Music

My children have started a band....a very loud one indeed.  They each have their own individual instruments all of which include a keyboard, guitar, bongos, several overturned containers and LOT of sticks.  There is also one conductor of the group.  Any guess who it is?  Jessica likes to lead the group in her own way of “we are doing this” and  “don’t do that’s”.   In a band of children eight years old and younger, you can imagine everyone basically beats to the tune of their own music, which is apparently made up in their head, the music only a mom can be proud of.  I am sure the music can creep up to noise measurements that even those in space can here.

However; I have been watching my older two take piano lessons.  Jessica, particularly, has really grown and enjoyed it.  She practices every day on her own accord and it gives her something that is her very own.  Watching her bang on the piano months ago to seeing her actually play the notes and sing the little song that goes with the music melts this momma’s heart.  She is reading and following the music of that which has been written before her, and it is in order, it sounds melodic, and it is beautiful. 

God always seems to teach us through our children.  He pierced my heart while watching the ever so funny but loud chaotic sounds of children following the beat of their own drum and then watching a child follow well written music to perform a beautiful song.  Now, the loud beats of their own music is music to my ears because it is creativity coming from my children that also provokes laughter in the moment.  However; there is something to be said about the music that comes from written form, practiced on and played beautifully.  

God breathes in His word : 

Train up a child in the 

way he should go,

And when he is old

he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

The word train means to make proficient with specialized instruction and practice.  Parents, what we do every day is eternal.  From changing diapers, to dealing with temper tantrums, to dealing with talk back.....it is still eternal.  How we react, is eternal.  It is what we teach them ourselves.  They will dance to the beat of their own drum and only because that is all they know what to do without formal training.  The definition goes with the scripture in such a way that it shows specialization. Each child is different and it is good practice to train, discipline and guide each child as they are individually set for their own paths in the Lord.  We should be able to identify strengths and weaknesses within our children and work on those individually all the while discovering who it is God wants them to be.  They are precious in God’s eyes....yes, even when they are in full blown temper tantrum mode, they are precious.  The definition also goes past just giving instruction.  Practice goes along with all training.  Practice is teaching your child and doing it over and over again so that their reaction is the training you have given them in the situation.  Make sense?  I am going to call out Jake here.  Jake has always been a grumpy little fella.  Most know him as my fun loving dancing 8 year old.  However, when things do not go his way, he pouts, shouts or cries.  It has gotten better over the years as I have shown him his behavior, why it is bad, and what he could have done.  I just did not tell him when he was three to stop yelling at his siblings, we have worked hard and constant on the practice of putting that anger aside and using his words.  We are not there yet and I still have to find truth that I throw my little temper tantrums every now and then too.  It is a process, and living in this world, not one that will be complete until we stand with Jesus.  

Parents, as cute as it is to see and hear your children form a band and beat to the tune of their own music, it is not so fun watching it lived out as others are raising our children and the world pours into them what we are not.  We are to grab a hold of them during the time we have them in the evening after school, as we drive in the car, take a walk, or just cuddle time and train them in the way they should go.  To do this we have to know our children and pour our lives into them.  Train them and practice putting off the bad and putting on the good.  The fruit from this is amazing and eternal.  The music they will play in their lives when they get older will be their own as God intended but will be based upon righteous training.  And as I have discovered, music with training is much more melodic and pleasing to the ears.

We can love....or we can love!

I once heard a mother on a radio station saying that when she taught her children to do they were to take it one step further.  Example:  Jake, please take your dirty clothes to the laundry room.  He was to challenge himself to take it one step further by thinking on his own.  Putting in the washing machine himself would be an example.  I try my best to parent my children to have this heart.  It does not always happen, some days I just get plain disobedience.  However, more than not, they will take it one step further and in that they show love.  They can love me and honor me by doing the task asked of them but then....they can grasp my heart with overwhelming love when they think outside the box on how they can serve more.  This folks, will not go void.   The fruit from this training is sweet and can be used to change the hearts of man.  This chases after the very heart of Christ.

Matt 20:26-28
But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Teaching our children to constantly think of the next step teaches them to be the to be servants and thus one day strong leaders with a Christ-like heart.   Let's teach them to love to serve and then lets teach them to serve is to love.

