All I Want to Say Is…

03 Nov 2014 2 Comments

by lorixmom in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

I want to write tonight.  I do.  But there’s just too much…stuff.  Too many thoughts to write, too many things to do.

Because, while I want to write, I also want to take the hour or two that my children are in bed to watch Once Upon A Time.  I have guilty pleasures.

I also need to figure out babysitting for the next couple months, and how I’m going to survive being a retail widow again this year, and dealing with something else that I can’t really talk about, but is stressing me out something fierce (don’t worry your pretty heads, it’s nothing too horrible).

Instead, tonight, I’ll just write a few things I’ve been thinking about.  Maybe I will do this every now and then, so at least I post something.  I haven’t given myself a weekly or monthly goal for blogging, because, let’s face it, I’m just not that kind of girl.  But maybe this way I can just say a few words, and keep them fresh in my mind, and can elaborate later.

So.

All I want to say is…

– There is a reason why so many people in this world hate Christianity (and other religions as well), and that is quite possibly the reason some Christians (and followers of other religions) leave their faith.  Ponder that.

– It shouldn’t take more than five minutes for children to get ready for bed.  Brush teeth.  Go to the bathroom.  (A half hour later and they were surprised that they didn’t get to read books tonight?).  Seriously.

– I will continue to analyze, speculate, and decipher my life’s purpose and meaning.  I may never find my answer, but if I don’t question it, then I’m not being true to myself.

That is all.

For now.

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All About the Love

20 Sep 2014 2 Comments

by lorixmom in God and faith Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The summer before I started my first year at the University of Michigan, my mom told me (warned me?) “Please don’t become a liberal.”  At the time, I suppose I considered myself a moderate-conservative Christian.  Of course, I was eighteen, and who knows who they are at that age?  I knew I was open-minded and wanted to be in a diverse environment, and I wasn’t opposed to the fact I had been accepted to what many considered a school which getting into was difficult.

 

Off I went from West Michigan to Ann Arbor, and, lo and behold, five years later (yes, five years – don’t judge), I left the University of Michigan proclaiming myself a liberal.  I don’t think I More

Love, God, and…Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

04 Jul 2011 6 Comments

by lorixmom in God and faith Tags: , , , , , ,

Have you read the book Love Wins? It’s written by Rob Bell, the pastor of Mars Hill, which happens to be the church I attend. The book confronts the notion that God condemns people to spend an eternity in hell if they do not believe in him. The book does not say there is no hell, but it leaves room for anyone, anywhere, dead or alive, to come to God and live the full life he offers us. Bell implies that God never gives up on us, not now, not ever. He loves us always, every single one of us, no matter what we do or what paths we’ve followed. Because of this love, we can always return to him.

I know that many do not agree with the ideas in Love Wins. For me, however, it is a book that tells me what I already knew. God, through Jesus, came here to save us from hell. This is not the hell we usually picture – some shadowy fire-filled place under the ground. This hell is the one where we’re separated from the love of God. When someone says “it feels like hell,” we may think it’s just a euphemism, but they may be struggling in their own personal, very real hell.

I am a big fan of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (stay with me here, I swear there’s a point to this). Have you seen the show? Think it’s all just a bunch of cheesy vampire-fighting fluff, right? Okay, well, it is. There are moments, however, when I watch and cry because of how poignant it can be. More

Murky Waters

22 Apr 2011 7 Comments

by lorixmom in Children, Motherhood Tags: , , , , , , , ,

 

This past Saturday Beatrix and I, along with my mom and Milo in the stroller, walked 2.4 miles for a fundraiser called Walk for Water. It was organized by 20 Liters, a non-profit that helps raise money to supply water filters for people living in Rwanda. 

It was cold and rainy, and I had forgotten Beatrix’s hat, but I asked her to walk anyway. We first had to walk 1.2 miles to a drain pipe leading to a ditch at the side of a road, where we would fill empty bottles with dirty water, then walk 1.2 miles back to the starting point where that water would be filtered. 

Along the walk route there were signs that 20 Liters had posted, with alarming facts about access to clean water.

“Did you know,” I asked Beatrix as we walked with a crowd of 500 down the sidewalk, “that one out of every eight people in our world don’t have clean water? That means that there are a lot of people who don’t get to drink clean water like we do.”

“Mom,” Beatrix whined, “I’m getting tired.” We had walked about three-quarters of a mile.

“I know, but I want you to try to keep going. I think it must be very hard for the boys and girls in Rwanda too, but this is something they have to do every day.” I didn’t want to make her feel guilty, but I did want to use this as an opportunity to teach empathy, something even I still struggle to learn.

“You’re doing a great job,” my mom said, giving the stroller to me and taking Beatrix by the hand. “Why don’t we skip? That will be fun.”

We passed another sign.

“Wow, Beatrix, those jerry cans – ” I pointed to one of the yellow 20 liter jugs someone was carrying, “those are what moms in Rwanda use to carry their water. One of those weighs forty-four pounds. That’s more than you weigh!”

“Whoah,” Beatrix said with awe.

There were more signs along the path, which Mom and I read silently to ourselves.

“Dirty water kills more people than all forms of violence including war.” “Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.”

“Should I read this to her?” Mom asked, pointing to the sign that read “Diarrhea kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.”

“Yes,” I replied. “I think she needs to know so she understands why we’re doing this.” But how do we explain that to a child?

Beatrix understood death, More

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