Adventures of Parenting

A couple of mornings ago, I came back from dropping off the girls to school to find little man eating breakfast at the kitchen table.

He's six years old so that's pretty good for a little guy - fixing his own breakfast.

And as I came closer to the kitchen table I noticed empty Gogurt packets all over the table. Not just a couple of Gogurt packets...five empty Gogurt packets and he was working on his sixth!

Do you know how much sugar that is????? That's more than the daily allowance for the entire day in one sitting!!!

So we had a little conversation about how eating Gogurts for a snack is quite appropriate but he shouldn't be eating that many at one time.

Good job dad! Mission accomplished.

Fast forward one morning.

I was dropping off the girls at their school when I received a phone call from my wife. She found the little guy sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast all by himself. As she got closer to the kitchen table, she found empty Gogurt packets all over the table.

When Helen asked the little man how many Gogurts he had eaten that morning, he readily confessed that he had eaten four, but not one more.

Four Gogurts for breakfast!!!

Helen knew Kaleb and I had a conversation about this the morning before so she asked him why he had eaten so many Gogurts for breakfast.

Kaleb readily replied, "Daddy told me that I should not eat five Gogurts so I had four!!!!!"

Well, he's technically right. We did talk about how five Gogurts were not a smart choice for breakfast, and I thought I made it clear that Gogurts were good snacks but they should not be the main course.

It's clear that I was not clear enough.

Oh the joys of parenting a little man!

I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Meaningful and Meaningless...Yes.

Meaningless...all is meaningless! so writes the writer of Ecclesiastes.

Working hard is meaningless.

Building up your investments is meaningless.

In the end the poor, the rich, everyone dies.

Such is the picture of life the writer of Ecclesiastes paints for us.

But how different the world looks to the writer of Proverbs.

For the author of Proverbs, the world runs like clockwork. Hard work leads to big rewards. Laziness leads to destruction.

Do the right things and good things will happen.

Everything has meaning.

How can these two books be in the Bible? They say such different things?

And the amazing thing about this is that the author of both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is Solomon. It's no accident that these two books find themselves right next to each other, back to back in the scriptures.

Because they are both true.

There are times when life makes no sense.

There are times when life seems to be going no where.

There are times when we are at wit's end.

And it is true that most of the time, we find ourselves in a world that makes sense. Work hard and things go well. Be lazy and we will reap the consequences of laziness.

This is life.

And I'm glad life is portrayed in an honest real way in scripture.

Running On Empty No More

Things have been pretty chaotic and stressful lately.

• We are in the negotiation processes with a candidate for the associate pastor position at LCOP
• We are finding solutions to possible financial realities facing LCOP
• I am trying to come to terms with what those financial realities mean for my leadership
• It's Advent season
• My health issues are getting worse, not getting better
• We are preparing to launch a new worship ministry, a young adult ministry, visitor/welcoming ministry
• We are preparing for the next trimester of the FOCUS small group ministry

There's a lot going on.

As I have been trying to lead through all this, I realize that I have not been leading myself very well lately. I have allowed my business to overtake my spiritual/emotional well being. I have been running more and more on fumes. My spiritual and emotional tanks are empty. And if I don't take some healthy measures to replenish my tanks, I will burn out.

Some signs that I have not been managing my emotional/spiritual tank:

• I was up most of the night, tossing and turning and worrying. Even after praying and literally handing things over to God, I find myself stressed and unable to sleep
• I feel stressed during the day
• The joy and passion of leadership are waning and giving into depression and stress
• I am more irritable 

None of these things are healthy or Godly.

It's not enough to pray and hand things over to God. I need to do those things through which God feeds me and encourages me. For without those things, I will burn out.

So what are the things/activities/people that God uses to fill me? How will I go about refueling?

Here are the things that fuel my emotional/spiritual tank.

• Journaling
• Reading
• Blogging
• Family Time
• Exercise
• Motorcycle

I haven't been doing much of these things for several weeks now.

That's going to change starting today.

How about you? How are you doing? Do you like who you are becoming these days?

What are your daily spiritual and emotional replenishment strategies?