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Show Up

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Have you ever spent hours and hours preparing for an event--invitations sent, rsvp's gathered, party supplies purchased, decorations put up, food prepared, table settings laid, equipment hired, time invested--and then nobody shows up?

 My husband tries to invite students from each of his classes over to our house for dinner once a semester. A few years ago, he decided to invite his freshman biology class. I was a little wary because everyone knows that freshmen are flaky, but I agreed to prepare a meal if he'd get a headcount of who was coming. About ten students signed up, so I prepared accordingly. By the time the day of the meal had arrived, the count had dropped to seven or so. That night, as dinner sat on the table, getting cold, I was certain my doubts were confirmed. Then the door bell rang. One lone, single, solitary, very awkward feeling student showed up for dinner that night. The upside was that at least one person showed up and I didn't have to cook for several days. The downside was that I decided no more dinners for freshmen.

While this episode is just kind of funny in retrospect, I thought about it again today when I went to a play date organized by the new preschool minister at my church. One thing after another led to us getting out the door later than I wanted. As I walked in 20 after the play date was scheduled to start, I apologized for being late only to realize--I was the only one who showed up. Though it was great to get to visit with the new preschool minister and my daughter had a good time playing on a playground close to the church, I am sure that our preschool minister felt slightly discouraged. One is better than none, but one is not enough. One is not enough to create a group, a ministry, a church, or a regular event. Good things can come from one on one, but not these things.

There is one job that we can all do in our church family, almost no matter who we are, and that job is--SHOW UP. Without all of us doing this job, the hard work that church ministers, volunteers, Sunday school teachers, even the church janitor, do are demeaned and belittled. As Christians, we have made a commitment to be a part of our church family. Being together and supporting each other should be our priority. Sure, there are sometimes things that interfere with us being able to participate in certain church events. That's life. But we should also have commitments to be there for events organized by the people and ministries that put these things together to serve US. This goes beyond filling the pew on Sunday morning. This means that if we have a child, we make it a priority to attend Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, Family Nights, whatever it is that our church does to serve our kids. If we are part of a small group we make it a priority to attend that group. If our church is having a church wide fellowship or there is a business meeting, we go. It's that simple.

Showing up is the easiest, least demanding role we can fulfill in our church family and the most important. Not only does showing up respect the commitment we've made to our brothers and sisters in Christ, but it helps us grow as Christians. If we're having a hard time showing up to be with our church family, we need to re-evaluate our priorities. What's getting in the way of our commitment to being with our spiritual family? Is it a TV program? Over-commitment in other areas of life? Tiredness? Laziness? Stress? Apathy? Whatever it is, we need to ruthlessly uproot that thing that is keeping us from showing up.

Solomon writes,"As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17). When nobody gets together, there's not much sharpening going on. Being present for church events is one way that we can "sharpen" each other. It is also a way that we can keep our ministers "sharp". It also is a way to keep ourselves "sharp". So, if you've been feeling a little dull lately, try showing up.

Ministering to Children: It's NOT a Gift

I go to a fairly small church, about 250 members. About every quarter a dreaded question arises: Who will teach Sunday school this quarter? Who will volunteer to assist the Sunday school teachers? As these questions are posed,I lower my eyes; they become shifty. Maybe that lady on my right will volunteer this time, I think. I mean, I did my time this year and I can't remember the last time she set foot in one of the kids' classes, much less taught one. A paper with a list of classes that need teachers is passed out with the bulletin as I make my way into worship service. The minister makes an announcement about the need for volunteers to serve in the children's area. I silently plan to "lose" the sign up sheet or "forget" about it and I say a little prayer that no one will bring it up next Sunday. On my way out the door to the parking lot after worship, I notice another member waving the sheet. With a boisterous laugh, she says to her friend beside her, "Working with children is just not my gift!" Amen, sister, I think as I subtly toss my volunteer sign up sheet in the conveniently placed waste basket by the door.

A few weeks later, after an inspiring sermon about using one's spiritual gifts, I peruse my Bible, noting the spiritual gifts listed by Paul in several different books. I search for "the gift of ministering to children". It's not in my concordance at the back of my Bible. I pull out the big guns: Strong's. If it's not in Strong's its not there. And guess what? IT'S NOT THERE! Serving children is NOT a spiritual gift! I lean back in my chair, stunned. My "biblical" excuse has crumbled in the blink of an eye. But I  feel so inadequate to work in the Sunday school, I think. Heck, I don't WANT to work in the Sunday school. The noise! The germs! The mess! I'm an introvert! I can't handle all the wiggling, the giggling, the activity!

