My daughter just started her freshman year at a Christian college on the West Coast. The minister at her church on campus is a wonderful Australian surfer dude preacher (not his real name). The last time we worshipped there, he shared something I thought was profound.
“The sun is always shining.” Think about it. Even on the cloudiest, rainiest days we have enough light to see (even barely). Those are rays of sun breaking through the clouds. At night, the sun hasn’t left, we have just turned around from it. When we come back around the next morning, the sun is there waiting for us. Some nights the sun even sends us a reminder it is still there by reflecting its rays off of the moon, making it light up our night sky.
When we say I wish the sun were shining, it is our perspective that is off a bit. You see the sun is shining, we just aren’t able to see it because of our somewhat depressed perspective. Think about the expressions people use to “help” someone through a rough time. “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” “The sun will come out tomorrow.” All ignore the fact that the sun has been there all the time, we just couldn’t see it.
Continue reading Teaching Kids the Sun Always Shines (And God Is Always Here)
Electric fences amaze me. You can’t see the lines, but even very large animals soon learn to avoid them. I like to think those fences are to protect me when I walk by the animals. Actually, the owners install those fences to protect their animals. They know if the animals leave the safety of the yard or field, bad things can happen. If the animal stays far from the fence, it enjoys easily found food and water in abundance. It is protected from cars and hunters. Even though life on the other side of the fence may look more interesting, in reality it is fraught with dangers the animal is unprepared to handle.
People greatly underestimate what kids are capable of learning and understanding. Even very young children can begin learning basic ideas and concepts about complex things. Unfortunately, many parents want to wait until children are older to begin exposing them to God and the Bible. Oh, they may take them to church, but often the child just ends up playing in a nursery classroom or running up and down the halls.
I blame Anna Wintour. Okay, the infamous editor of Vogue is not the only contributor to the problem, but she has definitely done her part. At some point in time, models went from the clean cut, natural looking Audrey Hepburn types to the hyper-sexualized photographs you can find today in almost any fashion magazine.
Whether your children attend public school, private school or you homeschool, there is nothing more exciting than those first days of classes. New school supplies, books full of interesting new things to learn and time with friends for kids and moms all add to the promise of great things this year.