Grumpy Old Lady Syndrome

Anger and Wrath was our last lesson, so this Sunday we talked about our first Fruit of the Spirit: Patience. I chose to talk about patience first because impatience is definitely something that we all struggle with daily. We live in a very fast-paced society where everything we do, we want done now. We can’t have lunch if it isn’t prepared quickly, thus, fast food restaurants were born. We don’t have time to wait in line behind three full carts at Walmart, so we have “20 items or less” and self-checkout lanes. We don’t want to wait an hour to print our photos, so we have machines that print them instantly. We can order something online today, pay extra for express shipping, and have the thing arrive on our doorstep tomorrow because we just can’t wait! This list could go on and on. Let’s face it. We’re busy. We don’t have time to wait for things. Generations before us had to wait for and take time to prepare the things they wanted. So, patience was a skill they had to have. Nowadays, people are not as skilled with patience.

So, we talked about what I lovingly call, “Little Kid Syndrome”. Have you ever taken a toddler to the store? As soon as you walk through the automatic sliding door, the wanting begins. “I want a toy!” shrieks the small child. You respond with, “We are here for groceries today. Maybe next time”. Then, the ultimate fit is thrown. Who wants to wait until “next time”? No little kid, that’s for sure! Then, there is Grumpy Old Lady Syndrome. This typically targets adults, but is not limited to females. Grumpy old ladies are often found in Walmart grumbling about not being able to find what they are looking for. Grumpy Old Lady Syndrome is also found in raging drivers who absolutely have somewhere to be right NOW, but are stuck behind a stopped school bus. And don’t even get me started on restaurant customers…

So, my question was, “Are we born with or without patience?” The unanimous vote was without. Patience is a learned skill, for which we must work hard to have. Have you ever prayed for patience? I have. But, typically, God doesn’t send us patience on the spot like we’d like for Him to. There’s a quote from the movie, Bruce Almighty that I like a lot: “If you pray for patience, does God give you patience or the opportunity to be patient?” I love this because it shows that God wants us to be patient, but He won’t make us patient all on His own. He wants us to work hard and prove to Him that we want to be His followers.

Everyone agreed that it is very hard to be patient. So, we talked about things we can do to be more patient. They included:

*Deep breaths

*Praying

*Understanding that we can’t always get what we want when we want it.

The last one is the big one. We often want exactly what we want exactly when we want it. For example, I want a cat more than anything, but my landlord does not allow pets. So, I have to wait patiently until I get my own place. It’s frustrating to not have what you want! That’s why children go ballistic at Walmart!

Romans 12:12

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble and keep praying.

John 16:33

In this world you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world.

I read these verses aloud and we discussed them. Jesus says in John that we will have trouble in this world….He didn’t say “In this world you might have trouble”. He said WILL. Then, in Romans, it says to be patient in trouble and keep praying. Well, when things aren’t going the way we want them to, we get impatient for them to change. We need to be patient for God’s plan for us to unfold. He has a plan for all of us, but we often try to live by our own plans which get us into trouble. As a class, we decided that patience is important because it leads to anger. Then, we tend to say mean things and stress ourselves out.

At the end, we played Apples to Apples: Bible Edition, had some cake that I brought from my dad’s wedding, and had a good time.

Anger/Wrath

Tonight, I began the first lesson of my new unit plan. For the next eight weeks, we will alternate lessons on the seven deadly sins and the nine fruits of the Spirit.

Seven Deadly Sins:
*Wrath           *Sloth
*Gluttony        *Lust
*Greed           *Pride
*Envy

Nine Fruits of the Spirit:
*Love             *Joy
*Peace            *Patience
*Kindness       *Goodness
*Faithfulness    *Gentleness
*Self-Control

We started off with wrath; or anger. At the beginning, as usual, I opened with an activity. Now, I wanted to do this to make a fabulous point because I have read about it. But at the same time, I did not want to do this activity because it's quite heart-wrenching. I filled a trash bag with blankets and other soft things and taped a paper target to the outside. I gave everyone a sheet of paper and instructed them to draw a picture of someone they can't stand; someone whom they would love to just punch in the face. And one by one, I taped their picture to the target and let them kick or punch the crap out of it to release all of their pent-up frustrations with their person. I even did it too. At the end, I removed each person's paper and flipped the target over to reveal a picture of Jesus Christ. This was to show that when we hurt others, we hurt God. We are ALL His children and he loves each and every one of us. We talked about how God doesn't want us to kick the crap out of our enemies; He wants just the opposite.

Romans 12:20
"If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads."

We read this passage a couple of lessons ago, but it's good to be reminded. It doesn't matter what someone does to make us angry. It doesn't matter if we think they deserve to be lashed out upon. We are commanded by Jesus to be kind to EVERYONE. I heard a quote recently that I really liked: “Jesus said to love your neighbor, not love only those you like.” We fall guilty of this all the time; well, I do. I tend to show more kindness to those I especially like than I do to those I don’t feel as close to. The thing is, that if we want to spend eternity with Jesus, we need to not only believe in Him, but be kind to His people. This is what will be said to Jesus’ followers at the end of time. It is also mentioned in Revelation.


