The Barber Who Wanted To Pray

This is the perfect time of the year to introduce our little ones to great reformers in history. Recently, I discovered a sweet story based on the life of Martin Luther. The Barber Who Wanted To Pray by R.C. Sproul is a delightful fictional story that is based on the true story about an ordinary barber and one extraordinary man in history.

One night a young girl asks her father how to pray, and he tells her a story of a time when the great reformer, Martin Luther, gets his hair cut and strikes up an interesting conversation with his barber. The barber also asks advice how to pray, and Martin Luther shares a simple model for prayer that changes the barber's life.

I love how people of all ages--especially children--can relate to Martin Luther doing something as ordinary as getting his hair cut. Sproul's book is also a helpful tool to teach our children the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, and the Lord's Prayer. More importantly, it's a wonderful lesson on heartfelt prayer. When we don't know what or how to pray, Luther's lesson of using a model to personalize our prayers can help us grow in our relationship with God.

The illustrations are delightful; people of all ages will be captured by this sweet story and the simple lesson of this great man in history.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this awesome book from Crossway for my honest review, and I honestly love it! Add it to your book list--it's a keeper!

In Christ alone, my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song.

"So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ--that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.

Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life--even though invisible to spectators--is with Christ in God. He is your life."
{Colossians 3:1-3, The Message}

204. Counting gifts with my boy...."But Mom, I'm already thankful..." {sigh}
205. Reconciliation with my preteen....oh, Lord, help me!
206. Finding a deal on Craigslist
207. Pumpkin latte, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin cheesecake
208. Carving pumpkins-a glorious picture of a new identity in Christ
209. Air soft wars with boys
210. A walk with the hubby
211. Soft, humble hearts
212. Fall in St. Louis

Kiddy Catechism

Years ago my oldest learned the children's catechism. If you're not familiar with the children's catechism, it's a series of questions and answers about the truths of God. Kind of like theology for kids! Now, for those who did not grow up in a traditional church setting or who get a little freaked out by the word "catechism," it really is just a simple way to learn about who God is, who Jesus is, who we are in relation to him, and the basics of the Christian faith. It's not weird, I promise.

Now, just like we were on top of so many other things in raising our first-born, we've been sort of flying by the seat of our pants ever since, and as all experienced parents know, it all kind of goes downhill from there. I mean, you just don't do things the same way with your younger children. You know what I mean.

I've realized for a few years that my middle child learned about half of the kiddy catechism and that my youngest has mastered only about three or four questions. Maybe.

So, this fall we're dusting off our little question and answer booklets, we're adding in the catechism to our handwriting assignments, and we're singing it, as well.

SINGING?

I've been convinced for a long time that the more information you put to a tune the more you can remember. At least that's how my brain work.

So when I found the Ask Me WhoOo series by Diana Beach Batarseh, I was thrilled! These are sweet, catchy tunes for each of the questions and answers in the children's catechism...PLUS wonderful scripture verses to go along with each one. It's all lovely--especially the sweet owl graphics to boot!

This is a three-volume series. We have the first in the series, and we'll see how much we like singing it before we buy the other volumes.

There's a lot to like about her music, but besides the corresponding Bible verses after each set of question and answers, I also love to hear the children's voices sing along with Diana as well as read the scripture. Super sweet.

So...What are you waiting for? Or rather, WhoOo are you waiting for? Check it out now!

Check out these spy kids...

How have I forgotten thankfulness? Forgotten that all around me whispers beauty and hope. Yes, even grace.

And then there are days that God screams JOY to me...and I am learning to trust that all is well and all will be well.

I woke up to a Monday morning of temptations...mostly to be overwhelmed and failing to trust that God will take care of my cares. Oh me of little faith.

So we started off with recess this morning...and look what my sweet things turned into?!? Spies!I seriously had to laugh out loud...and that was good medicine for my melancholy Monday morning. Not sure if they are getting ready for Halloween or what?!? {I personally like how my girly girl accessorized her spy outfit with a purple belt and purse.}

So today, I'm mostly thankful for children who remind me the importance of being playful and having a child-like faith. A lesson I need each day.

Jesus, Make it well with my soul today. And teach me thankfulness again and again.

191. a new neighbor and friend
192. glorious fall colors shouting endless words of thankfulness
193. Trader Joe's Pear Cinnamon cider
194. hearing my son laugh and enjoy his youth group
195. worshiping all together as a family
196. fall break--even if it's only a day!
197. trying on high heels with my girly girl
198. shopping with my girl and hearing her talk me into buying something for me!
199. an Indian summer
200. my helpful husband
201. a great dentist and a fixed tooth
202. watching my boys play flag football together
203. learning to laugh

In a Nutshell...

