9 months late
i was looking at photos on my blog, realizing that i hadn’t updated the photo page in a while. i don’t have time to check for duplicates elsewhere, but i’ll try and be better about posting photos from here on out. hahahaha- don’t hold me to it. here’s some photos of josiahs’ first few weeks.
top ten summer projects
I’m trying to practice creativity this summer, so here it goes…this is me using my right brain- or is it my left brain? Top ten summer projects, [that usually don't get completed in the Hage household]
1. spring cleaning (yes, I know…shouldn’t that be done in spring?)
2. throwing away old t-shirts from highschool
3. weeding the yard- well we do it, but not often enough to keep the weeds away
4. powerwashing the kid toys outside that collect green stuff- ick!
5. making kool aid popsicles like we had back in the day
6. painting the unfinished areas of the house, inside and out!
7. giving away extra stuff stored in the overflowing spaces of our home…the shed, the closets, the office, the bedrooms, okay there’s overflow everywhere really.
8. planting flowers and not killing them
9. planting vegetables and herbs and not killing them (impossible for me!) and finally
10. squeezing the whole family into the little blue, 4 ft. plastic pool on the deck while trying to get a family picture, to remember the summer by!
blog name change
so i decided to change my blog title. partially because it felt weird every time i looked at it, it just didn’t seem to fit. i’m not very good at catchy titles or phrases…it took me forever to even decide on a blog name several years ago, wanting to inspire with a title or be clever. but that’s just not me. if someone is inspired by what i write- great, if someone laughs at what i write- awesome, but i think the purpose of this blog for me is just to journal and share about my life and experiences.
and now i’m reading this book called Eat This Book (eugene peterson), and he writes about how as christians we tend to try to fit God in our lives- which isn’t a new thought to me, necessarily, but when he writes
“When we submit our lives to what we read in Scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God’s. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.”
it hit me hard this afternoon. too often I go to scripture to look for inspiration- for myself and my needs- and miss the greater point. it isn’t what God has to say to ME, but rather, what God SAYS is revelation of who He is and who I am in His image. Interesting huh? What does this have to do with a blog name change you ask? i guess i just want to stop feeling the need to be clever or inspiring, or profound in my thoughts (the pressure is probably all internal) that get splashed into cyberspace, and find myself in God’s stories. those are the stories and thoughts i want to share here. so it’s just me you will find here, just as i am (yes, that is a title to a song i’m sure of it).
vbs nightmares- already
so i had this dream…
first day of kids camp, we had so many kids (probably over a hundred in my dream). the chaos and fun of opening program was over and I just dismissed all the groups to go to different areas for bible study time. the only problem? i had forgotten to assign leaders to LEAD the bible studies! One of our volunteers (a real person from Quest who shall rename nameless) came up to meet to point out the problem. The reason this dream was a nightmare was that I FREAKED OUT. Instead of calming bring the groups back into for large group bible study (of which i had the lessons for most likely 
). I started running around trying to make photocopies of coloring sheets to go with the lesson- what the HECK was I do?
Argh. I woke up before I could fix my dream and make it all turn out right. For sure, next summer, I am NOT forgetting to plan the B in V.B.S.!!!!!
i was that mom
today marked a new day in my life story. i became that mom. you know what i’m talking about? the one at the store with the screaming, disrespectful, non-listening two-year-old? oh yes, I was that mom. i am sorry. for all those moments, i thought that parent didn’t know how to correctly discipline. for all the times i said just leave the store already! (i had driven 30 minutes to buy a stroller we needed and there was no way i was wasting the trip). for all the times i felt pity and thought someone should guide those parents in better parenting practices. o Lord forgive me.
thanks to a kind employee we survived the trip, and got the stroller home.
I just wish the math added up: chrstian parents + intentional Godly parenting and discipline + fun, loving, playful, involved parenting = why does this not equal a well-behaved child who always listens to his parents and follows their lead? oh satan, why did you tempt eve? and adam why did you join in?
more scary than his inability to comply with my desires is the anger that I am capable of feeling. never have i experienced a more embarrassed, frustrated, self-righteous, self-pitying anger. that he wouldn’t listen, that he wouldn’t obey, and this sin is mine: that he would make me look like a bad parent. we both need to repent. i am still in the middle of another “episode” so i have no energy to repent…but i’m pretty desperate for God’s grace in the midst of this day. i will never again say,” i would never let my child do that”. sometimes it’s not about what we would or wouldn’t let our child do. it’s more about our response to things that happen. and do we have enough love and self-discipline and reliance on God to disciple our children through these moments.
you are forgiving and good o lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. psalm 86:5 (i think)
SonRock pictures finally online!
