My Mallory Weiss Tear

2 05 2013

I’m sure you can tell many of your own personal stories to your children. They will love hearing about them! Don’t neglect to pass on your journey to the next generation. They will benefit from your experience and the lessons you learned from it. Here’s one of my stories and a simple lesson you can teach your children.

Image

from Wikipedia

One night a few years ago, there was some sickness going around. I got it. I started feeling a little queasy before bed. In the middle of the night, I woke up and was like, “Oh boy, here it is.” So I went downstairs knowing that I was going to throw up, but trying to think of anyway I could avoid it. You know, crackers and stuff. But nope, nothing was going to work. My body needed to throw up!

So it happened. Not cool, but something didn’t look right. What came out was kind of dark. So I was trying to figure out if I should go to the hospital or not. Cause I felt siiiick! I ended up going to the doctor and he said it’s probably just a virus. I came back home, but didn’t feel any better.

Later that morning, I threw up again. It was dark again. I’m thinking, “Now I know I threw up blood.” Ya gross right? So I went back to the hospital. I knew something wasn’t right, but there was NOTHING…I…COULD…DO! My wife came along with me and she said I looked white. I waited at emerge for somebody, ANYBODY to help me. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew the doctors could help me. I trusted that they knew what to do and would take care of my problem.

I ended up waiting awhile and discovered that something had gone wrong inside my body. When I threw up, the doctor told me that I tore something inside me and they had to go inside and have a look. He said it was called a Mallory Weiss tear and sometimes happens with young, strong, powerful, good looking and amazing young men. Okay, okay that’s not all true, but he did say young and strong.

So they prepared me for an operation. They put me to sleep, for which I was SO thankful! Then they stuck a tube down my throat with a camera. They found a tear, then they used water to wash it away and clean me up inside. They couldn’t use stitches or anything, but I think the medicine they gave me helped to heal my wound.

I had to recover for awhile. The doctor said later that I had lost a lot of blood and was close to needing a blood transfusion, which just means I would need to get blood put into me. I’ll tell you what, I am SOO thankful for doctors and hospitals!!!

After that experience, I hate throwing up even more. I bet you hate throwing up too. Isn’t it so good to know that when we have problems with our bodies, we can go to hospitals and have doctors fix us up?

You could say this to your children: “We have a more serious problem than our bodies getting sick, injured and even dying! There is nothing we can do about this problem on our own. We need something far better than doctors. We need Doctor Jesus!”

[Jesus] told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor–sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” -Mark 2:17





Thought Beasts: A Parable

30 04 2013

God spoke to Cain: “Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won’t you be accepted? And if you don’t do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it’s out to get you, you’ve got to master it.” Genesis 4:7

Our children have many thoughts and feelings that lead to many words and actions. Some beneficial and others…well not so much. They don’t know how to master them. Will you help them learn to control their thoughts so they can use them for good in this world? Will you help them avoid destructive choices? Here’s a story you can tell them!

Norskfolkemuseum_1

Once there were two lads preparing to set off on their own and build their first home. The first lad was named Gumble. The second was named Victor. They had their tools and materials to begin setting up to build. They each entered the same vast forest filled with stunning flowers, towering trees, cute animals and…something else. Not long after, there appeared two tiny creatures. They were ugly little beasts. One was drawn toward Gumble and the other was drawn toward Victor.

One rainy day, as Gumble was working on his home, he began to think about the difficulty and dreariness of his work. His beast crept up and latched onto him without him even realizing it. Gumble began to…grumble. He was unhappy about being wet and about having to work in the cold. He was annoyed because of the flies and also because…three little neighbouring pigs and a wolf were being so noisy!

That same day, as Victor was working on his home, he was on the lookout for anything that might slow him down. Victor’s beast drew near, but he was ready. He had listened to the lore and legends about these beasts. One thing he learned about them was that they were the kind of beasts that feed on worthless thoughts. So he equipped himself with thoughts about how happy he’d be to complete his home deep in these beautiful woods.

The beast crept slowly up through the grass toward Victor. He snarled. His brow was furrowed. His teeth and claws were bared. He silently made his way close to Victor. Then…he pounced! …and bounced. You see, though the beast tried to latch on to Victor, it was unable. These beasts cannot cling to worthy thoughts only worthless thoughts. Now Victor had to work in the rain and the mud, with flies, spiders and pigs just like Gumble. But Victor knew how to be…victorious over the beasts. He thought about having a family in his new home and about the ways it could be decorated and the home theatre he would enjoy with ultra bass, crystal clear sound, HD vivid images and even a remote control, where he could watch the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings.

