My Life as a Play: Saying Your Sorry

Setting: Mommy has taken Jacob to Chuck E Cheese to play and eat pizza. While riding the Chuck E car that takes your picture, Jacob had to go pee very badly. He stands up but is unsure what to do since the ride is not over and no 3-year old boy leaves a ride early. Mommy, holding and feeding Ava Lauren her bottle, implores him to go the potty quickly. Instead, Jacob looks down as pee runs down his pants into the seat of the Chuck E car. 

Mommy [with slight anger]: Oh, Jacob. Why did you not go when I asked you earlier? I asked you three times if you had to go to the potty, and you said no.

Mommy [talking more to herself but aloud]: It is my fault. I knew you needed to go. I sorry I did not make you go to the bathroom.

Jacob [with complete sincerity and lack of personal responsibility]: Thank you Mommy for saying your sorry.

Our Church's Website

Go check out our church's new website: www.springfieldbaptistchurch.org. It got significantly revamped a few months back and the content is mostly filled in. We still need to work on some more pages, but I am very happy with what we have. Shannon worked hard on the children's section and it looks the best of any ministry. We have photos from our recent VBS on it now.

The site we had before was too tough to maintain and had too old of an architecture to be useful. This site made by SiteOrganic is very powerful and gives us the best looking website in Robertson County and one that I would put up against any church our size.

I was the point person in selecting and working with the design company so I am quite proud of this new site. It will help us in ministry.

Baby Dedication ceremony script

As I mentioned last week, we had Ava's baby dedication on Father's day. As children's minster, Shannon has had to come up with our baby dedication ceremony. We looked online for some resources for what to say, but she never found a script that she felt captured the spirit of baby dedication without being too lengthy. There are resources that speak of the layout of the service, but few that address what to say in detail but also in a concise manner. So, we made it up ourselves. All the declarations come directly from Scripture. You can never go wrong using the Bible. Here is our script we made, placed on the web to help any other struggling children's ministers for their baby dedication.

1. Shannon introduces the babies and their families. Pictures are shown on the screen as the pastor greets each family and presents them with a Bible and certificate.

2. Pastor explains the significance of Baby Dedication. He leads into the importance of God’s Word being a lamp to our feet and a light to our path as we seek to raise our children in accordance to God’s will.

3. Pastor directs the parents to read the following portions of scripture as a pledge to God as they dedicate their child and themselves to Him.

Parents Read Responsively, saying the pronoun (like “her” or “his”) according to the gender of their child :

O Lord Almighty, we give our child to You for all the days of her/his life. (I Samuel 1:11)

We will show her/him how to love God with all of her/his heart, soul and strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

We will teach her/him about the Lord, both at home and as we go, in the morning and in the evening. (Deuteronomy 6:7)

We will train her/him up in the way of the Lord so that she/he will not depart as she/he grows older. (Proverbs 22:6)

We thank God for our child. She/He is a blessing from the Lord. (Psalm 127:3)

4. Pastor addresses the church and charges them with the duty of helping these families in growing their children up in Christ. Then, the pastor asks the church to stand as they read the following portions of scripture as a pledge to help nurture these little ones.

Church Reads Responsively:

We will love you as God has loved us. (1 John 4:11)

We will encourage you to love others and do good deeds in the name of Christ. (Hebrews 10:24)

We will rejoice with you in times of rejoicing. (Romans 12:15)

We will help you through difficult times and carry your burdens. (Galatians 6:1-2)

We will pray for you throughout your life. (I Thessalonians 5:17)

You are a blessing from the Lord. (Psalm 127:3)

5. Pastor closes in a prayer of dedication looking forward to the day these children receive Jesus as Lord.

Father's Day

Last Sunday was of course Father's Day. Shannon had kept telling Jacob it was my "special day" which he parroted back in the from a question, "Daddy, is today your special day" about 20 times on Sunday. All this week he asks, "Daddy, is today your special day?"

At church that morning, we had Ava's baby dedication. A sweet couple in our church, Jerry and Betty Boyte, gave us a christening gown for Ava. Mom and Dad came down and saw the ceremony.

After my parents head back to their home, we went to the playground and took some pictures. You can see photos from the day, including the Boytes, below.

For me, these are some of the most precious photos we have ever taken. They seem to so capture the spirit of a family and the joy a father has with his family. As I was looking through them again yesterday, I wept at the joy they bring me. Being a Dad is the hardest thing I have ever done. I mess up more as a father in than any other position I have held. It is days like Sunday that fuel your resolve and commitment to keep going and giving it your best. It is one thing to just "be there" for the kids and another, much greater responsibility, to love them as Christ loves. I fail often at that goal, but I keep on pressing toward the goal because of day's like Father's Day.

Remembering Mom and Dad Varden

Today is the 2nd anniversary of the death of Shannon's parents. A friend of Shannon's, who herself lost her young child in a car accident, said you never get over it. Loss of a child is far worse than losing your middle aged parents, but the truth is deaths of close family members are ones we never get over. That is such a fallacy of grieving. That it is a period of your life for you to "get over" a death whatever that means. How do you get over losing 2 of the people that mean the absolute most to you. No, grieving is about integrating a terrible loss into your life the best you can so that you can keep on living. For some, it does not take long. For others, it takes much longer. For all of us, there is still pain, no matter the years in between, at the thought of their loss. We don't get over it, but we do go through it. This is a hard week for Shannon, but it is part of grieving. I can tell she is doing "better" than last year as God continues to minister to her, and she continues to put this loss into her life and keep living. Here are some things I wrote about Mom and Dad, their death and us living with that. We love them and remember them, always.

http://kylemeadors.com/2007/06/20/gary-and-joyce-varden-may-126-1950-june-11-2006/

http://kylemeadors.com/2007/12/11/verdict-in-trial-for-person-who-killed-shannons-parents/

http://kylemeadors.com/2007/12/12/reflections-on-the-verdict/

Beaches, Lauas and Life In-between

Our last 2 weeks have been quite hectic but very fun. For Memorial Day, we took a trip down to Gulf Shores with the kids. It is an eight hour trip with a newborn and a 3 year old. Just past the half way point on the way down, I thought to myself, "What are we thinking! Two kids in a car for this long." And the trip was definitely frustrating at times. Yet looking back, it was totally worth it. We had some great times on the beach with Jacob, and we got a pop-up cabana for Ava to stay in on the beach with us. Some real moments of Americana with your family at the beach and playing with your kids in the surf. Good times.

Then came VBS which is the highpoint of any children's ministry at a church. It was a great event with decisions for Christ and positive teaching and reinforcement of God's truth for our young people. Many visitors and unchurched families. The theme was tropical, Hawaiian. To conclude VBS, we have a Sunday night "Family Night" with a musical the children do and a dinner afterwards along with inflatable games for the kids to play on. We did a luau style dinner and it went over great. Lots of good energy in the crowd with people talking and laughing and being part of a community. So positive and encouraging and a great way to end the VBS.

Today, Shannon is crashing in bed all day to recover. Thursday we go to get her carcinoma spot fully removed. Wednesday is the 2-year anniversary of her parents' death. Like family vacations, life gives you some great moments coupled up next to tough moments. You have to celebrate the good to keep the bad from bringing you down. Life keeps on keeping on and we have to too until the Lord comes again and we get to dance in the sky with him.

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