Kick-off: Bible Bee

Not long ago I was drawn to an ad in Bible Study Magazine.  Truth be told, what attracted me to the ad was the juicy, perfectly pink-centered bite of steak stabbed by a fork.  The ad was for "real meat" - and led me to discover the Bible Bee.

In a nutshell, the Bible Bee is a 10-week family Bible study culminating (if students choose) in a national competition that delivers a $100,000 (yes, that is correct) first prize in Christianne's age group and a $50,000 first prize in Joshua's.  I'm not sure that we will compete; our objective is more about the Bible study as a family, but I am hoping we will be able to attend at least a local competition to get our feet wet.  The 2012 study is on the book of 2 Timothy.

The kids each (except Grace this year) work individually on a daily study that requires about 20 minutes a day, and then we will have weekly family "bonfires" to reinforce, have fun, etc.  Last night we did our Kick-off Bonfire and the kids began their lessons a couple of days ago.

So far I'm loving this.  The kids have said the studies are "good" - which is better than "boring" or "lame," right?  We are all memorizing Scripture together as well - we will be doing about 25 passages over the course of the summer.

The Bible Bee is a fairly new endeavor - I think this is its fourth year.  I'm impressed with the quality of materials and such... and a little disappointed there aren't any "host churches" out here in the NorCo area.  If this gig turns out to be half as wonderful an experience as it promises to be, I may get on the bandwagon and get our church involved next year.  Right now our host church is about an hour away in Cheyenne.

Want to learn along with us?  We are 4 passages in:

• 2 Timothy 3:16-17
• 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
• Titus 1:1-3
• Philippians 3:7-8

I would love your prayers for our perseverence, commitment, discipline, diligence, and effort!  I pray that the summer of 2012 will be a turning point in our spiritual growth, especially for Chris and Josh. 

If I were to die tomorrow...

There are a handful of things I would want my children to know.


Dear Christianne, Joshua, and Grace:

1.  You - each of you - were loved with every atom of my being, were wanted, were treasured, and blessed my life in ways that I don't think you can even understand until you become a parent yourself one day.

2.  As much as I loved you, there is One Who loves you infinitely more than I could begin to.  As much as I loved, wanted, and treasured you, your Abba Father loves, wants, and treasures you even more.  If you know nothing else in life, I pray that you will know that you are loved beyond comprehension.

3.  I want you to be successful, but the one thing that matters most to me is not your education or career, not your future spouse or my future grandchildren, not your popularity or even your happiness.  The one thing in life I desire for you is to know your Abba Father intimately, to grow in knowledge of Him throughout your life, and to be secure in His love for you.

4.  God amazes me by creating each of you so differently.  You each have your own talents and gifts, as well as your own differences and challenges.  Each of you makes me laugh and smile.  All of you make me worry, scratch my head, and pray! 

5.  I know this one will surprise you, but your dad and I... we've made a LOT of mistakes in the past couple of decades.  We've made financial mistakes, communication mistakes, parenting mistakes, and more.  But the one thing we've done right, that I'm proud of most of all perhaps, is that we are committed to remaining together, to give you two parents, united, for the rest of our lives.  Divorce has never been an option in our first 20 years, nor will it be in the next.  Your father is the most committed, upright, and selfless man I have ever met, and I have been crazily blessed to be chosen to be his wife.

I'm glad I had a chance to tell you these things.  I love you.
Mom

Show, don't tell

As you may or may not know, I had a dream once.  Just once, and I learned my lesson.  No, just kidding.  What happened to that dream is another story for another day.  Perhaps.  Oh, the dream?  I don't even know if it was a dream, per se - I am not much of a dreamer, now that I think about it.  But I had a passion, and a plan, to become a writer.

So, as such, I do love most things about writing, from the act itself to the mechanics of it.  Grammar is important, spelling even moreso, and a well-written piece, whether fiction or non or regardless of genre, is a pleasure to read.

Behold these experiments in writing analogies from budding writers in high school:  http://writingenglish.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/the-25-funniest-analogies-collected-by-high-school-english-teachers/  This article is one that I've read several times and love it each time.  I would LOVE to have the privilege of reading any of these writers' full works.  Which is your favorite?

Reminds me of a way Robert started a short story when we were in college together:  Thyme was running out...

Sandlot lessons

My Pop was an imperfect man.  He was also an imperfect coach, although I don't find too many flaws in his philosophies and styles (in fact, none spring to mind at the moment).  But he was, despite his imperfections, truly great.  Granted I haven't had as many coaches in life as many others, but he was far and away the best I had.  Much of what he drilled into us, even after years of not having picked up my glove, still runs through my head.

If you're going to slide, slide!  He who changes his mind trades a good leg for a broken one.

Use two hands!

Keep your eye on the ball.

Hustle.

Always run it out - and don't watch the all after it hits the bat!

We have been going through Philippians in the sermon series in our church recently, and that last piece of Pop's teachings came to mind as we reflected on the verse I shared on the blog the other day:  forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead...

The passage talks about life, especially the Christian life, as a race.  Perhaps not a sprint, but definitely a marathon.  As a former athlete (at least I like to think so) and one who still really loves sports (though admittedly with my butt in a chair rather than on a field), I love this word picture and find it easy to relate to.  In fact, I'm also learning a chunk of Scripture from Hebrews 12 which talks about stripping off the encumbrances we have so that we can run with endurance the race set before us.  It talks about training, discipline, strength... there are several other NT passages that follow the same images.

But reflecting on forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead brought a picture to mind, as I said, of what Pop taught us:  hit the ball, run it out, and don't watch the ball or the play.  Do you know you can actually run faster if you're facing forward than you can if your head is turned or focused on something other than the prize?

As many who know me can testify, I was a slow enough runner as it was; I needed every advantage I could get to make it to base safely!

Perhaps it's logical to you, to face forward as you run.  To me, though, it wasn't intuitive.  As a kid, I wanted to see how far I'd hit it, if they caught it, if they were going to get me or not, if I was a game progressor or if I'd made another out.  My coach, however, wanted my eyes on two things (good thing my eyes are so far apart on my head so I could see both) - two things that were ahead of me, in front of me - my base coach, and the base itself.

How true this principle is in life, isn't it?  We are prone to take our eyes off the goal (Philippians 3 calls it the upward call of God in Christ Jesus).  We are prone to focus on our accomplishments, our failures, our circumstances, our enemies and opposition, our experiences, our past, ourselves.  Remember Peter, who Jesus enabled to walk on water in a storm?  What happened when he took his eyes off Jesus?

I suppose you can take Pop's other lessons from the ball field and apply them to life:  Use two hands!  (I probably say that to Grace a hundred times a day.)  Really, though, why not take a little extra effort to do things well?

Hustle!  Why sit on your butt and let others (and life) pass you by?

If you're going to slide, slide!  Don't second-guess yourself.

But for me, starting this new year (one week down, 51 to go)... for me, the one that I need to get better at is to run it out, with my eyes forward.

Fixed on the Prize.

Focused on my Coach.