Kaden was here this weekend...

Okay, now that I’m not the only one sleeping with my eight year old nephew…I have revisited some of my old sleepover days past. I’m starting to let him have sleepovers when he is here in Goree. I’ve caught myself guarding ‘who’ and asking myself if that one or this one is too mature, blah blah blah. I’ve caught myself falling asleep before they do…wondering what’s on the t.v. that might be inappropriate at that hour. I’ve prayed when I’ve worried about inappropriate topics of conversation that might arise or if off colored games come up when I'm not in ear shot. Why? Because life happens and it happened to me at ‘that’ age.

For him to sleep upstairs by himself without me hanging out with him until he falls asleep is a near impossibility. He curls my hair with his finger and I wait for the deep breathing, then I sneak into my own bed downstairs. Many times I’ll be awakened to, “Meme, I’m scared, thirsty, etc.” He is growing up and I guess I gotta grow with him.

Yesterday at Kidmo was tuff…we went off on a tangent. The lesson was centered on worshipping God in other ways than just singing. Somehow (God, of course) we ended up talking about choices that honor Him in worship even to the death. I didn’t realize it was the 10th Anniversary of the Columbine event, but we discussed it. Honoring Him in life’s choices is hard enough...i.e. Don’t look at dirty books that your dad or friends’ dad has in his closet. Don’t text bad stuff. Even if your parents have the movie channels, don’t watch them even if they aren’t checking in on you. If a friend wants to play naughty games, say no way and offer another idea. Watch out for stuff on YouTube. Ughhhh…on and on and on. The kids couldn't hide it, I saw the glances. Innocence or guilt just stood out like a sore thumb…a glance at a friend who ‘knew’ or a downcast look at their shoelaces.

No, I didn’t have internet or texting in my day, but how else did I know that this stuff happens? It happened to me! I didn’t wanna believe that it is happening to them, but it is. Yes, in my day HBO was on channel number two! And I snuck into to the movie theater and watched ‘Friday the Thirteenth’ with a friend and her older teen brother. I babysat in homes where there were impure videos. I did bad things, but I did good things, too. Is this TMI? (Too Much Information) Yeah, probably! Could it hurt some people, probably! Am I outraged? Yeah! It is better for a millstone to be hung around some of these Dad’s heads and thrown into the sea, than for them to cause one of these little ones to sin. And when Mom’s know it…then, they need to stop it! We submit, as long as, we are not asked to sin. So, what did we do about all this yesterday?

We took pieces of paper and wrote our trash down and burnt them in a pot at the altar of my church. Was it planned? Yeah, by God, not me! Am I glad to have tweenagers separated from the younger ones…yep! Could I have EVER broached these subjects with sixty kids in the room, NO! Is two days necessary (FWF & Kidmo) for children’s’ ministry, uh huh! Keep praying for us and keep living radically different from the world. Did this stuff happen to me during school hours? Hardly ever! People, it can happen in our homes, at family get-togethers, the swimming pool, in our neighborhoods, grandma's backyard...at least those were some of the places it happened to me. School was a safe place and if it's not, then get radical there, too. Zero tolerance! Never give up!