Sunday, February 10, 2013

Share the Wealth

Today is Chinese New Year's Day, and the kids got lycee (bills in red envelopes) yesterday and today. Hannah's immediate reaction upon discovering the envelope's contents yesterday was to give me one of the two bills. And she did so excitedly! Here, Daddy, one for you! Today, she did the same thing! I don't know why but I'm overjoyed thinking the best of her, that her instinct is to share, or that she knows that Daddy buys most things she enjoys, I'm not sure. I'll post when I know more. : )

Monday, July 18, 2011

especially i do!

lately, when i'm putting the pooklet down and am exiting the room, he's been saying, "I love you, daddy." and then, with quick delivery, he adds on, "especially i do!"

Saturday, May 21, 2011

LA LA LA!

As the grown-ups prepared to sing last night, Numgat ran to a box of toys, trying desperately to get it from the shelf. I was confused at her urgency until she pleaded "La la la!!" and I realized that she wanted to participate with her toy microphone.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

a lesson in Christological Economics

As I got to my bus stop this morning, I saw John, a fellow I'd met a short while back. I'd been thinking lately about evangelizing those whose paths I intersect, but because John is mentally diabled, I'd avoided this with him for unsubstantial reasons.
But this morning, God governed my reason, and I asked myself, 'Does God love this man any less than the other prospects for evangelism I find more attractive?'
I remembered that I suffer a lack of boldness for which I've been praying.
Here's a chance, I finally thought, to train myself in evangelism with one who would certainly not respond in a way that might discourage me.
And even after arriving at the inescapable conviction that I was to reach out to John for Christ's sake, I yet resisted it a bit, commenting, in my first attempt at conversation, on the weather.
But then I asked him what he had planned for today at the program he attends.
He said bocce, and then I remembered that he likes bowling, so I asked him which is harder.
Then, after confirming the program is Monday through Friday, I asked him what he does on the weekends.
Watch TV. Sports.
Do you go to church?
No, I want to! he said with more enthusiasm than I'd heard from him up till now.
I invited him to our church, took down his number and address, and we boarded the bus.
As I returned to my audiobook 'Basic Economics' (a pitiful alternative to proclaiming the message of God's salvation), I felt satisfaction in my heart that I'd done the godly works for which I'd been set apart in Christ, rather than absorb myself in fleeting selfish pursuits of knowledge.
For in the economy of the church age, the purpose of the believer is to facilitate a personal culture of humble deference to God's power and purpose.
And so I returned to the words of Thomas Sowell, this time as if endowed with divine implications:

"... because scarce resources have not been allocated to their most valued uses."

the delightful pooklet

4.14.11

i love a sleeping pooklet. I also love the way he says, "sorry, daddy!" when he accidentally bumps me or something.

A Sit-In

4.15.11

The Numgat this morning wouldn't let me leave for work, protesting my departure with a sit-in, or, rather, a sit-on, leaning on my knelt knee with her back to me and her arms out ready to stop me from rising.

I could still hear her crying outside from the sidewalk in front of our house.

pay attention

as i bathed the pooklet the other night, i thought about the olden eras when there were fewer distractions. did parents relish with more patience time with their kids doing mundane things like giving baths? the idea appealed to me.

i thought about my eagerness (above most everything else it often seems) lately to process my photos in lightroom, and realized that it fosters an underlying impatience i have with the little pook and the things with which i should bear in his development.

this comes on the heels of a discussion the wife initiated about neil postman and a thesis she wants to write about the short attention spans of today's youth, and the hindrances to committing to developing thoughts, and expressing them in written and verbal communication.

what a reminder that we need to slow down and examine what is consuming our time, and, at times, our very selves.