Takes a Two-by-Four

Last Saturday the ladies were having a wellness day at the church.  I’m ashamed to say, exercise and a healthy lunch was not top priority on my to do list.  I waffled all week on whether or not to go.  I wanted to support the ladies and I love to fellowship, but I will admit, exercise in a group doesn’t appeal to me. I’d much rather slip down to the basement in my house, sit on my stationary bike in front of the TV, and ride away.

From the blog last week, you can tell that has not been happening lately.  Last Saturday I wrote my blog, sitting in my sweats, trying to decide to go or not.  My flesh said stay at home.  Do you really want to exercise? It’s your day off, relax. You can ride your bike later, all the while I’m writing about a child telling me my stomach is fat and I might have a baby in it.

After a few minutes of arguing in my head, it hit me and I began to laugh. The Spirit was telling me to get off my behind, go exercise and eat a good meal.  Something needed to kick start my routine to lose weight and get healthy.  It was placed right in front of me, only my flesh was trying very hard to resist.  God was giving me the perfect opportunity to fix what I was writing about.

I posted my blog, went to the church and exercised with the ladies. It was hard work but great fun.  I was sore for days, using muscles I don’t use on my bike.

It’s always amazes me how quickly we can squash the Spirit when we don’t want to hear what He’s telling us to do.  Let’s make a point to listen to the Spirit and when He shows a something so clearly, don’t ignore Him, just do it.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

I will admit to needing to lose a few pounds, twenty would put me where I want to be and make me feel better but I never thought God would use my weight and a precious preschooler to teach me about the tongue.

I was teaching the preschoolers and I had one of the four-year-old girls came up to me and gave me a big hug.  As I basked in the hug, she patted my stomach, looked up at me with her gorgeous eyes and said, “You have a big tummy.”

I looked down at her, “I know have a big tummy but I’m exercising and trying to make it smaller.”

She must’ve sensed that maybe it wasn’t the best things she could’ve said because she looked up at me with a sadness on her face.  All of a sudden, her face lit up and she smiled from ear to ear.  She said, “Maybe you have a baby in there!” with an excitement that was almost contagious.  Almost.

Everybody loves a baby, right? Maybe not when you don’t have one, you’re a tad overweight and almost fifty.  I did a little worse about my “fat tummy” but I knew she was just trying to make it better. I laughed and told her, “Nope, no baby.”

I got to thinking about how many times we say something, sometimes without even thinking, and it comes across wrong. Then instead of really thinking about it, we say something else to make it better but in actual, we make it worse.

God reminds us to watch our tongue and to guard our mouths to keep us from calamity (Prov. 21:23) but He also tells us in Ps. 37:30 that The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom, and their tongues speak what is just.

She spoke to me in wisdom. In all honesty, my tummy is fat, yet she spoke it in such love that I could still laugh about it and take it to heart and do something to change. Let’s always watch what we say and when we do speak, make sure we speak in love.

Precious Prayers

We had an exciting evening at church tonight.  This semester, I am teaching early childhood.  I miss my older 1^st – 5^th grade kids but I know the importance of them learning from other teachers then just me.  Despite missing them, I love the little ones and sure do have fun with them.

One of the things I’ve always done with little ones, even back when I taught preschool, is I want to teach them to pray.  It’s very easy and fun.  Right before snack, when they are all sitting down, we pray for our food.  I like to get on my knees, I think it’s important to be on their level and for them to see this prayer posture in an adult.  I go around to each child and ask them if they’d like to pray.

There is nothing more precious then their prayers.  Some pray serious prayers for their parents and their pets, some tell family secrets, and some just make you want to laugh.

One boy likes to pray in his head so we get to him he says, “I want to pray in my head.”  I remind him to say amen when he’s done.  We all bow our heads and sit quietly, well, as quiet as fourteen preschoolers can and then he shouts, “Amen.”

I had two new kids at the start of January. When it came to their turn to pray the first night, they said they didn’t want to pray. I assured them that it was okay, not every wants to.

I was talking to their mother after church and I was telling her how we pray in class and how much I love to hear the kids pray.

She said, “My kids didn’t they?”

I said, “No, but that’s okay, not all kids want to.”

She said, “We come from a church background where that’s just not normally done.”

Again, I told her it was okay, I just like to give them the chance if they want.  We chatted some more then went on our way.

Tonight, three weeks and three classes later, I asked the two if they wanted to pray.  Brother said he would if sister did first.  I looked at the sister and she nodded and started praying.  I grinned deeply as she prayed then he prayed, thanking God for the little things like hearing a preschooler’s precious prayers.