Well if you have read my profile, you know I’m a children’s minister. It has been a wild ride I can say that. There’s never a dull moment. You go from laughing to amazement to fear in just a few moments. When God made me He added an extra dose of patience, or at least that’s what people say.

Today was one of those days. Usually on Sunday I just teach children’s church which takes place during adult church. Today was my day to also teach the preschool class during Sunday School. They are just funny. Their attention spans last about five minutes, ten if you are extremely lucky. I thought well I will teach about Balaam and his talking donkey. Thought that would keep their interest, WRONG! I finished the story and they played three sessions of musical chairs. I finally gave in and took them out to the playground. Well being Fall in the south you never know how the temperature will be. Let’s just say the wind was blowing my hair over my head and I was freezing. Not the kids though.

Then children’s church started. Had four visiting children along with my regular wild crew. I have the 1st through 5th grade class. Well the music and worship went well, but the closing prayer was a real hoot. One of the boys decided he wanted to pray, started off well, but by the time he ended you could not hear him. I just grinned and took them back out in the wind.

Everything was going well as the preschoolers class let out and they came out too. The other teacher and me and my helpers were talking watching the kids. I constantly do head counts as it is a horror of mine to lose a child. Well, guess what, I lost a child today. One of the visiting children. His mom came out to pick up her two boys and one came running up but not the other. Well I started calling for him and the other children looked so innocent. That should have been my first clue. The mother and I went inside looking in the restroom and then as we started back outside he walked in smiling totally happy with himself. He had been hiding on the playground.

Needless to say I was beyond upset. I looked at the mother and begged apologies. I guess she went through this a lot because she patted my arm and smiled. I had to sit down. It was not a good feeling.

Some days it comes to either you laugh or you cry.

Have a great night to all.

Bragging Rights…

I usually don’t post directly about my family, but I was reminded last night again how lucky I am to have a wonderful son. I hear a lot of parents complaining about their teenagers. I’m not saying my son is perfect, but he’s close (in my eyes).

His life started out pretty rough. He was a twin, but his twin never developed past a blip on the sonogram screen. We were lucky they were in separate membranes. Well, that started the doctors putting me off my feet and on steroids to build him up. He was my miracle baby because he beat the odds and won.

He is an only child because I could not have any more children. Sometimes it bothers me that he doesn’t have someone other than me and his dad to entertain him, but he’s a trooper. He loves to fish and hunt. He participates in the 4-H Shotgun team and went to State this year. He did awesome shooting 22 out of 25. He is a country boy all the way.

He is also the Video Ministry leader at our Church. He is only 13, but he’s so mature and responsible for his age. He had two adults that work under him. It makes me so proud. He also works in the nursery. All the babies love him.

Last night I was tired so I got in a bubble bath with my Kindle for some relaxation. I was going to load the dishwasher when I got out, but my wonderful son took care of it while I was relaxing with a good book. He does things for me all the time to help out. Now, I’m not saying he doesn’t go “Teenager Attitude” some, but not much. I just give him the look and he knows it’s time to calm down.

So, parents, look at your child and be proud. They are our future, so train them up to be great.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You! Oh, and IT’S FRIDAY!

Levels of Love…

As I write this I ponder the different levels of love I’ve had in my 43 years of life. I am by no means an expert. This is just my outtake on the subject, so take it as you may.

Here goes:

Baby Love: I feel like as a baby you feel love, not positive because I do not remember being a baby, but I do remember how my son was as a baby. He would brighten up when I would walk in the room, so I feel like he was feeling love for me. So…

Child’s love: As a child you have such a reserve for real love. You have not been challenged by the things of the real world so you can be open to love with your whole heart. Children love unconditionally, well most of the time.

First crush love: You know the love I am talking about. Usually you experience it in your early teens or earlier for some. It is that feeling when you look across the aisle in class and lock eyes with a cute boy. You instantly think you are in love and you will just die if he looks back. Yeah, you remember that don’t you. Ok, you can quit laughing now.

Idol love: Well as a teenager usually you develop huge love issues for movie stars, musicians or even someone older in your life. It is the kind of thing that causes you to post pictures all over your walls and spend your whole allowance on anything with their picture on it. Yeah, been there done that…

First young love: Well this is the one that usually hurts and makes you think you will never love again. You are usually dating by the time this one hits and you think that nobody else can ever take their place. Well, you have not quite got to the real love stage, so you soon learn there is more out there. (Was engaged for 4 years to my first young love. Boy am I glad that went away.)

First real love: This is the love that comes and your heart just is taken away. It no longer belongs to you. Sadly, sometimes this is the love that we mistake for some other feeling and we don’t act on it as our heart tells us to. This is usually the love that if you don’t keep, you end up keeping it with you forever in your dreams. If you don’t realize it is real and you let it go, you spend a lot of time later in life thinking about that lost love.

LOVE: Sometimes when we think we feel love we do things that are not in character for us. We may even marry someone thinking that it is love only to find out after the stars are out of our eyes that we were wrong. That is really sad, but it happens everyday. The divorce rate is prime example. A scary percentage of people are in marriages that started with misguided love.

Obsessive love: This is the sick kind of love where one person thinks that they can’t live without the other person who 9 out of ten times does not return their love. (I had a stalker that did that to me. I went out with him one time and Bam! he thought he was madly in love with me. He served 18 months for stalking me. I was only 17 and it was a scary time.)

Forever Love: This is the love we are strive for. It is the kind that when the person walks in the room, you almost swoon from the heart palpitations. Hopefully you all have felt this kind of love. Maybe it is with the person you are married to, hopefully. It is the kind of love that stops everything around you. When you lock eyes you know and it scares you sometimes the depths it can go. Now that is great love.

As I said before, this is just my take. There are so many more levels of love. It is endless. Hope you have Forever Love. It is always a great thing to have. Hopefully it is with your spouse or spouse to be, if you gave up on Forever Love and went in another direction, well try not to dwell on it too much, because it will drive you insane. Just my opinion.

As always, great writing and May God Bless!