M m Moon

"Starry Night" by Van Gogh

This turned out to be a soul-plumbing week.

The letter "M", the moon and the words: "I am the Light of the World" were our themes. I really want to raise children who delight in serving others and who are lights in the world.  We talked about how the Bible says we are to let our lights shine so that God will receive glory.  We talked about ways that we can do this and practiced some of them.

In dealing with this topic I was struck with the hypocrisy which exists in the juxtaposition of the desire I have to live out the Christian life of service and the very deep ugly that resides in me.

We started learning the Operational Definitions of Character Qualities.  This week I chose "Hospitality" which is: "Cheerfully sharing food, shelter and spiritual nourishment with those whom God brings into my life." and we learned the verse to go with it: Hebrews 13:2.  That saying, written in large print on our chalkboard kitchen wall, along with Bible verses and a week's worth of spiritual light reflecting activities, after a while seemed painfully sardonic.

After one particularly difficult morning in which I was inexcusably monstrous, I had to wipe off everyone's tears and then proceed to present a carefully constructed lesson plan about missionaries and showing love to our neighbors and what not.

Hey!!  How about you just work on not being a complete jerk toward your kids, Lauren?!

Parenting is hard.  Just being a decent human being is hard for me sometimes.

And here I am, making missionary cookies for the neighbors who don't yell at their child and who are more neighborly than Mark and I and they don't even claim to be Christians.

<sigh>

But this is what I learned in My Father's World kindergarten: I'm not meant to be a flashlight or a candle or anything else that you think of hiding under a bushel, no.  I'm meant to be a mirror.  Just like the moon doesn't give off it's own light but it reflects the sun's light, (did you know that?  I didn't know that), I am supposed to be a reflection of who God is. I don't even have my own light to shine which was painfully obvious this week.

So if we could all just sing "This little reflector vest of mine" in Sunday School, that would clear up a lot.

I know, the Bible explicitly says that we are to be lights.  And the moon is called a light in Genesis.  But when I look at the way God created the moon to function as a light even though it isn't actually a source of light itself, it helps me to understand the verse in Matthew better.  I'm still working out all of the implications but I think that changes the way I see my Christian duty.

And how many times have a I been a mirror but in the wrong way?  Particularly to my kids and my husband, when they interact with me and all I point out are their faults.  But if I were to reflect God's light, they would find a well of grace and hope and love that tells them they are lovely, not because of what they do or don't do, but because God loves them.

I'm so thankful to have Mark, who has been the greatest example of sacrificial and unconditional love to me.  It is always the times when I know I don't deserve it and he gives it anyway that profoundly change me.  I feel like if I do nothing else as a parent, as a person, receiving and reflecting grace is enough.

So here are the light reflecting things we did:

• We took a flashlight and mirror into a dark room to talk about this concept of Jesus being the source of light and we being a reflection of it
• We sang "This Little Light of Mine" afterward and used mirrors for our lights
• We learned the definition of "hospitality" and talked about how that is applied first to the people who live in our house
• Nora has a new job on Mondays- I taught her to take over my task each week of folding and stuffing the bulletins for the shut-in's from church.  There are only 4 so she can do it well.  We talked about how sending an encouraging note or making a phone call can be a way to reflect Jesus' love. 
• We talked about the missionary Lottie Moon and how she made cookies for the Chinese children to have an opportunity to tell them about Jesus
• We made Lottie Moon cookies for our neighbors

• We talked about what it means to be a missionary and how you can be a missionary anywhere.  We talked about our resident missionaries, Mimi & Poppi (My Dad and Linda), and how they always look for opportunities to tell people about Jesus.  This weekend they are taking 5 bus loads of people down to the Harvest Crusade to hear the gospel preached.  
• We got cozy and watched a Mister Rogers episode about a planetarium

• Nora spent her two hours alone with Mika (a practice they are doing weekly now.)  They had a tea party and pretended that a bunch of animals were going to dinner and the doctor's.  I'd rather stick a fork in my eye than play pretend so Nora relishes her time with Mika.  We talked about how Mika is a "mirror" and pretty much hospitality incarnate.
• Our friend Candace came over and we made tin can candles with old candle wax and crayons.  The insides of the can reflect the light from the flame and it's very pretty.  I'll try to refrain from giving everyone candles for Christmas.

• We went as a family to a work day at church.  This was the first time we attempted such a thing and it was fun to have the girls help with the cleaning.  We scrubbed 4 bathrooms - even Lucy pitched in before eating the wash rag and then being banned from helping.

Relaxing with Pastor Sparling after a hard morning's work

Here are some of the other things we did:

• Writing Mm - another hard letter - and the number 2 in playdough, with the wet-dry-try method from Handwriting Without Tears, and a bunch of other tactile ways.  It is hard, hard work for her.

• Math - we grouped m&m's from 0-10.  When they got it right, they ate them.
• We learned about the phases of the moon - a good excuse to eat oreos.  I think this information was actually retained.  They are much more aware of how to moon looks and Nora is able to name the phase that she sees.

• We did a picture study of Van Gogh's Starry Night  (Anyone know what that big brown thing is supposed to be?  Nora and I didn't have a clue.)
• We had a family movie night and we watched "The Red Balloon" since Lucy is all about balloons and balls now.  It's a neat little movie.  And since it was a French film, I felt all cultured.
• Books we really liked: "Faces of the Moon" by Bob Crelin and "So That's How the Moon Changes Shape" by Allan Fowler
• We spent time at the playground until we dropped

• We all went to Bounce U with Mika and Kirsten, Benny and Arwen 

Claire continues to amaze us with her acrobatic ability

Even Lucy was doing it

Another good, full week.