Mike's called me more in the past two days than he has in the past two weeks. When he left for Spain he left without us saying goodbye, because I took the kids to see "Nims Island" at the movies and we didn't make it home in time. A large part of the movie was Nim waiting for her dad to come home, so it struck the kids when dad was gone. All three were crying. Not good.
Today Rachel has T-ball practice at the same time that the boys have baseball practice. Then in the middle of practice the boys have a soccer game. It's gonna be intense. I strive to involve my children in physical activity. I want to lay a groundwork of an exciting and challenging (not stressful) and disciplined life, and that discipline includes physical rigor. I want that foundation laid BEFORE they hit puberty. I want them to have something to dedicate themselves to, before the pressures of peers, sex, drugs, and depression go after them.
We (Matt, Pat, Rachel, and I) read the Bible together for over an hour and a half. Patrick went to bed still reading, and I had to make him go to sleep when I caught him reading past 11:00pm. We read about the sick touching Jesus' robe (the tassle) and being healed, about Jesus walking on water, about Peter making it a little way (on the water), about Jesus' physical appearance, about the demon possessed being healed. About how we can do the same; and we went to Peter's shadow cast on the desperate sick, and even they were healed because their belief on Jesus. We talked about Peter being named by Jesus as the "Rock" (in Greek). And how "Jesus" is the Greek of "Joshua". And back to the Rock. We talked about in great detail of the Rock as the Foundation and what a foundation is in a building, in a church, in our life. About the confession that "Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ!" and that is what the Rock is (not Allah, not Tao, not a red thread of a bracelet, not a cow)! Peter Knew! and only God the Father in heaven can reveal that to him, to my kids, to anyone. And we talked about the keys to heaven (Do you know the key to heaven?). We talked about much more. Do you blame Patrick for reading the Bible until 11:00? I have great expectations for this summer and sharing and learning and discovering what God has plans for us.