Life Is A Balancing Act

What happened to spring and summer? Seriously, I'm looking outside right now and it's 45 degrees as I write this, 11:30 AM CST (Fahrenheit; for my metric readers, it's 7 degrees Celsius AND cloudy AND windy with expected showers). The sun's trying to peek out, but water levels in our rivers rising even a little are cause for concern. We do not want a flood this summer … But on much happier notes, this weekend was certainly a fulfilling one. I'd like to say it's without any personal grief, but to be honest I bring some of it on myself. Saturday afternoon everyone in the house got to do something! Josceline our niece stayed overnight Friday with us because Martha's parents who she's staying with went to Bismarck for a state Disabled American Veterans convention, and Saturday after I brought the three kids – my two and Josceline – with me to the last few hours of Minot Public Library's book sale where you can buy a bag of books for three bucks, and I want them to get some good reading in!

“I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” What this means to me is that God made me and everything and everything. He gives us what we need to survive, and protect us from evil. Even when you don't realize it, he is doing good for us. He is kind to us even when we are not. Everything he does is done out of kindness, mercy, and forgiveness. Because of this, we all should love God more than anything and everything else in the universe.

One requirement for adolescents at Bethany Lutheran Church where I go to complete confirmation in their ninth-grade year is to write a one page faith statement, a part of one of eight which I've excerpted above. Of course I don't know whose it is, nor do any of us who aren't the parents of a confirmand – our nephew Mathew was one such person who completed the three-year course, and after church yesterday where Martha and I got to meet with our prayer partners and participate with them and others in various games for a “Merry Unbirthday” party. Among the challenges were placing an Oreo cookie on top of your forehead and getting it down to your mouth without touching it. I cite this one because I couldn't get it in five tries (Martha got it the first time, dang it) but I ate three of them in consolation. Blowing a Cheerio across the table with a straw, sliding a macaroni noodle from one person's uncooked spaghetti noodle to another with the end in their mouths … it was fun!

What my baptism means to me is that God has accepted me into his family. It also helps me with my faith in trusting God in what he has in store for us. Another thing that my baptism means to me was that my parent wanted me to grow up to know and love Jesus.

Saturday afternoon and evening was great for everybody in my house because we were all out with something to do! Sarah and Josceline were at a pool party for one of Josceline's second-grade classmates while Jeffrey was a pool party for one of his kindergarten classmates … in the same pool … at the same hotel (Grand Hotel on north Broadway) … with five or six other parties on the same day! Martha and I got to leave in about an hour to go with about thirty-six other members of Bethany on a progressive dinner – and for Martha and I, it was a sorely needed date night – where we had an appetizer at one house and mingled, an entree at another house and mingled, and a dessert at another house and mingled. Note to self: don't even eat the day of the progressive dinner when we go again this spring! Which as I said in the beginning, seems to have been bypassed anyway.
I believe all people are made in the image of God and have worth and value. I believe God's love is best reflected by showing love and recognizing the worth and value of all people. I believe that people have been made with a unique purpose and have specific gifts and talent.

Sunday afternoon after church (it really threw some people there that we weren't at the first, 8 AM service in the third pew on the left side; but the confirmands were presented at the second, 11 AM service) we got to the confirmation party for our nephew Mathew at our in-laws' house and circulated between there and a fundraiser for another kindergarten teacher at Longfellow (not Jeffrey's) being held at a local middle school. Mrs. MacIver and her family – she's married with two girls, one with a cochlear implant and the other who was born with complications – with all those in attendance and paying for food, giving freewill donations, and bidding on the silent and live auctions, raised about seventeen thousand toward their medical bills, so I heard this morning! That is wonderful news,

and now to settle in, David