My Lively Little Stones: April 2010

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Rocking the Half-Beards

If you want to know what I find hardest about the youth ministry, its keeping things interesting. I try not to get into a rut of hum-drum, same old, boring, routines. Sometimes the passage we study in our Friday Night Bible Adventures make my job easy though.

We have been studying through the Life of David, and we have come to the early events of his reign as king. In this lesson (2 Sam. 10) David remembers how the king of Ammon protected his parents when Saul sought to kill David and any or everyone close to him. When this king died and he son took his place, David chose to offer help. The king saw no reason to trust David and assumed that David's ambassadors were spies and thought he would teach them a lesson.

"So Hanun took David's servants and shaved off half the beard of each and cut off their garments in the middle, at their hips, and sent them away."- 2 Samuel 10:4

So I had an opportunity I could not pass up. We painted half-beards on the kids.

Even the girls.

You can understand why we stopped at the beards right?

It was a lot of fun, I'm sure we enjoyed it much more than David's poor servants did. Thanks for being such good sports guys... well most of you.

This is called a bearded rock fish... close as it gets to a rock reference in this one.

Two for One Special

I know that it has been forever since I have blogged. I left home and kind of got out of the habit, but I am back.

4 Sundays ago Ariana (sorry if I did not spell this right, spelling has never been my thing), a young lady who has been attending with us came forward and said that she would like to be baptized. I was overjoyed by her decision. After we had a little talk and I explained how we were going to go about baptizing her we got ready and went down into the water.

It was only at this point that I thought about something that should have been an obvious factor in the equation.... Ariana was nearly 8 months pregnant. If you have never baptized a pregnant woman before, take it form me take that factor into consideration before you attempt the baptism. On the second attempt I was able to get her under the water. Afterwards one of our members approached me and said, "I saw you baptize an infant today, and more than once at that."

Ariana, we are very proud of you for your decision and devotion to God. May God bless you as you walk in the Christian way. Yet again the Lord (with your help) has given reason for the angels and the bride of Christ to rejoice!

For your stone I chose Aquamarine, because your new-birthday is in March!

p.s. if you are wondering why there are no pictures of this blessed event it is because my wife was unable to be there with me. I never think of things like cameras, and even if I did think that it would be nice to have one, I would rely on Kimberly to remind me to bring it.

Precious Gems

Let me explain this blog for you. It is based on the passage above, and the way I perceive my youth group.

Few people appreciate young people the way that they should. They are like many people who seeing an unfinished diamond or other precious stone think it nothing more than your average, everyday pebble and cast it aside. They don't recognize the great treasure that is within their grasp and they let it slip away. I'm no better, only different. I have trouble, at times, seeing past the problems, habits, and less than attractive attributes of those who count themselves as set in their ways. When I look at a child I can only see the potential.

When I was 5 or so years old, my grandfathers were my favorite people. My mother's father was a rock collector, or at least a rock lover. I would bring him all the amazing finds of the day and ask to put them in his rock polisher. He would often inform me that what I had found was glass, fools gold, gravel, flint, slate, or some other worthless thing. He meant no harm by this, he simply knew his rocks, and he taught me how to better recognize the worth of a stone. I am still that same kid, I see the beauty in the glass, pyrite, and gravel of the human variety... but you know what? With children, telling them that their worth something often raises their market value. I think I have gotten pretty good at spotting the gems (not that I really ever toss any rocks out). I believe I am learning to see each child as the Lord sees them, precious.

It helps that I have been blessed with an exceptionally good and godly youth group. These guys make up my joy and prove my labor in the Lord is not for nothing. They give me so much more than I could ever give in return, and I want them to have the recognition they deserve. So youth, if you are reading this, think of this blog as a display case to help more people to be able to see you shine. I love you dearly... and even with you guys not here I'm still tearing up the way I would if I tried to tell you this in person. God help me.