Let's try this out ourselves....our husbands/wives deserve it, our children deserve it back to them, our neighbors deserve it, our city deserves it......our nation needs to learn from it.  The spirit of giving more of us for the sake of others.

On My Mind

A song triggered my mind this morning. It was "You Can Have Me" by Sidewalk prophets.  In the lyrics it says this:

When did love become unmoving?
When did love become unconsuming?


I was immediately taken back to a quote that we put on Jake's adoption announcement.  You see, we prayed for this little guy for a long time.  The desire of a child consumed our lives.  To share our love with someone was everything we hoped for.  Our prayers were answered but in an entirely different way than what we were praying for.  Our little guy did not look like us and he was not ours for quite a while. For a year and a half we had to learn through God's grace that love is not easy.  We learned thru fostering Jake for 18 months before his adoption that it was risky, wonderful, exciting, terrifying and really every other emotion you can think of.  We lived daily with the idea that our love may be lost, that at any moment he could be taken away.  It did not make sense to us and handling our emotions through it all was only from God's love and grace upon our lives.  This is the quote we put on his adoption announcement and my thoughts added to it.


IF HUMAN LOVE DOES NOT CARRY A MAN BEYOND HIMSELF, IT IS NOT LOVE.  IF LOVE IS ALWAYS DISCREET, ALWAYS WISE, ALWAYS SENSIBLE AND CALCULATING, NEVER CARRIED BEYOND ITSELF, IT IS NOT LOVE AT ALL.  IT MAY BE AFFECTION, IT MAY BE WARMTH OF FEELING, BUT IT HAS NOT THE TRUE NATURE OF LOVE IN IT.            ~OSWALD CHAMBERS


If we have learned anything in this adventure, it is that love is not merely a feeling.  It is going against the grain of our own desires only to reap the blessings of submitting to the will of the Most High.  Praise be to God as we celebrate the adoption of our son....Jacob Alexander Wacaster


Writing that was so easy when I was on the other side of the adoption.  Going through the waiting, the court dates, the visits, etc. was the time that God refined my knowledge of what love is.  On top of that he added a three year wait  for the adoption of Jessica.  We also loved and lost children.  It did not make sense to us at the time why we had to go through something so gut wrenching to have a child.  I can look back on that now and say that it does not have to make sense.  God knows the beautiful big picture and he knew the pure joys were going to experience through that fire, now, and even what is to come as He molds these children into the people He is calling them to be.  


As I sit in another hard place in my life of waiting I had to recall this experience.  My pleading and praying for this house to sell seems to be sitting in the throne room of Heaven without an answer.  These 7 months have been so hard trying to keep up a house while Brian works 60 plus hours a week and travels on top of the loss we have to take to sell it.  It is humbling, it is hard, painful and tearful.  I cry out to God as to how he expects me to disciple my children and spend time with them if I am constantly cleaning and His answer is always "through me".  Selling our house, planting a church, fighting for family time with Brian's relentless work and travel schedule, going to a place we don't know, leaving a church and people we absolutely adore....these are refining moments again.  


I am reminded (although this is still breaking me) that He does call for my life....he does ask me to leave everything behind, and it does not need to make sense.  My love for God is so much more.  It consumes my soul and my thanks pour out to Him for what He has done and can do through little ol' me.  His all consuming love, that unconditional love of the Father, sent His son to die for us.  This did not make sense.  Why an innocent man, Jesus, died for you and for me does not make sense.  It is life changing and it is all consuming.  People die for it.  People yearn for it. People have been changed by it.  I have.


Thank you God that love does not have to make sense and that your love is the example we need to live by even though hard sometimes.  May we go back to our prior experiences and see the victory in them to give us hope for the trials we are going through now.  Let your love always move me and consume me to be the light you have called me to be.  Comfort my pains as the way I handle thing is not always perfect but thank you for the hope you have given me.  ~Amen


Anything God call us to is going to have opposition, still has to allow for God's perfect timing, and will always demand we rely on his strength.  Prayers for our family are appreciated as we work through moving, planting, defending family time in Brian's work, and raising our five beautiful blessings.


Father of love, you can have me.      And oh, the joys that are to come!!!!