Tacks as a Defense

Tacks are a part of everyday life.  Well, at least the everyday I remember.  I think I see more magnets than tacks these days...

But I digress - tacks are around.

My daughter uses tacks in her bedroom to hang her pictures and posters.  Her MILLIONS of pictures and posters!  :)

Tonight she came downstairs and announced, "Hey!  I know a great defense mechanism!  I will use my bag of tacks and dump them all around me!  Nobody will want to mess with them to get to me!"

Now, I know what she was talking about - she was thinking about protecting herself in the event of some horrible break-in or attack.  (It is sad that an eighth-grader plans for things like that, but that's not a discussion for this post...)

But she said the magical phrase - the red light phrase - 'Defense Mechanism' and my mind went in a different direction.

We use defense mechanisms every day in a variety of ways.

Think of them as tacks.

When we spread tacks out around us to keep people at bay - to keep them from getting too close.  If someone attempts to venture in, we will place tacks in their path, or we will move some out of the way.

What tacks are you using?
          How do you keep people away?  Do you deny that you need them?  Act out so that they will leave you alone?  Do you stuff your feelings and put on a happy face?  Do you make yourself unavailable by not answering the phone and staying home more than you should?
          There are many ways to put out tacks and keep people away.  What are you using?

How many do you have out?
          That's the big question - how many ways do you have for keeping people from getting too close?

We were designed to be social creatures.  We were designed to be in relationship with one another.  Our relationships with one another help us build a relationship with God.

Think about those tacks and what you can do to remove a few.  Let a few more in to be close.  A nice challenge....

Jungle Jill Is A Big Ol' Meanie!

Last night, to illustrate Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten season, I put my Jungle kids through an emotional wringer.  We started our evening normally, then I had them all sit down and got serious.  I read Romans 3:23, ...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God - then proceeded to tell them how they have been eternally separated from God with this sin and that I was going to brand them so that they never forgot.  I tied a piece of cloth around each wrist (note to self - make them longer next year) with the word SINNER written on them big and bold.  I tied them so they could not be slipped off and double knotted so they wouldn't untie.  I then went through each of the Ten Commandments and told them how they have broken almost every one of them, and really honed-in on some of the 'easier' ones that kids would recognize.  At the end I just dismissed them - I just stopped and waved them off and said, 'Go to snack - just go to snack - ' like I was writing them off, like I didn't care.  I didn't tell them how to fix it, how to make it better - I just sent them away.

They didn't know what to do.  They had endured the 'mean' part well and were, I think, looking forward to the part where I told them how to make it better, but I didn't.  I didn't fix it.  I didn't tell them how to fix it.  I just sent them away.  When they were all in the other room I shut the door and about died.  I broke character at last.  That was when my daughter, a seventh-grader who helps me with video and sound, turned on me incredulously - 'Wow, mom!  That was intense!' - so I know I did my job.  Even she got caught up in the moment and didn't recognize it as a teaching exercise.  So I encouraged her to go into the next room and watch what they had planned next.

In the next room, they were being guided through a lesson on baptism - both with water and with the Holy Spirit.  They learned that when we make Jesus the leader of their life (which we talk about every week) the Holy Spirit will cleanse us from our sins and then we show our church family what happened on the inside by being baptized with water in front of everyone so they can celebrate how God has made us a new, clean creation!  I had prepared a 'fat quarter' of beige cloth with 'SINNER' on it and written all sorts of sins children are familiar with all over it.  This cloth was dipped in water as the teacher talked and the words began to fade away. (she was interested in how the phrase 'IDOLOTRY - putting other things before God in our lives' was the last one to fade)  The cloth was clean.  Then each child was able to dip his/her bracelet into water and be cleansed of the sin I had marked them with.

 It was cleansing not only to their cloths, but also to their hearts.  As one child moved from my room to the snack lesson (his mother teaches it) he was crying, ran to her and clung to her and said, "I don't want to come back here any more!"  But after her lesson he felt much better and said he wasn't mad at me any more!  :)  It was intense.  We have spent the past two weeks touching on what Lent is and what it means and that it started with Ash Wednesday, but I believe I set the stage for a season of preparing for Easter in a way I have never attempted before.  God has lead me to do this with my group.  I believe there is some big growth He has in store for these kids during this season.

And I did wrap all this up at the end of the evening - we talked through the what and why of the lesson and then I showered them all with Valentine's Day gifts to let them know I love them very much.  It was a great night!  :)  And as hard as it was to be such a big meanie, if it means someone makes a step closer to understanding their need to make Jesus the leader of their life, then it was worth it...

Oh - and my teacher helper says she videotaped the whole thing, knowing what I was going to be doing.  Talk about a meanie!  That is one video I do NOT want to watch!

Ready? Set...LEARN THIS LESSON!

It is a jungle out there! As I find myself getting out into our community more and more, I am seeing just how sheltered a life I have been leading. Today was a great example: I was at a parade with my kids and some friends. Next to us was a group of people with kids also. Policemen had come by with 'warnings' about staying back, so we were keeping the kids 'behind THIS crack' - but this other group was not only allowing the kids to go out into the street, they were at the forefront!

I actually saw this lady give a band director a dirty look when he bumped into her! SHE WAS IN THE ROADWAY!!! That lack of curtesy and thoughtlessness drove me absolutely batty!

But that was a daily way of life with her. If nothing else, it has shown me how far God has brought me from my former life. God didn't put me here on this earth to sit in the church and hang with my fellow believers - He put me here to go out into the world and make disciples.

Well, they aren't disciples at first!

We have to find those people who are still rolling around in their sin - and probably enjoying it to a point - and live life with them so that they can see in us the better life they can have with Jesus within.

I found out today that I still have some work to do, but that I am ready for that work.
Are you?
Hmmm.
Something to think about during your canopy time with God.