Spice of Life

My boy is so sweet and gentle and loving.  Sure, I'm biased and I admit it!  Seriously though.  Here's an example... A few weeks ago we were talking at bedtime (I forget what about) and I explained to Kieren the concept of "happy tears".  I told him that we don't just cry when we're sad but when we're happy too.  "When you and Zoe were born" I said "I cried because I was so happy and loved you so much!"  I think at the time it was a little tough to understand but clearly he got it because just the other morning we were all snuggling in bed and having a discussion about friends.  He was talking about how some kids don't want to play with him or be his friend.  We acknowledged that that can be hard but that it's okay to have a few close friends and we don't have to be friends with everyone.  I said, "some kids might not want to be your friend but it's still good to try and be nice to everyone and do you know what yo...

Recently Norm and I have been going through a study guide that our dear friend and mentor Carlo wrote.  It's called The Surrendering Guide and it's purpose is to help Christians to "encounter Christ in formation friendship".  Carlo created the acronym SHAWL which stands for Surrendering, Humbling, Abiding, Waiting and Listening.  He is greatly influenced by Andrew Murray and his book Abiding in Christ and I think it's okay for me to say he has sort of made it his mission to help young and old followers of Christ learn and grow in their friendship with Him.  So we have been going through the guide he wrote and occasionally talking with him over Skype.  Last Friday night I was finishing the section we were on and quite honestly found myself getting frustrated.  One of the points in the section was on the importance of meeting with the Lord daily in a time of "encounter practice".  Having grown up in church, this is what we would call "daily devotion t...