Friday, August 20, 2010
Streetview, Dobbs Style.
9:24 PM | 
Posted by
Cheryl |
If you don't use a picture organizer on your computer, I highly recommend it. I use Google's free picture manager, Picasa, which allows me to see every photo I have stored on my computer regardless of what illogical place I have saved it. It also gives me the chance to look through years worth of photos without opening one single shoe box or album. As I browsed my pictures this evening, some patterns emerged: Roads, sky, and flowers. I already knew there would be lots of pictures of Amy and Goldie (that goes without saying), but I was surprised at how often my camera found these three themes.
Roads represent a journey - and I find that irresistible. They tell a story and promise new adventures. This is one of the reasons we really do enjoy driving vacations. The journey, the process of getting there, is as much a part of the adventure as is the destination. There's a mystery, too. Where does the road go? What's back there behind the trees, or those rocks? What is life like on this road - or what did it use to be like? Mark is especially susceptible to "exploring." On our trip to Hawaii we headed down a coastal road with a quarter tank of gas and nearly found out a little more than we wanted to know about that remote road. We sometimes take out of the way roads, just to get off the big highway and enjoy the land a bit more. Stopping for a picnic by a stream is so much more fun than fries at Denny's! Our out of the way route this summer took us to the Kansas Wetlands Education Center - a great serendipitous find. Did you know that Kansas boasts 435,000 acres of wetlands? Who knew?
Every road offers a different mood - remote, dangerous, romantic, scenic, historic - even the everyday roads you travel have stories to tell and hold a promise in that elusive vanishing point. You just have to get off of auto-pilot and travel them with new eyes.
Next up: Skies!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Train up a child
8:19 PM |
Posted by
Cheryl |
I realized fairly early in Amy's life that she had Opinions.
When I wanted her to sleep, she wanted to play. When I wanted her to eat, she was full. If I gave her peaches, she wanted squash. This is not to say she was stubborn . . . exactly. But she had Opinions, and was not easily swayed. This was the process of getting to know the very real personality inside this small person that did not yet talk, or walk, and smelled of milk and powder. It was delightful.
Aww.
Amy the Dalmatian. Santa Barbara 1992.
In the coming years, Amy spent a lot of time learning all about dogs, reading dog stories, creating dog songs, and generally being a dog. I mean really, she was a dog. She was a four year old method actor: Completely immersed. She drove her Sunday School and preschool teachers to distraction by insisting she actually was a dog. A few tried to argue her out of it. Needless to say, Amy loved this, and never gave an inch. Others viewed it as pure disobedience. Amy most decidedly did not love this - and again, never gave an inch. Strong will was (and is) an understatement when it comes to Amy.
"I am a sintist." No, not a sin-tist, but a scientist.
Amy as Martin the Warrior (from Brian Jacques' Redwall series).
She made the sword and shield. And yes, I still have them.
I'll be the first to say that Amy was, ahem, a challenge during the early years. But we loved her imagination and were so curious to see where it would lead her. She taught herself to read at three, to type at four, and constantly produced stories, drawings, and songs. God made her to be a passionate, imaginative, and intelligent person - it wasn't our idea, it was His. Our job was to train her up in the way she should go. It wasn't easy, and it isn't finished yet.
Amy tried, but Goldie never did learn to read.
If you are a parent, an aunt, a grandma, or a close family friend of a child who is "more" - more demanding, more imaginative, more creative, more emotional, more intense than the average child (if there is such a thing as average), listen to their heart. Who did God create them to be? Encourage it. Train them in it. Help them with it. This is where the promise lies:
Train up a child up in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
Most people read this passage with an emphasis on the word "should" instead of on "he." As if we, the parents, get to decide the way our children should go. But they are not ours, are they? They are His.
Celebrate those opinionated babies. Encourage those strong willed children. The promise is not for an easy road, but for a child who grows up with a solid identity rooted in Christ, not merely in the dreams of their parents.
College sophomore Amy. The writer.
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