"The Bible is God's story of what he is doing in his world. It is the story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. We learn from this story that God created us to have fellowship with him, to serve him, and to glorify him. We learn that Adam, our predecessor, failed in carrying out his role, plunging himself and us into a new world order of sin and death. We learn that God, even in his giving of the curse for Adam's disobedience, offers the hope of redemption through the seed. That seed, as the story unfolds, turns out to be his Son, Jesus Christ, the God-man.

Through Christ's work on the cross, he undoes what Adam did. Through his perfect obedience he makes a way for us who were cut off from God, alienated from him, to be brought near, to be reconciled. We also learn that Christ's work set in motion not only the redemption of sinful humanity, but also the restoration of all things, that someday the new heavens and the new earth will come to pass and the curse and night will be no longer.

This comprises God's grand story that pulses through the pages of God's Word to us, the Bible. It is also the story that God invite us to participate in. He created us in his image and gave us a mandate to subdue and have dominion over his creation. He has called us to work, to cultivate, his world. He also calls us into fellowship with him by taking us from being "in Adam" and placing us "in Christ."

And we are called to a life of transformation into the image of the Son. We bear Christ's image as we proclaim, both through our words and our actions, the gospel, the story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.

This is the greatest story of all time."

excerpt from Welcome to the Story, by Stephen J. Nichols

Today is brought to you by the letter "P"...

...and a really cool guy with a great name and a great story.

Tullian Tchividjian, pastor and a regular contributor at the Gospel Coalition, writes about preaching the gospel to yourself daily. He's got a lot to say about relying on Christ's performance rather than our performance. Good stuff, I say! Check it out...

"We no longer need to rely, therefore, on the position, the prosperity, the promotions, the preeminence, the power, the praise, the passing pleasures, or the popularity that we’ve so desperately pursued for so long.

Day by day, what we must do practically can be experienced only as we come to a deeper understanding of what we are positionally—a deeper understanding of what’s already ours in Christ.

I used to think that growing as a Christian meant I had to somehow go out and obtain the qualities and attitudes I was lacking. To really mature, I needed to find a way to get more joy, more patience, more faithfulness, and so on.

Then I came to the shattering realization that this isn’t what the Bible teaches, and it isn’t the gospel. What the Bible teaches is that we mature as we come to a greater realization of what we already have in Christ. The gospel, in fact, transforms us precisely because it’s not itself a message about our internal transformation, but Christ’s external substitution. We desperately need an Advocate, Mediator, and Friend. But what we need most is a Substitute. Someone who has done for us and secured for us what we could never do and secure for ourselves.

The hard work of Christian growth, therefore, is to think less of me and my performance and more of Jesus and his performance for me."

Remembering Sara

Today I'm remembering a girl I've never met but wish more than ever that I could have known. Her story of living with a chronic illness, one that had eventually trapped her in own home, has captured me. Yet she would not dwell on her limitations or may have even used the word "trapped", for she chose to accept the life that God had given her and saw her own suffering as a gateway to joy. Today I'm remembering a girl named Sara. I've never met her, but I can't wait to meet her one day in heaven.

I'm not sure why her story captures me, except that it convicts me and encourages me to run the race God set before me. You see, Sara had a disease that made breathing air toxic to her body. And yet she lived. She really lived. The first time I read her blog I had to stop and take a breath myself and let that reality sink in. My thoughts raced from "Why, God?" to "How can she not be bitter?" to "How does she really find joy each day?" As I read on and on I started realizing how abundant her joy and life was because she took what God gave, gave thanks, and then broke it for others. She choose joy. I also started realizing that Sara, in her physical limitations, probably knew more about joy than I ever have.

Just a few days ago Sara took her last toxic breath of air on earth and her first breath of pure air in heaven. And as I read on and on about her last days on earth from the people whose lives she so sweetly touched, I discovered a surprising truth. She was a simple Iowa girl like me. She was living her seemingly limited but ever-so-abundant life in the backyard of my hometown. We surely walked the same streets once upon a time. We probably ate at the same restaurants back in the days when she could. And we graduated from college in the same year. She was my age, yet she was ever so wiser in wisdom than our years. She had lived the abundant life that I long to live, and if only I could have met her face to face. I would ask her to teach me joy and teach me surrender. I would ask her to teach me to receive and teach me to give. And of course, I would also ask her to teach me to write like she does with transparency and authenticity and grace. She would be a great teacher, I'm sure.

I feel like I have met her, in a sense, through her writings. She has inspired me to choose joy each day and graciously receive what God gives me. I could say more, but her words are better.

In Sara's words...

"I think, for me, it has been about learning to want what He wants for me more than what I want for myself. It's a tall order and I don't say that flippantly. But my joy has truly come from Him finding His joy in me rather than me finding my joy in what I desire. It doesn't mean I don't long for different, it just means I find peace in fulfilling rather than understanding. In the knowledge that this life isn’t about me, it’s about Him."

Thanks be to God for the abundant life of Sara Frankl, who teaches us all that this life is really about choosing and finding joy in Jesus.