San Francisco 49ers v Carolina Panthers

Fighting about Jesus

My husband and I like to learn from a pretty diverse group of Christian leaders. Listening to different movements and schools of thought keeps us well rounded.

But if we put all of our favorite pastors in the same room, a brawl would probably break out. Not between the pastors. No. I mean between their followers, who would freak out that their favorite leader was hanging out with “so and so.” Of course, this is just a theory…

Which kind of makes me think of my kids in the car yesterday. They asked me to play a specific song. “I want the one about baby Jesus!” Leah exclaimed. Which means Misty Edwards’, People Get Ready.

So we were listening to Misty sing:

“He’s not a baby in a manger anymore
He’s not a broken man on a cross
He didn’t stay in the grave
And He’s not staying in heaven forever!”

And my kids started FIGHTING. Leah was singing along, which compelled Isaiah to complain that he couldn’t hear the song. Even though I’d already turned it up so loud that the car next to me wanted to get saved. Leah defended herself, avowing that she was singing “quiet.” And back and forth it went.

I mean, normally I love a good irony, but I really was compelled to intervene, “Guys. We are fighting about listening to a song about Jesus. Do you think that makes Jesus happy?”

So really, guys, when we fight about Jesus, does that make Him happy?

Pre-trib versus post-trib. Eternal security versus losing our salvation. Miracles versus cessationism. Grace versus law. Free will versus sovereignty of God. Alcohol versus no alcohol. Fighting about Jesus. And what He said and what we think He thinks.

Studying the Word to learn the truth about the nature of God is not bad. Personally, I love long drawn out theological conversations… but we’re not supposed to be mean. For reals.

You know how I know? Because Jesus said so.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

Jesus doesn’t want us to fight about Him. He doesn’t want us to use the Bible as a sword to hack each other in pieces. He wants us to show off our love for each other.

So play nice, kids.

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Conned

I love watching my kids interact together. It’s fascinating how their little personalities play off of each other.

Speaking of being played… my son is figuring out how to con his little sister! Leah is getting old enough that she has some preference about what movie they watch. This morning, Isaiah was wanting to watch Lady and the Tramp, but he knew it was technically Leah’s turn to choose.

He said, “Puppies, Leah! Puppies!” and waved the case in her face. She made some disapproving sounds, but he put the disc in anyway.

Now, the previews of my kids’ favorite movies fill them with blissful anticipation of movie watching goodness. Isaiah used this to his favor in convincing his sister to watch his movie. For each preview, he shouted “yay!,” clapped his hands and encouraged Leah to join in the rejoicing. There’s no way Leah can resist a good cheer, so she shouted “yay!” and clapped her hands too. By the time the actual movie started, she had completely forgotten that she hadn’t wanted to watch it.

She was conned.

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Good Self Esteem

I just heard Isaiah and Leah having this conversation:

Isaiah – “Do you like me?”
Leah, who was too busy trying to climb down the stairs, didn’t reply.
Isaiah – “I’m the bestest boy in the whole wide world.”
Leah still said nothing.
Isaiah – “Do you like me?”
Leah – “Yes.”
Isaiah – “I sure am cool.”

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Resourceful!

I think being a mom has made me extra resourceful… or something. I had finally got both of the kids down for naps. I brewed some tea to enjoy in my few minutes of peace and quiet. I was seated at the computer, enjoying the peace and quiet and my nice Earl Grey, but little did I know a disaster was about to ensue. One minute all was tranquil and quiet, the next minute there was a whole cup of tea in my lap (being a mom has also made me clumsy). Paper towel was all the way upstairs and the tea pool was dangerously close to the computer. So I did what anyone would do… I pulled off my jeans that were 2/3 soaked with tea and wiped up the mess with the remaining dry spots left on them. Not what you would do? I don’t think I would have either, 3 years ago! But a mom does what a mom has got to do.

Being a parent also makes you very resourceful in your explanations. A while back, Isaiah became enamored with a cartoon character that Chris wasn’t so fond of. He felt that this cartoon character was advocating ideas that we didn’t want Isaiah embracing, so Chris told me not to pick up any more of his DVD’s at the library. Of course, the next time we went to the library, the first DVD Isaiah picked out was the vetoed one. So we told him that the character was yucky. Isaiah said, “He got poop on him?” Chris decided to go with it and told him that the cartoon didn’t have Jesus in his heart so it was like his heart had poop in it. Isaiah’s eyes were pretty wide at that explanation and it stuck with him. A month later, we were at the library again when Isaiah spotted the banned DVD and exclaimed, “He got poop on him!”

Isaiah and Leah like to play together. Every time I put Leah down for a nap, Isaiah asks where she is. When I tell him she’s napping, he says, “When he done with his nap, he will come play with me?” (We’re still working on our male and female pronouns). He also tries to stand up for her. When I tell her it’s time for a nap, he tries to convince me she doesn’t want to go to bed.

Leah can climb stairs now, so we have to really watch her. She’s fast and before you realize it, she’s halfway up! She’s getting big in so many ways. I’ve put a recent picture of her up for you to enjoy!

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Who needs a comedian… I have Isaiah

Chris took Leah to the doctor for her well-baby checkup. Before they left, I was laying Isaiah down for his nap and explaining that Daddy was going to take baby to the doctor. Without even hesitating, Isaiah asked in a worried tone, “We’ll get another one?” “Another baby?” I asked. He said, “yeah,” so I tried to explain that Daddy would take her and bring her right home. We both agreed that we didn’t want another baby and that we wanted to keep this one. “He will miss me?” he asked (We don’t quite have our male and female pronouns sorted out).