As all these thoughts run through my head, a whisper in my mind says, Let the little children come to me. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Then it hits me. Children are not a separate part of the body of Christ. They are a special, needed, loved, wanted, important part of his body.  How different my attitude often is toward the children in my church than the attitude of Jesus. How many times have I felt like the disciples: get these noisy, disruptive beings out of the worship service and sequester them in some remote area. They are disrupting my time, my work, my worship experience. Now I feel ashamed of myself and I'm left with the question, exactly what do I do in a room full of 5, 10, 20 wiggling, energetic, lively personalities in pint sized bodies? 
 
If you have no problem jumping into the midst of 20 wild-eyed 4 year-olds, congratulations. You probably stopped reading this after the first paragraph. However, if you are still reading you are probably wondering, like I did, how do I stop believing the lie that  ministering to children takes a completely different set of skills than ministering to adults? The answer is clear but difficult to put into practice; We must change our perspective to see that ministering to children is not a spiritual gift, rather we need to use our spiritual gift(s) to minister to children. Once we have this principle in place, the rest is hard, but it's not rocket science.

Let me insert a short disclaimer here. I am in no way saying that all of us are called to full-time children's ministry. Like any other profession, the desire to be around children 24/7 depends on the unique personality and temperament God has given each one of us. However, this doesn't excuse anyone from building up and ministering to the children who are a part of our church family.

So, what does the average church member do to begin ministering to this often overlooked, partially amputated region of our church body? First, we need to take the step to "be a doers of the word" as James says, get off our lazy rears, and sign up as a volunteer. Next, we need to assess ourselves. What are our spiritual gifts? How can we use them in a kids' classroom? Are you the administrative type? Do you have a place for everything and everything in it's place? Then keep the class running on schedule. Help organize kids into work stations. Tell other volunteers what to do. (The rest of us are standing there with no idea what to do next! We love someone who will give us a job!) Be the one to match the kids' name tags with parents' name tags at pick up time. Fill out the class attendance sheet. Make sure supplies are organized and available. Do you have the gift of teaching? Are you a great story teller? Then give the lesson. Make God's Word come alive in the little minds that are eagerly searching for love and truth. Is your gift serving? Then get snack ready. Help the kids write their names on their paper. Help clean up the room at the end of class time. Take a kid to the restroom. Wipe the snotty noses. Do you have the gift of mercy? Hang out with that kid who is bawling non-stop because Mom left him in a strange place. Help the kid who is slow. Rejoice with the kid who is happy. Comfort the kid whose feelings got hurt.

At this point, you might be saying, "Okay, okay. I get your point, but, you know what? I don't have the gift of patience! Working with kids takes a lot of patience and I don't have it." Well, here's another shocker. Patience isn't a spiritual gift either. Patience is a fruit of the spirit. It is a direct result, visible in our lives, of following the way God has called us to live. No one on this earth has "the gift of patience". It is something that every single person has had to grow into. If you don't have patience, working in the children's area is a great place to practice discipline in this area of your life.

Working with children is not easy. It is tiring, it is crazy, it is unpredictable. But we all have a spiritual gift. We can all use our gift to serve children. The world is telling us, more and more emphatically, every day that children are not important. They are inconvenient and messy. In a world concerned with appearance and pleasure, children are an unwelcome interruption. This should not be our attitude, my attitude. This is not Jesus's attitude. Children are the future of our church. They are future leaders, teachers, servants, ministers, and workers. If we are not using our spiritual gifts to serve them and lift them up, what kind of message is that sending to this very important and vulnerable part of our body? Your spiritual gift is for the edifying of EVERYONE in the body of Christ. Take that Sunday school volunteer sheet, sign your name, just do it.

The Crackled Wood Effect Experiment

All you need for this project is a piece of old furniture, a sander, two colors of latex paint, lacquer, and Elmer's Glue. Because you will probably have to experiment a bit to get the technique down, I recommend going to Wal-Mart and purchasing mis-tints on the paint aisle. Wal-Mart is a great place for finding paint that was mis-tinted because most of the people who end up running the paint mixer at Wal-Mart haven't been trained. You will probably want to get a darker color for the undercoat and a lighter color for the top coat. The dark coat is what will show through when the paint crackles. I used some leftover paint from painting my entry area last summer and found an off white color mis-tint on the paint aisle.

