Kids and their energy!

How many times have I thought when watching my kids I'd like to have a tenth of their energy?  How many times have you thought that?  Kids seem to have an endless supply.  I'm not sure, but when God made my youngest son Alex I think he accidentally gave him twice the dose of energy and spirit!  The things that kid comes up with and the non-stop action, unless Tom & Jerry is on, is enough energy to power a small town.  But I digress.  I think kids have a lot to teach us adults, and I was reminded of that fact yesterday during church and Sunday school.
Before Sunday school starts I like to stand in the hallway and watch the kids come in.  One of the reasons I do that is because it is awesome to see the excitement they have on their faces.  Well, most all of them, there are a few that wish they were still sleeping, but the vast majority are excited to see their friends and genuinely excited to come to Sunday school.  Those smiles can't help but lift my spirits for the day also.  As I watch them file past to their rooms and I see their smiling faces I wonder how many adults will come to church with the same exuberance and energy?  While there are a few the percentages are lower for sure.  Now, I don't expect the adults to come sprinting down the church aisle to their seats and I don't expect them to hug, punch, high five, give piggy back rides and so on to their friends in worship, but I often wonder what emotions they, and I, bring to worship?  Is it just another obligation they need to fulfill?  Is it simply another check mark on their list?  Or is it genuine happiness and praise that bring them to worship to see friends, to experience the living God, and to be reminded that we aren't alone in this crazy adventure called life.  I often wonder how different worship would be if we all came with the same amount of happiness and appreciation to be there instead of our grown up sensible ways of being.
The second thing I learned on Sunday, or at least was reminded of, was the energy and joy kids bring to a worship service.  I put in our church newsletter a month or two ago an article that praised and thanked moms and dads for bringing their kids to worship.  If anyone has brought a small child to a worship service you know the nerve racking feeling.  You think every noise is a terrible interruption and all eyes are looking at you wondering why you can't control your kid.  Well, I say the heck with control!  The noises that kids make, as long as the noises aren't screams at the very tops of their lungs for minutes on end, and the hustle and bustle they create bring an energy and joy to a worship service that nothing else can.  Worship services aren't meant to be somber, quiet reflection for a solid hour.  There is some time for that, but we are worshiping a living God and a Spirit that dances with us and there's nothing completely quiet and somber about that!  We are a community, and communities are made up of different people and we need to be reminded of that. 
People ask me all the time how I keep my concentration when there's noise going on in the congregation.  I keep my concentration because I absolutely welcome the noise and hustle and bustle.  There's isn't much worse then looking out over a congregation with no kids and not much activity.  The energy and joy the young ones bring lift my spirits, and I bet if we're all honest with ourselves they lift our spirits too.
Kids can still teach us old adults something after all.  They remind us to have fun in life, they fill us with joy and energy, even though they can be exasperating at times, and maybe most importantly they remind us that worshiping God is meant to be fun too!

My time is coming

I've probably ranted about this before, and maybe even in this space, but this topic has been on my mind lately so I thought I would put some rambling thoughts to screen.  Kid's schedules are nuts!  I quite often hear of parents shuttling kids to and from places after school, before school, Saturday, Sunday, and almost any time in between.  It seems to me that some how we've equated being busy with being successful.  I also wonder how many of the activities I see kids in are truly for the kids or do mom and dad push too much.  Is there something wrong with just being at home for a night with nothing to do but be a kid?  Does an unscheduled day, or even hour, somehow mean we're not living up to our full potential?  Good golly I hope not.
I titled this post "my time is coming" because right now my boys are in 2nd grade and preschool.  Only one is involved in any extracurricular sports so we're not running around like mad...yet.  But, even our schedule gets crazy when you throw in some church stuff and community activities and we don't even have to worry about sports, band, boy scouts, FFA, etc.  What am I going to do when the time comes?  Will I just cram as much as I can into the kids' schedule because they want to do all that?  Will I just assume that busy equals good?  Will I have the strength to say no?  As I'm writing it occurs to me I'm not including Tracy in any of these decisions, and she'll certainly be involved.
I truly hope I can find time to let my boys just be boys and kids.  I know for myself that if I have a schedule that is continually packed it wears me down.  I know that I need a night or two to just be home with the family.  There are enough times already were I feel we don't have enough of those nights and as a family we're barely getting started in the rat race.  Is it no wonder families seem to struggle a little bit more now because they barely have time to see each other!  I guess my question is where has the balance gone, and can you find a way to come back into balance.
I truly believe it is important to have time together as a family to just be.  I don't know if that is your belief or not, but if you're constantly running to the next thing how do you get a chance to just sit down and hang out?  Do you get a chance to sit down as a family and have a meal together...more then twice a week?  Maybe I'm alone in these thoughts and most people believe you have to have the hectic lifestyle, but I don't.  I do not want you to misunderstand me...sports are good....band is good....community activities are good....church activities are good...FFA, Boy and Girl Scouts...and other organizations are good, but we can't be all things all the time.  That's were balance comes into play.  I mean even God rested.  Jesus knew he had to take time out to be alone and get away from it all.  If God and Jesus knew they couldn't handle busyness all the time how do we think we can schedule our lives full and get away with it?  I might be shouting at a wall here, and heck in 2 or 3 years my family might be over scheduled too, but I sure hope we can say no...and still find time to just be at home for a night or two, or God forbid a whole day, without having to be somewhere.  I don't think you can put a price on that time together because it's not the same togetherness as running in the car to the next event.  It is ok to have nothing to do for awhile.  It is ok to just be and not have to rush to the next thing.  Family time, time to just be together, is something I think this world could use a lot more of, and if we can't find time to just be together then maybe, just maybe we're a little too busy.