Matthew 25:34-36
“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’”

Then, we did another activity called Dear Abby. We elected two “Abbys” to be our advice givers and everyone else wrote down an issue they needed advice on. The “Abbys” took turns and read them aloud, then gave advice on them. My favorite bit of advice was something I had never heard before. The issue was name-calling. Abby said to remember that the hurtful words you say are like nails in a wooden board. You can take the words away (remove the nails), but there will always be that hole where the hurt was driven. It’s easier to forgive than it is to forget. This is why it is important to be careful what we say when we are angry. We ended with a prayer and played knockout basketball for the rest of the time. One of the boys pulled the hoop over and a frog hopped out of the bottom! My attention was officially diverted, so the girls and I played with the frog while the boys were shooting hoops. Successful day? I think so.

Shrine Circus Trip 2011

On June 10^th, Northside Christian Church went on a trip to the Shrine Circus in Salem. It was planned for quite a while and it seemed that I was more excited about going than the kids were! Well, we took four vehicles and had around 12 kids that went. My car was full of girls. Three younger kiddos and one of my older kids. Those girls had the seating arrangements planned out for days before the trip! We just chatted and laughed the whole way there. It was fun. Once we got there, we were mesmerized by all of the colorful toys for sale, the smell of carnival food, and the balloon-making clowns. We stood around for a while, getting balloon flowers and swords and then jumping out of our skin when they suddenly popped. We found our seats, put balloons there so they wouldn’t be stolen, then went out to get food and drinks. The older girls were ok wandering around by themselves, but I kept the younger ones with me. And I tell you, they had me running all over the place. “I want a corndog.” “I need to go to the bathroom!” “I want some cotton candy.” “Can we buy some toys?” In my adult mind, I went there to watch the circus. Apparently kids think a little differently because wanted to be all over the place! It was fun though. Luckily, the Lord blessed me with extra patience that day. We all enjoyed our corndogs, funnel cakes, lemon shake-ups, and cotton candy while watching some really incredible acts. One of my girls accidentally dropped her cell phone in her cup of soda, but other than that, we had no catastrophes. We were all looking forward to riding an elephant, but it was $10 EACH! Of course, we had already spent most of our money on food, so we watched the elephants from the ground for a while. A few of us went to get our faces painted and we watched the rest of the show. By the end of it, I was exhausted and jokingly asked which of my girls was driving home. They definitely kept me alert the whole trip home though. We played word games and laughed the whole way. I was definitely pleased with the trip. It went very well and we had a great time. I can’t wait for more adventures with these kids!

The Spirit is Willing, But the Flesh is Weak

Wow, it has been a while since I last posted. I don’t want to make excuses, but my life has been moving full steam ahead since I moved back home. In the time since my last post, I have taken the kids to the circus, moved into my own apartment, and started my full time lifeguard position at the pool. I feel very blessed to have so many wonderful things going on in my life right now. I am very busy, but I’d take busy over bored any day. And I tell you, with all the kids in the youth group to keep track of, I am rarely bored!

The last lesson I gave, I invited the younger kids to join my class. So, I had a range from elementary kids up to high school kids in one room. It was interesting to say the least. While they were doing a written activity, I had to keep the older kids focused and tell the younger kids how to spell certain words. I suppose I didn’t really take into consideration that they were on very different levels. My mistake. Though, I modified my lesson a bit to accommodate the younger ones and it ended up being really fun! My lesson was about choices. The written activity I began with, involved the personal experiences of everyone in the room. I gave everyone, including myself, two slips of blank paper and a pencil. On one, we all wrote a good choice we recently made and on the other, a bad choice we recently made. Then, we tossed them into a basket and I read them all aloud. Surprisingly, they were all relatively the same. Most of the bad choices were about not listening to parents, lashing out at siblings, and calling people names. A lot of the good choices were about helping with chores. So, we all could relate to those. For my bad choice, I put in something I did when I was younger; back when Vandalia had a movie theater. When I was little, I went to the movies with my friends and I didn’t take any money because I thought that my friend’s mom was going to take care of it. Well, I was wrong and I snuck into the movie without paying for it. When I told everybody this, I had their undivided attention. They could hardly believe that I would do such a thing! It was pretty funny. So, we discussed our choices for a while and talked about what could have been done differently.

Mark 14:38

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

We read this passage and talked about how spiritually, we want to be good and do the right thing, but our human nature is very gullible and falls easily into temptations to make bad choices. We also talked about how many people don’t want to be Christians because we seem to have this big, long list of “rules” that we need to follow to get into Heaven. No drinking. No drugs. No stealing. No swearing. No sex (I cut that out for the sake of younger ears). To many people, it seems that we Christians just aren’t allowed to have any fun. So, we talked about how He doesn’t set rules for us, but he does set guidelines for us to follow. The above examples can have negative consequences. We get hurt when we drink and drive. We hurt others when we cuss at them. Etc. The thing is, that God loves us and wants us to make good choices because He wants us to be happy! He wants us to live a wonderful life feeling loved and loving others. Making bad choices tends to prevent us from doing that. So, we talked about how we all have made mistakes and that it is never too late to make a good choice to correct a bad one.

