A "Loaves and Fish" Book Story

10 years ago the Pastor's wife gave me 2 books. I said, "What are these for?" She said, "God told me to give them to you." I looked down at them in my hand and said, "Thank you. But did you know they are written in a foreign language?" "Yes," she said, "it's Russian." Now, I don't like to look a gift horse in the mouth nor do I like to disagree with God, so I graciously accepted them. I put them in a basket, in my kitchen, behind a bunch of stuff I don't use. About a year later, my daughter received a letter from Lena, a Russian girl who received a Christmas box from my daughter through Samaritan's Purse. My daughter and Lena became pen-pals. One day while going through my basket I came upon those books. One was библия and the other иисус. We learned these were a Bible and a book called Jesus. We excitedly wrapped up The Bible (библия) and sent it on to Lena. A few years later my daughter met a Russian boy named Vlad. She excitedly gave Vlad Jesus (иисус). A few years later a good friend of mine hired a young Romanian man, named Roma, who spoke Russian. My friend witnessed to him, but the language and culture barrier was difficult. If only I had one of those Russian books! Lo and behold иисус was in my basket! I gave it to my friend. Last month I met a Russian woman at work. She is struggling with addiction and needs Jesus. If only I had one of those Russian books! Lo and behold иисус was in my basket! So, we have given away 2 books, 4 times! The Russian woman cried an ocean of tears as I told her the story of the books and handed her Jesus. Someone asked me, "Do you think you'll ever find another one of those books in your basket?" I replied, "Yes, if I ever meet another Russian."

Do You Lie To Your Kids?

I remember once, when the kids were young, I took them to the hardware store and let them all pick out cheap paint brushes. We went home and I filled up a bucket of water and told them to paint the house. They "painted" the outside of our house for hours! When the water got low, I told them to fill the bucket up with paint from the garden hose, which they did. We repeated this activity many, many times in the summer, over the years of their youth. We had a small log cabin in the back yard that Grammy and Pop-Pop bought for the kids. They painted that hundreds of times, too. Today, my kids tell me that they actually thought they were painting. They say, "Mother, you lied to us!" My response, "Oh, come on, how dumb were you?" They say that they trusted me completely and if I told them they were painting, then they believed they were painting. I say, "It's like telling you that Santa bought the gifts on Christmas. It's one of those things that's okay to lie about." They say, "YOU MEAN SANTA WAS A LIE, TOO?!" I am just waiting for them to figure out that the Easter Bunny is not real and the 40 days of fasting from a favorite food before Easter is not actually a requirement for getting baskets and candy. Oh, and I wonder if they'll ever figure out that the Tooth Fairy is not really allergic to dust. Do you lie to your kids?

OMG, BU&M, KASD

I think it is so funny that the youth of our society think they are smarter than the adults because they have mastered a lesser form of communication. Texting is not a higher form of communication that eludes adults, rather, it is a lesser form that we choose not to waste our precious time mastering. It's like mastering kindergarten when you are 52 years old. Why bother? I like my superior communication skills. I like that I know how to express myself in words and not symbols or emoticons. I think our youth would be better served learning how to spell than how to abbreviate. My son told me I was a weird texter and below is the response I sent to him, to which he replied, "that made no sense, but okay mom"
To son: "Just because our society has raised a bunch of non-communicative teenagers who think all emotions need to be or can be expressed with cute emoticons, does not mean I am a weird texter. I try to express myself using syllable accents as if I were actually conversing with someone. On the contrary, simply by saying I am a weird texter, you are showing your lack of proper social skills by saying whatever comes into your wittle head." (For those of you who have not mastered abbreviations, my title is "Oh My Gosh, Between You And Me, Kids Are So Dumb.)