Posted by: revjmk on: January 10, 2012
“Mom, what about Birthday Sunday? When they do all the January birthdays? It’s my turn. I’m a January birthday.” Sunday morning was the first time (except for six weeks of maternity leave) I’ve ever been in the same town as my congregation and not been with them for worship. It’s also the first time B [...]
Posted by: revjmk on: April 11, 2011
Our family drove to Florida a few months ago. If you’ve ever made that journey, you know that the highways in Georgia and Florida are lined with billboards advertising pecans. Both J and I have mild allergies to nuts, but B loves them and seems unaffected. So, to pass the time, we were pointing out [...]
Posted by: revjmk on: April 8, 2011
One of the great joys of serving as a pastor is bearing witness to so many intimate moments in people’s lives. When a baby is baptized, I get to stand right up there with the family and even hold the child. When young people give their lives to Christ at Confirmation, I get to place [...]
Posted by: revjmk on: March 3, 2011
Our family enjoyed a vacation to visit family in Florida a few weeks back, including one morning at the beach. J was building a master sandcastle, I was sticking my feet in the cold water, and B was playing in the sand and chasing seagulls. The beach was mostly empty. His fear of the water [...]
Posted by: revjmk on: September 14, 2010
“But it’s O.K., right?” B has started saying this all the time. Usually it follows something he does wrong, or something I warn him against doing. It can be anything from spilling his Goldfish crackers to playing too rough to forgetting to put his clothes in the laundry basket. He sometimes says it in response [...]
Posted by: revjmk on: September 1, 2010
B begins his day curled up in bed with us. Some days, he creeps in before dawn and we snooze awhile together. Other days, he comes in ready to wake up and we cajole him into bed for a few minutes while we peel our eyes open. Almost always, the first words he utters in [...]
Posted by: revjmk on: July 23, 2010
“Put down the window, so I can see God.” That’s what B said to me this morning in the car on the way to preschool. “If you put down the window, then you can see God.” He spent the last week getting his first dose of Christian education outside the home through vacation bible school, [...]
Posted by: revjmk on: May 20, 2010
This morning started out rough. B woke up early, then melted down from tiredness, then we got stuck in 45 minutes of traffic on the ride to school. To fill time in traffic, I introduced B to new music: Johnny Cash’s My Mother’s Hymn Book. B loves music, and we have been intentional about teaching [...]
Posted by: revjmk on: May 17, 2010
The drive to preschool has become definition time. If B has heard new words he does not understand, he often asks about them during the quiet drive. I enjoy his inquiring mind, and the challenge of explaining something in terms he will understand. Last week, though, it got complicated. Mommy, what does “kill” mean? As [...]