Flexibility

I have had my lesson for Sunday night planned for several days, so I was more than ready to talk to the kids about a very important topic: Choices. Of course, we all have several choices to make daily, but I feel like teenagers have a more difficult time making good decisions than adults do. For this reason, I was eager to present my lesson. Well, things can change at a moment's notice, and for whatever reason, I only had three teens show up. Even after I had invited two more kids earlier in the day. I typically plan my lessons and activities for several students, so not having kids there really puts me back. But, I try to be flexible in every situation I get myself into because if I only have one plan and it fails, then I feel like the end of the world is upon me. So, I saved my lesson and the girls and I looked through designs for t-shirt ideas. We are in dire need of new t-shirts. Well, perhaps we don't "need" them, but it's been five years since we've made some. I brought it to the Board at the meeting last night, and everyone approved it. So, this morning I skipped by Champion Trophies and Ts and placed my order. She said that they may be done by Friday, which would be awesome because we can all wear them to the Shrine Circus that day! I honestly didn't think they would be done so soon, but it looks like they might be. Good deal. Anyway, we also took some stuff outside to play with. I used it as a "hang-out day". We drew with chalk on the pavillion concrete, some of the girls played with a hula hoop, and we just talked and had a good time. Hopefully this Wednesday will bring more kiddos to NCC. I know it's still the beginning of summer and sports are starting and people are still settling into the "boringness" that is to come (kids always look forward to summer, then complain after two weeks that there's nothing to do), so I have high hopes that they'll be back.

Forgiveness...Only for the Worthy?

Tonight, during SHINE, I had a class full of four whole kiddos. Well, our number was small, but we still had a grand time. I did not post on Sunday because we did not have a SHINE meeting that night. As it was the fifth Sunday of the month, we had Question and Answer Night with Carl and the Board. (Though Carl answered most of the questions.) I came prepared with a few questions of my own, but was going to get some questions from the teens beforehand so they could ask their burning questions too. Well, no more than two kids came, so one of the girls and I sat up front to get in on the action. It turned out that we both had some of the same questions, so Carl explained a lot of the things we both wondered about. For example, I have been confused about Catholocism for a very long time. What was it exactly that made Catholic believers different than us? Well, I found out that a lot of it had to do with the hierarchy that we don't have and our beliefs about baptism are different. It was my first Q&A Night and I really enjoyed it. I only wish that we could skip the music and spend the whole time drilling the board with questions.

Anyway, tonight was fun. I wrote the lesson a week ago and it really seemed that it needed to be heard tonight. Most of the kids present, myself included, have recently struggled with or are currently struggling with forgiveness. It is very hard sometimes, for us humans to forgive eachother when we've been wronged. I started the lesson with a group activity. I split the kids into two groups. It ended up being boys vs girls (big surprise there) and I gave them an assignment. Each group had to come up with a skit about forgiveness. They could use whatever props they wanted and could do whatever scenerio they wanted as long as the point was forgiving someone. While they were preparing and practicing, I went outside to wrangle up an audience of younger kids for fun. We watched as the boys hit eachother with sporting equipment and apologized, then giggled as the girls acted out a robbery scenerio. One was a robber coming to steal the other's pinto beans...that she happened to be napping with. Somewhat confusing, but hilarious all the same. I like to start with something fun to capture attention. (Which is rather difficult to keep from teenagers, mind you.) We then learned that it is just as important for us to forgive eachother as it is to ask God for forgiveness of ourselves. For one thing, it is not our place to condemn, which often happens when we refuse to forgive someone.

*Deuteronomy 32:35*
"It is mine to avenge: I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them."

I used this verse to show that we need to leave the revenge to God. That it is not our place to judge what others do or do not deserve and He will take care of our issues in His way; not ours.

*Romans 12:19-21*
"Do not take revenge, my friends but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge: I will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary: 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

We then read this verse to see exactly what we are supposed to do when we have trouble forgiving someone. I asked the kids if they would feed their enemy and they replied with, "Yea...with poison!" Needless to say, they didn't 100% agree with caring for their enemies, but who would really? Jesus would. And that's reason enough for us to as well.

*Matthew 6:14-15*
"For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

And there, in Matthew it plainly states exactly why we need to forgive eachother. Not just for them, but for ourselves. And who isn't looking out for "Number One" anyway? As it is important for us to ask for forgiveness, it is also important that we give back that forgiveness to others. After all, in the eyes of God, hating someone is equivallent to murdering them. Let's not murder, people. It's not right and it's not cool.