Ravens Monster--testosterone

Ravens Monster

********************

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." II Timothy 3:16-17

"Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

Psalm 119:105

*********************************

Do you ever have those almost out of body experiences with your kids that leave you questioning your ability as a mother and wondering, ‘how did this happen in the first place?!”

I had one of those recently and God continues to teach me that discipling my boys will never be the predictable, rolling path I’d like. Instead it’s raucous, winding and requires continual prayer for strength to survive it at times.

My boys are 8, 8 , and 9 and I guess I thought by now Bible time, which most often happens at our breakfast table, would have calmed down by now, not so! Rather I have begun to go with the flow more. Swimming upstream against this flood of testosterone has worn me down!

I share this discipling moment with you to encourage you that studying God’s Word with your kids doesn’t have to look calm and contained for God’s Word to be piercing their little hearts. In fact, it seems with kids it’s just the opposite!

Several months ago, I was surrounded by my boys chasing each other around the kitchen table and running the loop of our first floor. Tad had a Raven’s blanket thrown over his head and he was chasing his brothers around yelling, “the blanket monster is coming, the blanket monster is coming!!!!!” William and Wyatt raced wildly through the house yelling and laughing wildly the whole time. I sat at the kitchen table and thought, ‘how did this happen? Exactly 30 seconds ago we were all sitting calmly at the table, eating and reading a Bible story from our children’s Bible. How did that all unravel so quickly?

(a different Bible time using Cheerois we counted out the prophets of Baal vs Elijah, the one prophet of God---we do not have to fear, even when odds seem insurmountable!)

As I watched them chase each other around I mentally back tracked to find the point of origin for the current chaos that was my house at that moment.

We had been reading about Lot and Abraham making choices re where they would split land up. We thought it was odd that the younger nephew, Lot, chose first instead of the patriarch Abraham.

We talked above motives for choices we make. Who are we honoring with our choices, God or ourselves?

We landed on the realization that sometimes we pick what appears best, and it actually ends up backfiring when we don’t consult God. Then i realized it--at some point in the progression of the story about Sodom and Gomorrah, I had made an exaggerated gesture reading the story with emphasis and that it it! IT WAS ON!!

My mild exclamation had been the catalyst for the current craziness in my house. William made the first crazy surprise face in response to my own (looking a lot like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone). Each boy followed suit and the gesturing magnified with each re-enactment. They all screamed ‘woooh’ someone jumped up and the rest is a blur!

Cut to Tad, aka the Blanket Monster, chasing the twins around the house. In the past I would have seen this as defeat. I would have tried to get them back to their seat immediately and then been frustrated the rest of the time, most likely unable to keep them seated or get their attention back to finish the story.

But I’ve grown and realized, these testosterone surges usually need 1-2 minutes to run their course in our home. (granted they’ll happen 12,000x a day) Then I can wave the checkered flag to bring them all in to pit row, aka our table, and finish what we started. Crazily, it worked! When we had dogs we called this crazy, impromptu surge of running “the rips”---it’s the same thing with little boys!

We picked right up where we left off. No chastisement needed, they were ready to focus again. We continued talking about Sodom and Gomorrah when Tad asked, “Momma, do you think if Lot had let his uncle choose first and Abraham had picked Sodom and Gomorrha, all that horrible stuff would have happened there?”

As a mother who wearies from the barrage of questions that all 3 of my boys feel compelled to ask EVERY day, I was stunned. This wasn’t the typical irrelevant, non-sensical question that doesn’t really have an answer! I get asked at least 40 of those a day by each boy and often wave the white flag of ‘I don’t know’ in response. This was the kind of question I’d been waiting for!

The kid who was the raving Blanket Monster exactly 1 minute earlier was now not only showing me he understood what we had just read, but now he was internalizing it to the point of hypothesizing about how history could be changed based on one decision!

Just in case I thought this was a fluke, God gave me another one of these a few months later. After a loud family dinner it was time for clean up. Tad went to the family room to receive the ‘go deep’ sponge pass then asked while cleaning the table, ‘how come Solomon didn’t ask for sin to be gotten rid of when God told him he could have anything he wanted?’

These are the break throughs that show me the power of God’s Word in my boys’ lives. I have always felt compelled to make God’s Word relevant and real to their daily lives. I’ve never been content to read a story and call it done because I want to teach them to probe.

God showed me Tad was probing the depths of His Word. His Word comes to them at the oddest times and in the oddest ways, because He will not submit to human plans for a little box living. Instead He reaches into all our craziness and says, ‘find Me here! I’ve got something I want to show you!’