Wednesday, October 3, 2007

A Prayer

We joined Lani for dinner one evening, and with our six older kids gathered around the table, Isaiah prayed over the meal. His voice was earnest and gentle.

"Lord, thank You for this food, and please just nurse it into our bodies ... and help it to taste good." It put a whole new face on nourishment for us.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Do Unto Others

The kids memorize about one Bible verse every week. One of their memory verses is Matthew 7:12 (also known as the Golden Rule). A good paraphrase of it is: Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Sometimes the kids argue over the correct wording of their verses.

Talia said to no one in particular, "Do unto others what you can do to them!"

Elisa, always one to correct and instruct the erring, jumped right in. "No, Talia! It's, 'Do unto others what they have done to you!'"

Not quite what Jesus said.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Job Title

"Citizen Development" is the title I write in for my line of work on loan applications and other official documents.

I love that question: "Now ... do you work?"

"Uh, no." Why work when you could have a twenty-four-hour-a-day cycle of unpaid laundering, dishwashing, diaper-changing, nose-wiping, baby-rocking, toddler-chasing, meal-making, bill-paying, homeschooling, inane-question-answering, grocery-shopping, clothes-sorting and house-cleaning --- on three hours of sleep?

When I am asked, "Do you work?" I answer truthfully.

"Not for money."

What I find very funny is that in spite of the fact that all our income is Jeff's income, the credit union insists on listing me first, since I have the better credit score. I hope I don't lose my job.