As the days went by, Victor completed his home and lived happily ever after. However, Gumble’s worthless thoughts began to multiply. He thought about his blisters, the searing heat, splinters and even how his sister broke his favourite toy jack-in-the-box back in kindergarten. Now Gumble didn’t pay attention to beast lore and what he didn’t know was that these beasts grow and cannot be seen while latched to a host filled with worthless thoughts. And as beasts grow, worthless thoughts turn to quibbles, quibbles become grumpiness, grumpiness morphs into angst and angst breeds a full-blown case of the heebie-jeebies! To this very day, Gumble’s house lays in an unfinished heap.





Family Reading Ideas with Links!

4 04 2013
Bibles

Manga series from Tyndale: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga_Bible_(series)

Devotional Books
Gather Round the Dinner Fable (by Steven James): http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/580113.Gather_Round_the_Dinner_Fable
Other Books
Dangerous Journey (Pilgrim’s Progress): http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29822.Dangerous_Journey




Making Faith Part of Everyday Life

1 03 2013

Making Faith Part of Everyday Life, Part 1.

This article is a thoughtful look at building faith conversations into your daily rhythms and routines. Worth a click!





Share the Gospel with Children

12 02 2013

 

Share the Gospel with Children.

From www.letthelittlechildrencome.com are the BEST child evangelism tools I’ve ever seen.





What to Do When We Blow Up – Connected Families

7 02 2013

What to Do When We Blow Up – Connected Families.

The goal and hope of Christianity is restoration. Jesus Christ sacrificed his life so that we could be restored in our relationship with God. One day, He will restore all things and make all things new and right and good. For the mean time we have families that are broken. We can demonstrate this hope for a better future when we model humility after a blowout. Great article here. Click the link!





Launching Your Child’s Faith: Too Hard or Too Scary? – Focus on the Family

14 12 2012

Launching Your Child’s Faith: Too Hard or Too Scary? – Focus on the Family.

Help for the everyday parent leading their child in faith.





The Power of Persistent Parenting

29 11 2012

A big difference between effective and ineffective parenting lies in the word ‘persistence.’ 

My three children were playing with cards contentedly at the dinner table when out of nowhere my oldest starts crying. Now sometimes, when she cries, I dismiss it as an episode of ‘crying wolf.’ This situation was a bit different. Perhaps she could have cried less and maybe she exaggerated a bit, but the tears were genuine. I quickly found out that my two year old full out punched her older sister in the nose. Now she’s a little tike so a full punch for her isn’t too bad.

[Feel free to debate my chosen approach, but remember the main goal here is persistence.]

My littlest cutie, Selah

Sometimes I don’t want to deal with one more fight at home, but then there are times when I remember why an engaged parent is so critical to raising children. When one of my children does something wrong I have them make a statement of what they did wrong and have them ask forgiveness. Now at two years old this needs to be very simplified. So with her I required her to say, “I will not hit.” (In retrospect, this may have been too many words as she’s not quite putting full sentences together quite yet.) However, she refused to say anything and I could see in her little heart a stubbornness that refused to feel remorse. So when my children aren’t being cooperative they go to sit on the stairs to have a little break until they’re ready.

Here is where persistence comes in. She knew she had to go to the stairs, but wouldn’t let me take her. She trotted over there by herself and plopped herself down. After a few seconds she came back and I asked her if she was ready to say, “I will not hit.” She was not so I sent her back to her spot. She willingly trotted back and then a little later came back, but she again was not ready to make her statement. Cute right? However, this happened at least five times, but I’m thinking about eight times. This gets a little frustrating and the temptation is to just give up and move on. Giving up would have significant consequences down the road. Each time you make an expectation of your child, then fail to follow through, it becomes far more difficult in the future. So persist! Persist until the job is done, an expression of remorse is made and relationships are restored.

I did (thankfully!) persist. And it did pay off. She eventually said, “Not hit.” Then our next step is asking forgiveness. For my littlest, this will take some more time to develop, so for now, saying, “Sorry,” and giving a hug is sufficient for me.

So why persist? Because if I didn’t I would have missed out on seeing my children be restored in their relationship, my littlest would have learned that it’s ok to hit and both my girls would have sustained a small little scar in their lifetime relationship. And most, importantly, I would have missed a moment in time to teach my children that when relationships are broken, they can be restored. Doing this leaves a little hint in our home that, apart from Jesus, relationships could never be fully healed.

Persistence leads little ones to Jesus!





Babies help unlock the origins of morality – CBS News

19 11 2012

Babies help unlock the origins of morality – CBS News.

Do babies have an innate sense of right and wrong, justice and desire for punishment, bias towards others who are like them and against those who are not like them, greed for personal gain at the expense of others?

Evolutionary thinking and theological preferences aside, this little video is fascinating. It shows that while these pieces of morality seem to be there from early on, the familial and cultural influences can ultimately shape how those values are embraced or reinforced.





The Importance of Ministry to Children & Families | Kidmin360

31 10 2012

 

The Importance of Ministry to Children & Families (graphic) | Kidmin360.








Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 175 other followers

%d bloggers like this: