the cross. Micah 7:18-19 is very encouraging, especially when viewed through the lens of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Amazingly, he also rewards the progress we make, even though that progress is only possible because of his work in us by his Spirit. Revelation 22:12

As always, if you’d like to leave a comment please click on the speech bubble in the top right-hand corner. I’d love to hear your thoughts.