Sit down and have a cup of tea with me. It’s late here, but there’s a lot to talk about – though here it’s me doing all the talking. 😉 My little guy Pete is asleep on the loveseat. He’s nursing a temperature of 102.8, and I’m camping out on the couch just in case he needs me in the middle of the night. Lastnight was no picnic either. I had promised Max he could sleep with us in the big bed as a treat. As soon as the words left my mouth I was kicking myself. I don’t like to be touched when I’m sleeping, and God in His sense of humor matched me with a Husband whose love language is physical touch, and three kids who take after their Popa. My view is that cuddle time is for people who are awake to enjoy it. 😉 Anyway, between gently pushing and eventually shoving Max back to the middle of the bed, Petey and Zoe waking up and needing attention, and Petey’s early morning wake-up call (5:30 a.m. asking me to please wipe his butt), I had a restless night. I would have thought that I’d fall into bed tonight oblivious to the world. Nope. I’m wide awake as the rest of the house slumbers in peace. Lucky you!
Benny figured out the website issues and has devoted tomorrow to getting them all fixed. YEAH! So, very soon we’re going to need your help in pointing people to the newly completed SEVENS website. I’ll give more details in the next few days. God is so faithful and His timing is always better than mine, but still I struggle to patiently wait on Him and His plan. Thank you to my friends who have emailed me this week with notes of encouragement and reminders that I do not walk this journey alone. I know that in my heart, but sometimes my heart and my head argue about that issue.
Let’s see…tidbits of information about this past week…
Our Homeschool group performed their annual play this weekend. I went last year before I was involved with FACE, and I only knew Sarah, my friend Paula’s daughter. This year I knew about 85% of the cast and it made a huge difference. A few of the teens go to my church and a few of them belong to my dearest friends here, a few of them are in the 4th hour class I’ve been co-teaching with Paula the past few months, and a few of them are helpers in my kids’ classes. I absolutely loved sitting in the audience with my friend Wendy and her family, and silently cheering them on. I laughed at some of the lines and the voice of the nerdy character, and worried when I saw a hairpiece slowly coming off the main character’s head, one of our graduating Seniors. I prayed it would stay on until the end of the scene while Melissa didn’t miss a beat or come out of character once. I was relieved to see it firmly back in place once the next scene began. I was teary watching two sisters acting their hearts out – and they were both REALLY good. I thought about the creativity of the man (one of the Dads) who wrote the play, and the time and efforts of all of the parents and volunteers who made it all come together. I sat in my plush seat with lots of leg room and closed my eyes for a few moments and let myself drift on the waves of nostalgia back to my own days in theater in high school and Community Theater with Benny before we had children. The cast and crew did an exceptional job and I was giddy with excitement hugging the kids I knew in the cast line after the play. It was a ray of sunshine on my whole week.
On the flip side, I was sad and angry this week to see a CNN news report on the KKK. Their spokesperson said enrollment is way up since the illegal immigration debates began and they’ve seen a 60% increase in enrollment since 1995. ( I think that was the year.) I was appalled. They hate blacks, Jews, and homosexuals, and see nothing wrong with committing hate crimes against them. (Their words) It brings out some righteous (and not so righteous) anger in me. Somedays it’s not enough for me to think “they’ll get theirs” and it’s increasingly hard to show love and forgiveness towards I people I tend to hate myself. If I hate them at all, I’m no better than they are. I REALLY HATE WHAT AND WHO THEY STAND FOR!!! But I know that they are deceived by the great Liar himself. Some of these people are “upstanding members” of their communities and even worse – their churches. It sickens me really. I have a friend in a southern state who is a school teacher. He was telling me that they were trying to decide who was going to speak at their graduation ceremonies a few years ago and a boy in his class recommended his grandfather (or uncle-I can’t remember) to speak because he is the GrandMaster something or other for their local KKK chapter, and well respected. YUK!!! And they won’t let people say prayers at graduations. Idiots, I tell you. Yes friends, racism and prejudice is alive and well in America. How does that make you feel?
I posted on my other blog that this is the LOVE month. It’s also Black History month. What are you doing about it? Is it important to you to raise up a generation of colorblind children? It’s one of the many things I’m aiming for. I want my kids to see past the skin and embrace the heart behind it. I’m not saying don’t be proud of your heritage. I’m saying not to hate that of others or show favoritism based on it. It’s hard. Some of us weren’t raised in colorblind homes. But here’s some TRUTH for you: Galatians 3:28 tells us that you who have put on Christ are no longer Jew nor Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus, and heirs of God’s promise. It doesn’t specifically mention skin color here, but let’s use our brains for a minute. Where was Jesus born? Where did the Bible events take place? I’m pretty sure Jesus and his disciples weren’t blonde with blue eyes if you get my point. I know there is a fine line between stepping on toes and stepping on hearts, and I also know that most of the people that read hear probably don’t struggle with these issues. BUT, I know some of you do, and I know I have in certain ways in the past.
When I was a young girl learning about slavery, the underground railroad, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and a host of other Black culture icons and their histories and influences, I went home and cried into my pillow. I couldn’t believe we in America – a country founded on FREEDOM & EQUALITY- would allow such atrocities to take place. I imagined myself as a scout for the underground railroad, helping people to escape abuse and torture. I felt the same way when we studied the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. I imagined myself not only hiding Jewish families, but rescuing thousands of people from the gas chambers. I swore that if I had lived back then, I would have made a difference. I remember the weight of it on my little girl shoulders as I promised God He could use me to fight injustices wherever I found them. And I’m still trying to do that by working with and on behalf of streetkids in America. Injustice happens everywhere. The slavery issue was on our own soil. The Nazi death camps were not. I believe we’re to fight injustices anyway we can with whatever resources God makes available to us – no matter what part of the world it’s happening in. I don’t think we should sit by in our comfy lives while there are millions of people still being tortured and killed around the world. Many genocides have happened while we did nothing.
I’m so freakin’ tired of people complaining and mouthing off about Iraq and how we never should have gone there. How easily they forget how this all began, and how easy for them to say that from the comforts of their safe homes. I can almost promise you that they’ll be singing a different tune the next time THEIR freedom is attacked on THEIR soil. My friends, I’m not just ranting and raving here for no reason. Never forget! Never forget the people that have died so you and I can enjoy the freedoms we have, and died so others might have a chance at the same. Their lives weren’t wasted. “Fixing the messes in our own country and letting “them” worry about their own problems” is not excuse enough to let millions of others suffer. How many more Jews would have died if we and the other allied countries would not have stepped in? How many of the black friends we have would have still been enslaved if not for those who fought and died in a war to try to end slavery? To only worry about yourself and your little world is ignorant and selfish. So I ask you to join me…Never Forget!
This post got serious fast, and that wasn’t my intention when I started typing it. These are the things I think about in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep. It’s not always so heavy, but sometimes it is.
