I was driving home from work last week and instead of listening to sports talk radio I decided to listen to some music. Now I don’t listen to Christian music radio, but I like Third Day. And as I listened to Cry Out to Jesus in my car I was moved.

Here are the lyrics for those of you not familiar with the song.

There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
And love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He’ll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus

I started thinking about church while I was driving and how different the world would be if a church was a place where the helpless could find hope and the weary could find rest. Where the broken hearted could be loved. Where grace, forgiveness, mercy and healing where freely given and received. Where people were met wherever they were in life.

Taken from the BBC website.

A judge in Texas has signed an order allowing parents to take home more than 400 children who had been removed from a polygamist sect.

Parents were set to begin collecting their children, who were seized from the sect’s ranch by state authorities in April.

State officials had accused sect members of abusing the children.

But last week the state’s Supreme Court said officials had failed to prove the children faced immediate danger.

More…

One of my favorite things about my son is watching him become more and more comfortable as a part of our family. When he first came to us at 3 and a half he was very much a noodle and a weepy noodle at that. But now he is rough and tumble. He has bruises and scrapes and he laughs at it.  And I love it. Seeing a child develop in front of your eyes is truly amazing.

My wife and I are currently reading Proverbs together at night after we put the kids to bed. We read chapter 27 last night and I had to stop and re-read verse 7.

“He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.”

The catch 22 of parenting has never been more succinctly stated.

“He who is full loathes honey” helps me understand my daughter, “but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet” helps me with my son.

My daughter has received much love and affection from birth. As a result she is very independent and secure. As I kissed her this morning when I put her into her car seat she proclaimed that she didn’t need my kisses as she wiped them from her cheek. - “He who is full loathes honey.”

My son, by all accounts, was not the recipient of much love and affection for the first four years of his life. He has since been loved on constantly. He will engage in poor behavior when he is not the center of attention. Sometimes I feel like he tries to fail at certain things. I finally realized something last week. When he does something right or learns something new he is praised. When he does something wrong we work with him and try to help him get it right. The equation in his mind is success = praise BUT failure = attention + interaction. If attention is what he seeks then he knows how to get more of it - “But to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet”

My feelings are not hurt when my daughter wipes my kisses off. I rejoice that she is wildly independent. I would not want it any other way. I believe that parenting is not about me but that it is about raising the children that God has blessed us with to be the people He wants them to be.