New Poem: LOVE YOU FOREVER

I will love you forever.

I will love you when you are tiny,
When I cuddle you to my chest,
Give you a bottle,
And sing you a lullaby.

I will love as you toddle around,
Clutching a sippy cup
Then climb in my lap for a story
Or a game of patty-cake.
I will love you as you discover
My heart beating fast
As your eyes light up at learning
Each name and game and song

I will love as you climb on the bus
Brand-new bookbag proudly worn
New clothes and new supplies
For your school adventure

I will love you as you grow
When you complain about homework and chores,
Even when you yell, "I hate you,"
Run out of the room and slam the door

I will love you when the reasons you like
The things that you like--
Twilight and Bieber and Call of Duty--
Are incomprehensible to me

I will love you when you think you're grown,
When you go to college, live on your own
But I'll still be here with a listening ear
Or advice when you call on the phone

I will love you when you marry,
As you start a family of your own
But no matter what you do or where you live,
I'll miss you until we're together again.

I will love you when you're a grandparent,
When your children are grown and gone
And I'll still have time for facebook photos
And stories of days gone by

I will love you when you are old,
When you forget how to tie your own shoes
Even if you forget who I am,
I will still want to spend time with you.

I loved you yesterday,
I love you today,
Tomorrow I will love you, too
And the day after that,
And the day after that,
Until the sky is no longer blue.

I will love you forever,
For always, For now--
Because you are my family.

I'm Calling You to Take Leave of Your Senses

I was struck today while reading Tribulation Force on my lunch hour by one line in particular. It brought to mind an issue I've dealt with before, but that seems to pop up again and again: what it means to be wholly devoted, a living sacrifice, to Christ. The line in question describes Rayford while he prays:

"And anyone who thought the sophisticated airline pilot had taken leave of his senses would have been right."

It got me thinking. As Christians, we often give lip service to "following the Spirit's leading", etc. We read about it in our Bibles, we pray aloud for it to happen, we sing about doing it... but how many of us are actually doing it on a day-to-day basis? How many times are we actually willing to be thought of as fools and idiots and dreamers? How many times are we willing to go on a leave of absence from our senses, stop trying to reason things out, and just DO what the Spirit is trying to tell us to do, no matter how insane it sounds? How crazy it makes us look? How foolish we feel?

Like Paul, in the Bible. I don't recall it ever being mentioned, but you KNOW that when he wanted to go back to a city where they tried to stone him to death, someone-- maybe lots of someones-- had to be saying, "No way man! Don't go! It's too dangerous! Are you nuts? If you go back there, they're just going to try to kill you again! And this time they might succeed!" But he went anyways. And there was probably more than one person who thought that he'd completely lost his mind. Gone off the deep end.

But THAT's what we're called to. Not to a life of church and youth group and "right" actions. Not to a life of safety and plodding along along the path of Church-ianity.

So my prayer today is that God would help me to once again step out of my comfort zone, throw away my safety net, take leave of my senses, and follow Him. Down any road, at any cost.

What's yours?

This just in: CONCLUSIVE PROOF that CHILDREN are really HOBBITS in DISGUISE!

"For they are a little people, smaller than dwarves: less stout and stocky, that is, even when they are not actually much shorter.  Their height is variable, between two and four feet."  "They were a merry folk.  They dressed in bright colors... but seldom wore shoes."

"Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, with mouths apt to laughter, and to eating and drinking."

I find this self-explanatory. 

They were "fond of simple jests at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get them)."  These were later expounded upon to consist of "breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner and supper." (list from LOTR movies)

On the simple jests front, I have seven words: knock-knock jokes and candy wrapper puns.  Six meals a day: only six?  But Aunt Beth, I'm hungry!  Please!  Can I have a yogurt?  An ice pop?  A sandwich?  How about a piece of fruit?  I'm starving!

Or my toddler niece having a bottle and cereal with her family for breakfast, a second breakfast of whatever I'm having, elevensies- usually yogurt melts, crackers, cereal, and such; lunch with me, snacking when she wakes up from her nap, supper with me, supper with her family, and sometimes "bedtime snacks" before the bedtime bottle.

"They were hospitable and delighted in parties, and presents, which they gave away freely and eagerly accepted."

Of course they don't mind giving presents; they generally spend Mom & Dad's money to buy them.  And anyone who has ever participated in a Christmas morning knows that children will begin begging as early as five or six in the morning to open their presents.  This eagerness may be additionally expressed through high-pitched shrieking at the sight of presents under the tree, jumping on beds, parents, or other adults, and tearing around as if they're on a sugar high, rather than having not eaten since the night before.

"Anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom.  Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms."

Such as, but not limited to, baby books on shelves, old stuffed animals in corners, baby clothes and blankets in boxes, toys they no longer play with overflowing out from under the bed and toybox while the toys they do play with cover the floor.

"A love of learning... was far from general among them."

This is why summer is every school-child's favorite season, why they fake being sick to get out of going to class, and consistently whine about homework.

They were "more numerous formerly than they are today." 

Check.  My mom was one of eight kids in her family, and went to school with several kids in families of ten to fourteen children.  The nationwide average number of children per family in the US has declined from 7 to 2 in the last two hundred years.

"They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, water-mill, or hand loom."

Luckily, swingsets, slides, bikes, sports equipment, TVs, cell phones, and toys such as legos fall within the 'simple-to-operate machines' category.  The ease of operation factor explains why push-button machines, such as calculators and computers, are accepted, although they are technically more complex than, say, a slide rule.

They are "quick of hearing and sharp-eyed."

Although many suffer from selective listening disorder, it is a well-known fact that one need only whisper "pizza's here" to call children in from the park, and they can spot car keys, candy bars, and other valuables from across the room.  Even if they are hidden in purses.

"Even in the ancient days they were, as a rule,  shy of 'the Big Folk', as they call us, and now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find."  "They possessed from the first the art of disappearing swiftly and silently, when large folk whom they do not wish to meet come blundering by."

This is especially true if they believe we are about to ask them to undertake some task, such as cleaning their rooms, taking out the trash, or setting the table.  In slightly older specimens (ages 11-18), this behavior is frequently observed even when there is not a task to be done, and may be combined with protestations that it is "embarrassing" or "boring" to be in the company of the Big Folk.

They "do not hurry unnecessarily, but are nonetheless nimble and deft in their movements."

Again, the same being who is unable to walk down the stairs in less than ten minutes when one is shouting for her is quite capable of barreling down them at speeds so high as to seem almost out of control when friends are present.  The same child who spends three hours doing the dishes is capable of running and climbing on playground equipment with great speed, and in an almost simian manner.

All quotations (unless otherwise stated) taken from the "Prologue: Concerning Hobbits" in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings saga.