We got up this morning with a little different gameplan than most Sundays. My mother-in-law was in the hospital - her hip had popped out yesterday. Our plans were to get me to church early enough to make copies and do the normal setup, then V and the kids would come for Sunday School and she'd then head up to the hospital to help her mom. Good news: her mother had already been up and walking and had gone to the restroom, meeting the conditions necessary for her to come home today. When the kids and I left church for Grandma's for lunch, everyone was released and ready for lunch there, too. Our prayer is that this continued time of healing and hurting will have an impact on her life, drawing her towards the Father instead of inward, where she's able to do everything on her own without anyone else's help. That's a big hurdle to jump, finding out that you're not as self-sufficient as you've always believed.

It's funny how lazy I can be on a Sunday afternoon. Don't get me wrong - being lazy is a 24/7/365 way of life, but there's something about the thunder rolling through this afternoon and the couch pillows beckoning to me that led to a few fitful fifteen minute snoozes before finally getting up, making a pot of coffee (Gevalia Breakfast Blend), and watching the rest of the FOP movie with the kids.

Nothing on TV now, so the missus and I are enjoying the sounds of the lingering storms. She's catching up on some summer drama-teacher reading, and I'm bloggin' - go figure. The back door is open to our "playroom" - the room we enclosed over the deck that has a wonderful metal roof, perfect for rainy sleepytime rhythms. We've got the digital cable set to the classical music channel, piping through my new home theater surround sound system, chillin' out to the melodies of the string sections and the passing cold front.

So, what am I thinking? What's on my mind right now? For guys like me, that could be "nothing" or it could be "everything" - take your pick. But right now, I'm just kind of meditating on parenting. Our 10 Commandment video series this morning was on #5 - "honor your father and mother," Exdodus 20:12. Each of the commandments thus far in this series has been focused more on the relational aspects of God and man, not just the be-obedient-or-else law side of things. This one was no exception, and I was struck by the thought that the relationship I enjoy with my own parents shapes my own concepts of identity and purpose. In showing them respect and dignity and honor, which we too often classify strictly as "obedience," what I'm really doing is acknowledging who I am, the promises of God in them to me, and my own walk with God and with others. I think it makes more sense for me by adding the NT call to not exasperate my kids (Ephesiand 6:4) - that as a parent, I should be a person worthy of honor and respect, because I've shown my own children honor and respect as they grow up. In coming after the first four commands, this one is saying in effect that as I recognize God as the only God and seek to serve and honor Him alone, my relationships with others will change, too, and the first ones, or the most revealing ones, will be within my own family, and specifically in how I live towards my parents, and how I parent my own children and their subsequent relationship with me.

Whew. Enough for now - my little girl "can't sleep." WON'T sleep is more like it, but you pick your battles. She's down here now, too, listening to the rain and the violins, hopefully slipping off to la-la-land soon.
- posted by Rick @ 22:14