I tried to explain that Baby was part of our family, so I told him that she was a Davis and that he was a Davis too. He said, “No, I’m a boy.” After a little more explaining, he started to get the Davis concept down. He asked some important questions to figure it all out, “Isaiah a Dabis?” “Baby a Dabis?” “You a Dabis?” Then things became more abstract, “Thomas bed a Dabis?” I agreed, since the Thomas bed belongs to our family. “Lib’ary books a Dabis?” “No,” I explained, “They are the library’s.” I think we sorted it all out eventually.

You may have read this in Chris’ blog, but while he was at the doctor, his cell rang and it said it was me calling. He answered it, but only heard a dialing sound. When he finished at the doctor he called me back. It rang a few times and then our son (who was supposed to be napping) answered. In a whisper he said, “Hi.” Chris said hi back and Isaiah pipped up, “Hi Daddy!” Chris tried to find out why Isaiah had my phone, but all he got was a long jumble of an explanation. So he told Isaiah to go take the phone to Mommy. Isaiah promptly hung up. Right about that time, I poked my head in his door to make sure he was behaving. “I talk to Daddy!” he proudly informed me. I was confused for a moment, until I saw my phone lying on his floor.

I was talking about Jesus the other night with Isaiah and he told me, “They throw Jesus in the water.” I was a little confused about which Jesus story we were referring to, so Isaiah went on to explain, “Then da’ fish ate him!!!” It took me a while to convince him that was Jonah, one of Jesus’ friends. Turns out they had learned about Jonah that week in Sunday School.

Another night I was telling Isaiah that Jesus lives in heaven. He said, “Yeah, up in the stars. He made dem!” So we talked about all the things that Jesus made… the sun and moon, the trees, etc. Then he said, “An’ Jesus made da Pittsburgh house!”

Isaiah is a super big brother. One of the elders from our church was holding Leah at a party. Isaiah saw her sitting with him and his wife and got concerned. He came over to were I was sitting and said, “Where’s baby?” I told him Mr. Anthony had her. He wasn’t satisfied that I was doing my job, so he said, “Come wid me…” He took me by the hand and led me over to the area were they were sitting. When he saw that I knew where she was and was OK with it, then he was fine with it too. I guess he was just checking up on me.

As much as he loves his little sister, Isaiah does have some objections to her new crawling abilities. When she starts getting to close to his toys, he’ll say, “Mommy, get Baby!” Or he’ll exclaim, “No Baby! No Baby! No Baby!” He also tries to tell her what toy to play with, which doesn’t get very far. He’ll bring her a toy and say, “He wants to play with this… Here, Baby. Here, Baby.” Of course she doesn’t ever want to play with the thing he wants her to play with.

Leah went to her first fireworks show. She was a little overwhelmed. She didn’t cry, but her face looked kind of shocked as she watched the sky. Isaiah was intimidated by the big booms at first, but pretty soon he figured out it was fun to try to make as much noise as the fireworks! This picture is us eating snow cone and cotton candy at the carnival by the fireworks.

And, last but not least… I saw the snake! It definitely lives under the rocks behind our house. I was taking Chester outside and heard something in the grass, and there it was slithering away for all it was worth. I didn’t see it’s eyes, which is OK by me. But I still screamed for a good bit! Chris thinks that is funny, but it’s just an involuntary reaction. Snake=scream.

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So Different

It constantly amazes me how different my kids are from each other.  I know they were both made the same factory and cooked in the same oven, but the end results were polar opposites.

Usually, I consider Leah my easy baby and Isaiah my hard one.  Isaiah is super dramatic.  Something as simple as, “No, you can’t have a cookie,” can result in a complete meltdown.  He’s as intense about play as he is about complaining, so there’s always lots of screaming, throwing and wrestling going on.

Leah, on the other hand is calm and content.  She play on the floor for long stretches without needing any attention.  When I lay her down for bed, she whimpers a little, but quickly complies and goes to sleep on her own.

The one thing that Isaiah never has made a stink about is pain.  When he falls down, he gets up and brushes himself off like nothing happened.  Even when he was a baby and got his shots, the drama was over as soon as the needle was put away.

Pain, however is the one thing that makes Leah freak out.  Having such an easy baby throws us off when she does decide to assert her opinion about something.  We took Leah for her shots yesterday.  She took the actual event a lot harder than Isaiah ever did.  But it didn’t stop there.  We literally had to hold her the rest of the day.  Even though she was completely exhausted, she refused to let us lay her in bed.

The one thing my kids do agree on is that they like each other and they like their dog.

Isaiah likes to push Leah in her baby swing.  If she’s crying, he’ll tell her,  “You’re fine, Baby.”  And anytime Isaiah pays attention to her, Leah smiles from ear to ear.  You can tell that she thinks her big brother is the coolest thing ever!

They do have slightly different ways of showing their mutual affection for Chester.  Isaiah uses the tough love approach.  Pushing, tackling and shoving are his usual methods, but sometimes he does offer a hug or kiss.  However, Chester is so used to Isaiah wanting to roughhouse, that he is pretty hesitant to stand still for a kiss.

Leah’s love for Chester is a recent phenomenon, probably because she just discovered him.  She follows him around the room with her eyes, a huge grin on her face.  Unfortunately Chester has never really warmed up to her.  I think he’s still a little scared of her.  So if I let her touch his fur, he ends up walking away and sitting on the other side of the room.  He’s goofy.

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