It has been awhile since I have entered the blogging world. I tried it out a few years ago, but with a growing family (see header pic), I could not find the time or the motivation to sit down and write. As our babies are becoming toddlers, I am finding the desire to write, as well as, the time to do it. Going from one toddler to a new infant in 18 months was not too difficult, but two toddlers and an infant is exhausting, rewarding, challenging. Parenting is no longer a two handed, man-to-man job. My husband and I definitely have to maintain a zone defense. A typical evening usually consists of our 4 year old son, Cade, climbing on our counters at least once to retrieve something, our 2.5 year old daughter, Avie, making a mess in the restroom because she has moved from washing her hands to washing her entire body in the sink, and our 1 year old son, Nate, climbing the stairs while we are attending to the other two. Our house from an outsider's perspective is, I'm sure, rather comical. Some people probably even think we are crazy for having 3 kids 4 years and under, and there are some nights when we'd have to agree.
We may look a little crazy from the outside, but what we are striving for is WEIRD.
For those of you who know my husband, this may not come as a shock for you. As a youth minister, he can portray himself as bit of an oddity, but that is more for the relationships with the kids. As a family, we are wanting to be weird in a way that is different from the rest of the world.
Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
In a technologically-driven, desensitized to violence, sinful, secular world, we have to find ways to be set apart from the world. About a year ago, my husband and I started reading Craig Groeschel's book Weird (see below).
He and his family make some decisions to be the weird ones in the world. For example, they have specific technology days at home. When they are at home, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, nobody can be on any type of technology. As parents, this seems like a great idea, but when you get home from work and you are trying to make dinner, it's a lot harder than it seems. The television has become a babysitter, iphones have become an escape for kids and adults, and Facebook, Pinterest, and gaming apps can hold our attention for hours on end.
I wish I could say our family is able to resist these temptations for even one day a week, but we continue to fail at this simple change. We stopped paying for cable because it was cheaper and we didn't need to watch TV, but now we just pay for Netflix which has endless hours of shows and movies. It doesn't even have to be good, we will watch it.
As we begin the new year, we have some spiritual resolutions that need to be made. One of our first resolutions is to pray for direction and the ability to follow God's lead. Spend some time in prayer during these last few days of 2012 and decide how you can be "weird" in the new year.