 I followed this tutorial to get the crackle effect here.
Basically it is a 5 step process
1. Sand the furniture if needed. I had to strip off a sticky black veneer that would not come off with the sander.
2. Paint the first (darker color) coat and let dry completely
 3. Use a sponge brush to cover the piece in a coat of Elmer's glue. After all my experiments, a medium coat seemed to work best. Let the glue set up for a few minutes. This particular tutorial says until "tacky" but all the tutorials I looked at had a little bit different take on when the glue was ready to be painted over. You do not want to let the glue dry completely.
4. Apply the second coat of paint (lighter color) over the glue. This is the tricky part. Too early and it won't crackle right; too late, and it won't crackle right.
5. Cover with a protective coating of lacquer or other clear protectant

 I had to redo the table 5 or 6 times so I would definitely follow the tutorial's instructions about practicing on another surface to get the timing right for the second coat of latex before trying it out on an entire piece of furniture. Also, this table was especially challenging because it was a cheap press board affair and did not have a wood grain so I had to make sure to paint the glue and paint in the same direction in long swipes to create a wood grain effect. The tutorial also says to use a sponge brush. I concur. I tried a traditional paint brush on my first round. No bueno.

 Not a bad new look for a cheap table that was ugly, shiny black.

 I think it's going to fit right in.

White Easter Bunny Cupcakes

My daughter's school program allows them to bring a treat for their friends on the school day closest to their birthday. Since her birthday is so close to Easter this year, I decided to make some kind of treat with an Easter theme. After fruitless searches online for something cute and unique that I thought the kids would really enjoy, I decided to come up with my own thing and created these bunny cupcakes.

You will need:


-1 box white cake mix
-1 jar of white frosting
-chocolate chips
- tiny pretzel twists

-pretzel sticks

-pink jelly beans

-mini marshmallows

-gel icing (color of your choice. I used pink with sparkles because it was what was available)

-cotton balls

-Elmer's Glue 

-cupcake papers

Bake cupcakes following box mix instructions. Let cool. Using Elmer's glue (or school glue of you brand of choice), glue cotton balls to cupcake papers to create bunny tails. Frost cupcakes with white icing. Take mini pretzel twists and press upright into the cupcake on top of cake above the bunny tail to form ears. Add chocolate chips for eyes and a pink jelly bean for nose. Take four pretzel sticks and press to two into the cupcake on each side of the jellybean nose to form whiskers. Draw a mouth with gel icing. Press on or two mini marshmallows onto cupcake below icing mouth to create teeth. (I used two but mouth looked a bit crowded. I think one marshmallow for "teeth" would work better.) Waalah! Amazing bunny cupcakes the kids will love.

 

The Four P's of Christmas Presents

Presents are one of the most stressful things about Christmas. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE giving and receiving gifts, but that pressure to figure out just the right gift for someone without succumbing to the retail super storm of Christmas commercialism can be overwhelming to impossible. However, I've figured out some things this year that I want to pass on that I think make giving and the Christmas season more meaningful than ever.

I always get a kick out of preachers who have four or five points to share and they've come up with a word for each point that starts with a certain letter. I guess the alliteration is a bit amusing to my English geek heart. I get an even bigger laugh when they come up with a word that starts with, say, the letter D for every point but one, but then they have to pick a different word for the last point because they just couldn't think of a word with D that summed up that last point. Kind of like the person who came up with who, what, when, were, why.....and, oh yes, how. I digress. I only mention this because I feel like a preacher having come up with the four P's of presents in order to share my theory of making gift exchanges less stressful and more meaningful. Here they are:

1. Pausing to Remember--Last year, a wonderful family friend gave my daughter a nativity advent calendar. It was a meaningful and very simple nightly event for our family, and it helped us focus on the reason and purpose for the season. This year, I ordered an advent calendar that has scripture verses to read each night. My daughter looks forward to opening the door in the calendar each day, and it is a wonderful way to remember the light Jesus brought into the world and focus on satisfaction and fulfillment in Jesus rather than things; things can so easily become the focus of the season without time to reflect on why we celebrate.

2. Paying it Forward--Each year we try to give something to those who are in need. It reminds us of of the difference between "need" and "want" and keeps us thankful for what we have. Every family will have their own cause or charity that appeals to them. Some of our favorites are Operation Christmas Child, the Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog, and Salvation Army.

3. Passing it On-- If you have a cute three year old that everyone wants to shower with presents (and not just at birthday and Christmas), there must be a time to clean out the unused and out-grown items hanging around in bins and drawers and corners. This is not about giving junky stuff to people who can't afford new toys. This is about cleaning out what we don't want, need, use, or have lost interest in and passing on a usable item in good condition, which allows someone else to enjoy the things that no longer play a role in our daily life. Having my daughter go through her things with me and pick out the items she no longer wanted or used was a great teachable moment. Not only did I have a chance to talk with her about giving, I was also helping her understand the importance of limiting the amount of possessions she has. In a couple of words: Don't hoard! This is also a great exercise for me with my personal and household belongings.