Why does it take me so long to get things done? We have finally posted the picture slideshow from camp online. Even though it was done almost 2 weeks ago! Maybe I shouldn’t have admitted that part? Either way- it’s a great way to remember camp or enjoy it if you didn’t get to go. Thanks Lacey Keyser, a fabulous camp volunteer and Corey Hage for the pictures and cool slideshow. SonRock was fitting- because camp truly rocked this year!
Lessons from kids camp- P3
More thoughts about prayer:
Several times throughout the camp, when praying I asked kids to repeat after me. I do it for several reasons. Some kids don’t know how to pray so they need someone to model for them, some kids can’t stay focused, so helping them with the words provides a auditory way to focus, it helps kids be comfortable hearing their prayers out loud (too often I think kids don’t practice praying out loud, or they have somehow learned that if you don’t pray a certain way- or you think your prayer isn’t good enough, you shouldn’t pray out loud- I hate that…), and sometimes we pray out loud because it can bring energy and passion to our prayers when we pray as a group (another example would be saying the apostle’s creed together, there is power in numbers!).
One child did however remind me one day that it’s not good to pray other people’s prayers, because everyone has their own prayer to pray. I love that! The little boy seemed pretty upset that they had to repeat a prayer so after thanking him for the reminder I gently told him we prayed out loud to help kids who maybe didn’t know how to pray. He seemed okay with that response.
And again, I am challenged to think about why I do ministry the way I do. It’s easy to take something like that for granted- just pray and move on already! But we can’t just tell kids to do something without knowing or beleiving in what we are doing. And every moment is a teachable moment- not just for the learners, but for the teachers too.
Reflections on psalm 63
1 O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I can’t help but be drawn to the passion and emotion of this psalm. My own heart echoes the words of David, yet it many ways, I’m not sure I can relate. I have never experienced the physical desperation of being thirsty. To the extent that someone would walk miles for a gallon of water is unfathomable to me…how then can I grasp that desperate of a need for Jesus? I’ve never been in extreme pain, never known persecution. My life has not been easy, but over all it has been comfortable. I want to thirst and long and seek my God like David writes about here…and I know no mountain top encounter or valley of death is necessary for this intense longing for God, but I think in my comfortable life, it’s easy to feel joy and thankfulness to my Heavenly Father, but not as much desperate need for His presence in my life.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
I am not ashamed to say I am an emotional believer. Those who can worship God, study the word, pray and praise God and be void of expressing emotion (as they might when they are in love, or angry, listening to a great piece of music, or in a lively conversation)- I don’t understand them. I think David and I would get along great. We whine, complain, cry out in frustration, and make lots of mistakes, but from the inside out, our true desire is to know God and be known by Him. It isn’t uncommon for me to shed a tear when feeling God’s presence, to feel the need to raise my hands and move my feet when singing a song to him. But like David I too have enemies. My enemies probably look more like laziness, being too quick to criticize, not showing enough affection/affirmation to the people I love most, and lack of discipline in certain areas of my life.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
9 They who seek my life will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
And when I feel my enemies (my sin) overtaking me, it’s comforting to know who is there holding my hand. I look forward to the day my sins will be destroyed forever, given over to the sword. I’m a little like the Israelites and tend to forget from season to season how God has taken care of me- which makes me that much more grateful for Jesus life and resurrection to bring me back to a place of remembrance. A place of reflection.
10 They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
11 But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God’s name will praise him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.
Lessons from Kids Camp- P2
Ways to Pray
When it comes to a child’s faith, there is so much to teach, and so many learning opportunities. At camp, I tried to make the most of every moment I had with the kids, to be salt and light, and help bring kids close to Jesus. So of course, we prayed each morning and afternoon together. After our first monday morning prayer, I had the kids yell amen as loud as they could so God could hear. At the end of camp that day, someone told me a story about a girl who went home yelling her prayers so God would hear her. I actually know the child, and know that she knows she doesn’t have to shout her prayers (she was probably doing it to drive her older brothers crazy- truth be told). But it was a great reminder to me, to teach kids many ways to talk to God. We didn’t shout amen at the end of every prayer. Sometimes we said a silent amen, sometimes we said a quiet amen, and yes, we still shouted amen as an expression of excitement and love for God!
