Posts Tagged parenthood
Until the Appointed Time
Posted by annaldavis in Cyberculture on June 3, 2011
End-of-days is a hot topic right now. Massive tornadoes, earthquakes, storms, political uprisings of various kinds, fires, floods, famines, and disease are ravaging our world across both hemispheres. I talked with my grandmother on the phone yesterday – she is about to turn 90 years old, and has watched our world go through many trials. She is not given to wild theories about the end of the world. But even she was joking that maybe the crazy “May 21st Judgment Day” pastor wasn’t too far off – maybe he just got the date wrong.
If you read my Summer Blog, then you know that I’m not merely sitting around, waiting for the Rapture while the world goes on around me. I have a family to raise. I have things to do, people to see, goals to meet. I still need to buy next week’s groceries. But if you have read this blog for any length of time, then you also know that I believe the end of the world is imminent. Jesus is very near, right at the door. I believe this with all my heart.
So how do I reconcile these feelings? Clearly those people who recently felt certain of May 21st being Judgment Day planned for that event, at the cost of everything else. Why am I not doing the same? Instead I’m writing blog posts about creating a colorful family calendar for the summer break. Currently my hands and feet are dotted with wood stain, because my husband is replacing our fence and I was helping him stain some boards this morning. In a little while we are going out to lunch together, and then when my kids come home from their last day of school we’ll be laughing and having fun, ready for a great summer break.
It has taken me a while to grasp this, but here is how I reconcile these feelings of imminent wrath, alongside the joy and details of daily life: Until Jesus comes, there is work to do. What is that work? It’s very simple, Jesus Himself said so: the work we have is to love God, and love others. I want to do these two things with my whole self, to the best of my ability, right up until the Last Trumpet, or when He takes me home.
“Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time. Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand… But as for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age.” Daniel 12:10, 13
Summer Blessings
Posted by annaldavis in Everything Else on August 17, 2009
I’ve been MIA from the blogging world lately, and while I’ve missed writing my own blog, commenting, and regularly reading others, this last part of summer has been a blast — mostly offline, if you can imagine such a thing. Here’s why:
1) Structured “free time” with the kids. We didn’t enroll our children in hundreds of camps this year, or plan activities for every day of the summer. I believe in the value of play! But anyone with kids knows that total free play can be a problem. Entire rolls of toilet paper stuck in the toilet, whole bottles of new hair product used for “experiments,” and so on. Yes, we’ve had some of that. But we’ve also been to the library, spent hours at the park and the pool, played with trucks and dolls, made crafts, and cooked together. We had some hard days, too. Some difficult lessons about being kind to each other, or doing for yourself what you can (and not always asking Mom or Dad), about respecting others. We’ve had tantrums (not just the kids), and were cross with each other. But important lessons come from those times, too. And I’m glad we took the time to both play and learn together.
2) Friends. Historically friendships can be difficult for me. I come across as a very social person, and in many ways I am. But I’m also fairly introspective and value personal space for both myself and our family. This summer God has blessed me with some great friendships and I pray that those continue to grow as we go back to our own routines.
3) A chance to participate in God’s story. Some totally unexpected ministry opportunities came our way this summer, and it’s always exciting to see God work and to be a part of it.
4) Time to build great family memories. Camping on our property in West Texas, the beach/boating with one set of grandparents, Oklahoma fun with another set, and a baseball game with yet another. Home birthday parties, church events, Six Flags, going to the movie theater on a hot summer afternoon. Riding bikes together at the school down the street, our youngest with no training wheels! Snow cones, countless popsicles, cookouts, fireworks…
It’s been a great summer, and I’m sad to see it go. But I’m also excited to see what God brings our way next, what adventure or discipline He has in store.
(by the way, there’s a terrible ruckus in my house right now. I just asked them, “what are you doing?” Their response? “Fighting, but HAVING FUN!”)
Is Your Daughter Graduating from High School?
Posted by annaldavis in Everything Else on March 12, 2009
So your daughter is graduating from high school in a couple of months, and you feel, well, everything. Words likely cannot express the wide range of emotions over this giant milestone in her life. You’re happy, sad, proud, maybe a bit worried, grieving for the “baby” you raised, and rejoicing in the grown woman she’s become.
Will she be going to college? If so, she’ll need your prayers more than ever. As a college student, she will have opportunity galore but with opportunity comes unprecedented pressure to figure it all out. By sophomore year she will need to declare a major. This brings even bigger questions to mind, questions that frame her entire future. What does she want in a career? When does she want to get married? When would be the ideal time to have children? How would having a husband and children impact her career? And so it goes.
You may feel relatively confident that she can handle these pressures. And she can, but she needs the right tools. You have some very seductive competition on the college campus, and I’m not talking about that guy sitting next to her in Calculus 101. I’m referring to postmodern feminist theory – the idea that God is old-fashioned and oppressive (even irrelevant), families tie you down, and you have the right to pursue your own dreams and desires at the cost of everything else. Believe me, this philosophy is alive and well on your daughter’s college campus!
Even Christian colleges can’t escape these ideas seeping in from the young adult culture. And because postmodern feminist theory will frame the way your daughter sees her future, it could indeed derail what God has planned for her, even at the stage of choosing a major. So what can you do? Four things: 1) Pray, 2) Let her go, 3) Entrust her to God’s hands, and finally 4) Teach her to do the same for herself. You’ve probably been doing all of these since the day you sent her off to kindergarten, so don’t stop now.
