MomminginMinistry

So this is nerdy... I just started my first "real class" in Bible college. I decided to start with one I knew I needed sometime before I can apply for my district license, "The History and Polity of the Church of the Nazarene". I have four textbooks for this class, one of which is 621 pages long. But you know what's nerdy? I don't hate it! In fact I get oddly excited about it, like John Nash in Beautiful Mind tacking lines across a wall of magazine and newspaper clips tying together seemingly unrelated ideas. I'm not saying Our Watchword and Song necessarily keeps me awake at night wondering what happens next in the way Hunger Games did ("There is no district 12."?!!!!!?), and sometimes the laundry list of unfamiliar names and dates comes at me as fast as the chocolates on the conveyor belt in I Love Lucy . But I am someone who adores a good story, is fascinated by history and finds so much pleasure in connecting the dots across time. ...

There's this thing about being in ministry that's hard to explain. It's the best and worst all at the same time when you suddenly realize that all of your worlds have overlapped. That all your friends, family and the people you worship with are also the people you work with. That the things you say or post on social media represent more than yourself. That most of your social interactions are also meetings. It's actually a big asset at times that the people you work with and for are also invested in your spiritual life but other times you just long for a truly authentic conversation with a friend over coffee. Just you, your friend and this amazing cup of coffee. I hope it's not self centered to say it but this is why I believe God loaned Mandy back to me for such a time as this. Mandy and I used to hate each other in Kindergarten. I mostly remember because of a big fight over the prettiest dress in the pretend-play bin in our classroom. For the record, I won. But ...

What's it like Momming a Moses? It's not boring. Momming a kid like Moses, a cancer survivor who's allergic to almost everything has meant a lot of things. It means knowing what it feels like to pray for green lights all the way to the hospital. On multiple occasions. It means wondering if the birth certificate should have come with an RX for xanax.  I'm kidding.  Mostly. It means having to shut out that voice that reminds you "This could be it."  It's a guilt and responsibility that not many understand. The questions like "What caused this?" and "Didn't you read the label?" The "I would never..." culture of the fellow allergy mamas that makes you guess and second guess. It means finding a voice I didn't know I had. It's a gratitude and sense of pride. Sometimes it makes me a more empathetic person. When I see a mom hesitate to put her child in the church nursery or ask a lot of questions about summer cam...

This is Thursday. Sometimes Thursday is catch up day. And blog day. And recognize my house again day. Today, not so much. Today I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. Blogging right now, however, short it might be, probably seems like poor time management. But I will have you know that I'm extremely fast at out-putting information. I got it from my mama. Sixty-nine words per minute, actually. And I don't think that was my best time. Today I spent over an hour doing really fairly insignificant work for a class that will not count towards my credit hours. A large chunk of it was taking some mandatory Title IX training on how to prevent my fellow students from overdosing on alcohol and how to definine sexual consent. I told Dan today's homework was "monotonous".  He said, the word I was looking for was actually "monogamous".  He said that is the official term for consent for those attending a Nazarene online college. So, there you go. After dropping the...

I have a confession. I am THE WORST at getting my kids to memorize scripture, whether it's for the small group classes on Sundays or the quiz team on Wednesdays. We just don't devote the time to it that we should. And I have no excuse. I know the benefit of maximizing all those young-mind neurons and memory capabilities. And being able to pull those treasured words from your heart in any and every situation. I went to Lutheran school so memorizing the Bible was part of our daily curriculum.  And I'm the church children's director for goodness sake! Our church just began participating in Nazarene Children's Quizzing. This is a denomination wide program designed to give kids an in-depth knowledge of particular areas of scripture. This year, for example, the kids are spending eight months memorizing scripture from and building an understanding of the book of Acts. Then, every two months they have the opportunity to compete against kids from around the district. I...

Hello, my name is Christy and I watch celebrity funerals. I don't know what that says about me. That my soul is actually 85 years old? That I have nothing better to do on Saturday mornings before the caffeine kicks in? Or that I'm truly very morbid? This past week our country experienced two very high profile funerals. I heard that Aretha Franklin's lasted seven and a half hours. My dear friends, as you plan your funerals, please don't do that to me. I would definitely have to eat two or three times during this and pee four or five times. So, unless you're serving popcorn...please reconsider. The second (or actually second and third if you count both) was the funeral for Senator John McCain. John McCain is known as a real American hero, having survived over five years as a POW in Vietnam. He represented our state in the House of Representatives as well as the Senate, where he served six terms. Much of the nation has known him as the man who lost his race for the...