OK . . . I know it’s been awhile. I hope you will forgive me and not give up on visiting here. Lots of life has happened in the last few months. God continues to be faithful to us and reveal just enough of His plan for us to act on but not enough to scare the wits out of us.
I have been speaking a lot and have had some unforgettable experiences. As I have said before, my passion is to help moms to be able to enjoy their children more. Drawing from my own “what NOT to do” stories, I have been able to encourage many in the direction of loving fellowship with their children. What you probably don’t know is that having the privilege to teach benefits the teacher more than the students. The time I have spent with my own children in fellowship has been unbelievable.
When I speak to a group, I often teach that all the discipline in the world is meaningless if you are not spending time in fellowship. If all you do as a parent is discipline you may have an outwardly obedient child, but inside they will surely be harboring feelings of anger or bitterness. I know that is not what I want for my children, so I am determined to spend more time in fellowship than in correction. Of course, if your child is two there are not enough hours in the day to ensure that fellowship to correction ratio. That’s OK. That stage will end and if you are diligent to train them, they will emerge as an enjoyable three-year-old.
So what is fellowship? I’m not sure exactly what it will look like for you, but I know that it includes laughing until you cry, talking until you are hoarse, and smiling right into their souls! Sometimes it is planned and many times it is spontaneous. Sometimes it is one-on-one and other times it is ten-on-one. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that they see and feel me enjoy them for who God made them to be.
We recently went up to the mountains to visit with family. After all of the festivities had ended, Dan and I took our children out on a Geocaching adventure. Geocaching is like a worldwide treasure hunt. The treasures are called caches and they are hidden all over the world. You go on the internet (www.geocaching.com) and type in your address or coordinates. The computer will then show you all of the caches in your area. You type into your GPS (if you have one) the longitude and latitude of the various caches and your GPS will guide you to the treasure. It is usually a box of varying size with little toys inside. The idea is that you take a toy, leave a toy and sign the log. That day, we found one on a mountain top hidden by the “lone pine”. The view was amazing! We found another one at the local burger place and another on the side of the road hidden in a street sign.
It was starting to get towards dinner time and the little ones were getting hungry, so we made our way back to the cabin. When we got there Dan said he would watch the younger ones so that I could take the older ones to find some more caches. (My husband is awesome!!) He didn’t have to ask me twice (I love geocaching) I set out with Trevor (16), Madison (14), Moriah (13), Hannah (11), Hudson (10) and Payton (8). We got in the van a drove as far as we could in the direction of this treasure. The paved road ended and was blocked by a fence so we got out and started walking. The sun had gone down but there was still enough light to see clearly where we were going. I made a comment to the kids that I thought was hilarious: “This is just like those stories you hear where someone says “My family went geocaching and I never saw them again””. My older kids thought it was funny too, but my two younger boys said, “Mom, that’s not funny!!!” We walked along the path for a little while talking as we went. Trevor and Hudson were walking ahead holding the GPS so all the rest of us had to do was follow them until we got close enough to look for the cache.
Suddenly I heard Trevor say “Oh, Crud!!” I looked up just as Hudson started to scream and run in my direction. I saw what he thought was a wolf (really a dog that I have to admit startled me at first with its wolf-like appearance). Just as I noticed the dog tag around his neck Hudson had reached Payton (who had fallen behind a little) and now joined Hudson in his screaming panic party. In an attempt not to upset the dog anymore, I told Hudson and Payton to be quiet. Of course I might not have said it with those words, but I got my point across. The dog stopped in his tracks. . . looked at all of us who were stopped in our tracks . . . looked behind him . . . and then walked right by us like we weren’t even there. I looked back at Hudson and Payton who were trembling and said, “OK. Let’s go!” All of the other kids were ready to keep going, while Hudson and Payton were begging to go home. I knew that I needed to encourage them to be brave because this would more than likely be an adventure that they would want to tell Dad about. I convinced them that the dog belonged to someone and that we weren’t in any danger. After all, what kind of mother would I be if I lead them into peril? They didn’t believe me. They started talking about all of the wild animals that lived in the forest and that bears had been sited in the area recently (last summer) and there could be mountain lions and cougars and Lion and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!!!
As any mother would have done, I continued in search of our cache. Oh, yeah . . . and did I mention it was getting dark? We came to a fork in the road where the GPS couldn’t decide which direction to send us. As we stood there while Trevor waited for it to make up its mind, Hudson and Payton got more and more nervous. They were glued to my sides, still discussing the wildlife, accept now Trevor was involved. Hudson said adamantly, ”There are NO bears here!”
To which Trevor replied, “Yes there are. Look over there is bear poo.”
We all went closer to the suspicious pile on the ground. On closer examination (not too close) it did indeed look like a pile of poo belonging to a very large animal. (bigger than a cow pie) Hudson rushed up to the pile determined to prove he was right and said, “This is NOT bear poo!!!” as he picked up the pile and threw in back to the ground. Fortunately, it was an old “specimen” and it just turned to dust. I think Hudson expected it to be a big piece of wood so when it didn’t react the way a piece of wood would react when thrown, he decided it was definitely time to go home.
Because I have keen negotiating skills, I was able to convince him to stick with the rest of us and he would be OK. The bear that was responsible for that pile was gone by now. Somehow, the thought of walking back to the van by himself or even with Payton who was more than willing to go back with him, was not appealing and he stayed with us.
Unfortunately, this story will have to be continued because it eventually did get too dark for us to see. We did find a shovel that we assume was to be used to dig up the cache, so we are all very excited to go back hopefully before the first snowfall.
Hudson and Payton recovered and even slept in their own beds that night. They talk about that adventure fondly and even with a little bit of pride. They are looking forward to the next time we go up to the mountains so we can continue the hunt and come home with the prize.
That, my friends, is fellowship! Are you ready for it? Are you willing to be creative, to think outside the box? It doesn’t have to be geocaching. It could be making mud in the back yard. It could be making cookies in the kitchen. It could be building a tree house or maybe a gingerbread house, planting a garden or even going shopping. Your children are a gift from the Lord and they deserve to be enjoyed!! Isn’t that what gifts are for?
Enjoy!!
Trina
