Kids

Its Sunday afternoon, and I'm exhausted. But in a good way.

This morning at church I taught 16 3rd-5th grade boys about God (or tried to!). Every week in KidZone at Crossroads Community Church, I work with these young boys and try to share my excitement about our awesome God. It's not easy to keep their attention, but I try my best to think and communicate on their level. (Cathy tells me I act like a 5th grader most of the time, so I think I must be serving in the right ministry!)

I love working with children, and always have. I think a lot of this came from my own family situation when I was growing up... I was the second of three children born within three years of each other (David is a year older than me, Teresa two years younger). About ten years later, my parents had a fourth child, a girl named Angela.

To us older siblings, Angela was our "kid sister", and we had a lot of fun teaching her things and keeping her entertained. I remember that we would make up games for Angela to play: homemade board games, puppet shows, fun "homework" that she would complete and we would grade, etc. Angela loved the attention, and we enjoyed coming up with new stuff that she hadn't seen before. (This was before the days of video games, and my parents limited the amount of TV we watched, so we had to do SOMETHING.)

Fast forward ten or so years... After graduating college and moving to Greenville, it wasn't too long before I met Cathy and the boys, in 1989. The boys and I hit it off well, mainly because I was only 22 and still had a lot of "kid" left in me. The first day I met Brandon, he was sitting in the living room of Cathy's duplex in Spartanburg, playing Mario Brothers on his brand new Nintendo system he had gotten for Christmas. I loved video games too, so Brandon and I spent long hours working our way through the levels of that game.

Cathy and I were married the next year, and I became the boys' official step-dad. We had a lot of fun together in those years. I remember some highlights:

• One day, I took the boys to Dorman High School (the old one) in my old 1966 Pontiac. We played football for a bit, then got bored and decided to roll down a steep grassy hill, again and again. We had a ball.
  
• Playing "horsie" with Zachary in the living room of the duplex. This is one of the rare photos of Zach when he was not dressed in his Superman outfit (PJ's with cape), or sporting his favorite combination of plastic goggles with pacifier. (We'll get those pics posted here in a few days...)
  
• Going on the ferris wheel at the "redneck carnival" when it came through Simpsonville.
• At Myrtle Beach, a thunderstorm came up, and started pouring hot rain in sheets. The boys and I decided it would be cool to experience the storm first-hand on the porch, in our bathing suits...

Here's the proof I'm not making this stuff up! (Click pictures to zoom...)



When the boys got older, I missed having little kids to entertain, so I began volunteering to work with the kids at church. Since my talents lie mainly in the area of entertaining kids, I would always volunteer to do games during Vacation Bible School at Temple Baptist, and later at CRCC. A couple years ago, God helped me to realize that I have a special gift for working with kids, and that's where he wants me to be.

As long as I have breath in me, I intend to do just that. I'm looking forward very much to having some grandkids in a few years, who I can pour into as I tried to do with Angela, Brandon, Zach, and the kids at church. Children are such a blessing to me, and God frequently uses them to teach me lessons about humility, innocence, trust, and love.

I guess in a lot of ways I am just a big kid...and that suits me just fine.

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
(Mark 10:13-16 ESV)

Proud

There are two kinds of pride...

The first is the bad one, the one the Bible speaks of so often, the one which creeps in as the most subtle of sins. You know, the self-centered self-focused kind of pride. The "look at me, I'm all that" type of pride. As Mirriam-Webster dictionary defines it, "an inordinate self-esteem." You know it when you see it.

The second is more benign -- it is the great feeling of well-being you get when you've done something well, or when you have accomplished something you never thought you could. It is the warmth you feel inside for a job well done, for being "best in class". It is the pride of a beaming parent.

Well, this weekend, I had two occasions to well up with pride - the good kind!

The first of these occurred Saturday morning. Cathy and I drove up to North Greenville University to watch our son Zach play in an ultimate frisbee tournament. His team, the NGU Ninja Geese, played seven or eight games Saturday in the chilly weather, and it was a lot of fun to watch. Good athleticism on display, as well as good sportsmanship. The Geese are really a class act.

As I watched the game, I realized I was proud of Zach for a number of reasons. I was proud that Zach had selected such a great Christian university to attend. I was proud that he is knocking the spots off his schoolwork, with all A's and B's (and straight A's last semester!). I was proud that he has surrounded himself with a great group of Christian buddies, the kind that make lifelong friends.

But I was particularly proud to see Zach acting in a leadership role, as captain of his ultimate team. He played this role well, finding the balance between challenging his teammates, encouraging them, pushing them to higher levels of performance, keeping his cool during tense moments, etc. It's hard to lead others and gain their respect, but I saw Zach doing just that, and boy did it make me proud. Zach, you're the MAN.

The second event took place exactly 24 hours later, on Sunday morning. This morning at church, David Walker was out of town, and our other son Brandon led worship at Crossroads. Not just led it, but really LED it. It was an awesome thing to watch.

As with Zach, Brandon has made me proud in so many ways over the past few years. I'm proud that Brandon graduated with good marks from North Greenville. I'm proud that he is a hard worker, working two jobs faithfully, day in and day out. I'm proud that he has worked and worked and worked to improve his musical skills, AND his spiritual walk, to the point where he leads worship as well as -- get this -- as well as Aaron Keyes and David Walker, who were his mentors. I'm proud to point out to people in the congregation, "That's my son, leading worship today." I'm proud that he trusted God to find him the perfect companion, and waited until the Lord brought him Megan. Brandon, you're the MAN too.

I realize of course that it's God (not me) who is working all things in our lives for His purposes... It is not my mastery of parenting skills that has brought Zach and Brandon to this point, oh no! I think we can all agree on that one, lol! It has been God working on them, shaping and molding them, building them into clay vessels for his use.

Is it wrong for me to feel such great pride as a parent? I don't think so. In today's world, with all the temptations and pitfalls out there, and with so many young people falling to them, I think I have every reason to be proud.

In fact, I'm sure of it.

God is good!