4. Promoting Family (and Friend) Relationships--Finally, Christmas is about spending time with people who are important to us and letting them know they are special. A bought gift can be very meaningful, but there are so many simple (and useful!) gifts that you can make for family and friends. One of my most treasured Christmas gifts is a cloved orange (click link for video on how to make a cloved orange) an aunt made for me a couple of years ago. I put it in my linen closet to keep the sheets fresh. Before I received that gift, I was having to rewash my entire linen closet about every three months to get rid of the musty smell that would build up. No more! The cloved orange keeps my sheets and blankets fresh; even better, they actually smell good! And the orange has lasted for two years. Talk about a small, but thoughtful, gift that paid big dividends! The point is, gifts don't have to be elaborate and break our pocket books to help our loved ones feel loved, remembered and appreciated. Making Christmas gifts is also a great way to keep my kid entertained, spend time interacting with my daughter, and it is meaningful to family members that she helped make the gift.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Homemade Christmas Card Ornaments

My husband's grandmother is an avid crafter. A few years ago, she told me about a way to use old Christmas cards to make ornaments. To do this project, you will need:

1 Styrofoam craft ball--size of your choice

1 or more old Christmas cards

a plastic container big enough to put the Christmas card in

water

flour

a small cup or container to make flour paste

paraffin

a straight pin

ribbon or twine


If you want to make the kitty kat ornament I made, you will also need:

2 fuzzy sticks (pipe cleaners)

wiggly eyes

tooth pick

hot glue

black felt

and an additional Styrofoam craft ball



Too make a simple round Christmas card ornament:

Put the Christmas card in the plastic container and soak it in water. When the card is soft enough, you should be able to peel the picture layer away from the card backing.

1.Mix flour in water in a small cup or container to make flour paste. Tear the Christmas card front into small pieces or strips and glue them onto the styrofoam ball with the flour paste. (This process is much like making the newspaper shell of a pinata over a balloon.) Cover entire styrofoam ball with pieces of Christmas card sealed on with the flour paste. Let dry.

2.When ball is completely dry,take a straight pin and pin on a loop of ribbon or twine for a hanger. If I use twine I tie the twine around the pin close to the head of the pin and then press it into the styrofoam ball. I also sometimes put a dab of hot glue on the head of the pin for extra hold.

3. Melt paraffin in a double boiler. (Or you can do what I do. Put paraffin in a quart mason jar. Set jar in a pan with water and bring water to a boil over medium low heat to slowly and safely melt paraffin. Then you don't have to try to get the leftover paraffin out of a pan and into something else and clean off the waxy mess. You can just let the paraffin cool in the jar, screw on the lid, and store for future use.) Dip the ornament into the melted paraffin to make a protective coating over the Christmas card design.

4. Let cool. Hang on tree or give to a friend.

If you want to make the kitty kat:

1. Do step one, but make two styrofoam balls. I had to use two Christmas cards, on for each ball.

2. Insert a tooth pick into the base of kitty's "head" as if you were creating a neck. Insert the other end of the tooth pick into the second styrofoam ball that will serve as kitty's body. Make sure tooth pick does not show. Reinforce with hot glue. Then attach ribbon or twine with pin as in step two, inserting the pin into the "body" ball, just below the "neck" area.

3. Follow step three, dipping entire kitty ornament into paraffin. If you use the glass jar method, you may have to dip one end and then the other as kitty, if he's as big as mine was, won't fit inside the jar horizontally.

4. Let paraffin coating on kitty cool completely. Then hot glue wiggly eyes in place. I created a nose and mouth by put a piece of Christmas card that looked like a nose and mouth where I intended kitty's face to be. If you don't have a card that works the way you could glue a button or a fuzzy ball on for a nose and draw on a mouth with a black felt tip pen. If you draw on the mouth, do this BEFORE dipping in paraffin.

5. Take one fuzzy stick and cut 4 approx 1-1.5 inch pieces. Insert wire of fuzzy stick into the face around the nose, two on each side of the nose. Reinforce with hot glue.

6. Cut a length of fuzzy stick and insert it into the appropriate "tail" area of the body. Reinforce with hot glue. Bend and twist to make tail curl like a cats.

7. Cut 4 aprrox. 2.5 inch lengths of fuzzy stick for legs. Insert them into the appropriate area of the body for legs. Bend into an L shape at the ends to form feet. Reinforce with hot glue.

8. Cut triangles for ears from the black felt and hot glue to the top of kitty's head.

Waa lah! A kitty kat for your Christmas tree!