Did you ever catch a young child pretending to be an adult? It can be a wonderfully joyful experience watching your little girl play a mommy, changing her dolls diaper, or your young son pretending to come home from work calling out, “Honey I’m home.” Our children act out scenes from our lives with comedic simplicity and can play out our weaknesses with convicting clarity. Isn’t it great when God opens an unexpected window into our children through how they play?

The other day I came home from work, through the garage door into the kitchen. Steam rose from a boiling pot, spreading the aroma of the evening meal. My wife stood in front of the stove, her back facing me with sounds of kitchen utensils clanking away. My older daughters were busy as well completing the organized chaos signaling dinner was well under way.

I offered a quick greeting and proceeded through the kitchen to the living room, my normal routine. There I would set down my heavy bag and throw down my coat before turning back to the kitchen to greet my family. But this day my four-year-old daughter Amelia caught my attention. I pause as I noticed her pretend she was reading a book, sitting at the kitchen table.

My heart filled with delight as I watched her holding my wife’s Bible and I heard her say,

“King of Mercy, King of Love, you are my king

Here is something true. He died on the cross,

and we should die on our cross. Right mom?”

“That’s right honey,” my wife answered as I moved on to the living room and set down my bag. I pulled out my lap top and typed out her exact phrase to preserve it. My heart filled with thankfulness realizing my daughter was simply play acting her mommy.

I thought how Lois and I have labored over our children, training them, disciplining them, often without the kind of visible success we want. I thought of our failures, our anger in correcting them and our selfish impatience. Then, I thought of God’s grace. I thought of God’s grace poured out on our children overcome our parenting ineffectiveness. And I was filled with gratefulness that God is at work in my kids, and that he is kind to us to let us see that work through these little windows of play acting that come at unexpected times.

As I looked down the row at my four older children this past Sunday, they were all paying close attention to the message and carefully taking notes of the sermon. Even my 6^th grade son, who remained in the meeting rather than going to class, was scratching down the main points on his pad. It was working, I thought to myself.

Now lest you think my children are the picture of the perfect church family, allow me to let you in on a secret. Each Monday after dinner, if those present in the Sunday meeting all took notes, we have a “Milk Shake Monday.” That means mom and dad have to be taking notes as well. Sounds like bribery you say? I must admit it is pragmatic, bordering on manipulation. But, if you are going to cave in to a little coercion in your parenting, this isn’t a bad place to place a bribe.

There are real benefits. First, my children pay better attention to the preaching of God’s word. Secondly, I pay better attention to the preaching of God’s word. Third, when my children do take notes, I am assured that we will be doing a family review Monday after dinner. There are milk shakes at stake! Finally, those who were not in the meeting, due to a service commitment or sickness, get to hear the main points of the message they missed. All around it is a great tool to help us do what we want and need to be doing anyway.

The process is fairly simple. Tell your children that if they take notes on Sunday along with you, you will have a Milk Shake Monday to discuss the message. After dinner on Monday, print out the “Take it Home” questions from the Covenant Fellowship Church website (or sign up your email address to have them emailed to you each Monday), while the kids get out their notes. Make the milkshakes, nice and thick, and afterwards have a ten minute discussion. Sometimes questions will emerge which will actually create a good discussion – like, ‘hey that wasn’t his second point, that was a sub-point of his first point!’ That certainly beats ‘he never does his chores’ as post dinner sibling rivalry, doesn’t it? Oh, one other tip. Don’t try to do the discussion until the last slurp is through. The sucking sound of a teen trying to vacuum the last bit of foam off their glass ruins the conversation.

With my five-year-old daughter Amelia securely planted in her booster seat, delighted to be the sole guest of her father on a short shopping trip, I popped on my iPod and began to sing her a favorite Michael Buble’ song, “Call Me Irresponsible”. The love song is a clever play on negative characteristics and comes to a climax with the line, “But it’s undeniably true, I’m irresponsibly mad for you.” As I sang, unconcerned for what folks in cars around me were thinking, I tipped the rear view mirror down to make eye contact with Amelia. I started the song over and started singing to her.

I could sense her mind calculating why I would sing a song declaring I was irresponsible, unreliable and unpredictable. But she could bear no more when I reached the climax and sang to her, “I’m irresponsibly mad for you.” Objecting she said, “Dad, why are you mad for me, that’s not nice. Why would you say that?” Pausing the iPod I replied, “No honey, mad for you means I really love you.” “Oh,” she said; and then she seemed to fall back into thought.

Taking the iPod off pause I finished the song with her smiling. Looking up at her in the mirror I smiled back, pleased that I had in a special way communicated my affections. As we neared our destination we ran into heavier traffic, pulling my attention back to driving.

“Dad,” Amelia called from the back seat, “I’m mad about you dad,” She was clearly proud of her quick study of this new term of endearment. I simply smiled back, glad that I took the time to bring her along and thankful to the Lord for a very special moment between my daughter and me. Once again I realized that quality time, sometimes occurring in seconds, is usually found in the midst of quantity time, occurring over hours. How many times have I rushed to the store, missing the opportunity to spend time with one of my children? How many times have I discovered just how special everyday routines can be if you take time to share them with those that you love.

I read an article on the Washington Post web site reporting that the fertility rate in the United States has reached a thirty-five year high, climbing to 2.1 babies per household. At this pace, the article announced, the United States has solidified a position alongside other industrialized nations in reaching a sustainable population rate. To put the number in perspective, during the height of the baby boom the number of births per family reached 3.8 and during the mid seventies it reached a low of 1.7 births per household. Strangely enough the article did not mention the affects of legalized abortion on the numbers. But it did credit our nation’s “religiosity” as one of the factors promoting the fertility boom.

The Bible tells us children are a gift and a reward from God, (Psalm 127:3). Because God is pro children, Christians should be pro-children as well, whether that is in the valuing and protecting them prior to birth or nurturing and caring for them in an increasingly anti-children culture.

But how does a person know how many children to have? Is hitting the average at 2.1 a good place to start, or stop? Numbers might work well for national averages but every married couple should seek the Lord to direct the size of their family. Start with Psalm 127:3 and move on from there.

Here’s a little evaluation exercise to consider. How many birthday gifts do you want on your birthday, or presents at Christmas? If you are like me, you want more than a few. Children should be received as gifts in the same way, as gifts to be celebrated throughout life. The goal, the psalmist says, a quiver full, (Ps 127:5). We don’t carry children in quivers but we do carry them in minivans. Maybe that’s a great translation of the text: Blessed is the man whose minivan is full of them.

When we consider that each child is a gift from God, not a right to have, and that there are many families who would long for more children but simply haven’t been able to conceive, we should think about this question as far more than a lifestyle choice. Two point one is an acceptable national average, but our posture should be, ‘Lord, whatever number of children you would have for me, I will receive them as a gift’.

Check out the full article.

Here’s a practical matter: What kind of paint should I use when I paint my house?

When painting a room there is more to think about besides color. You also need to consider what finish paint to apply. Standard latex comes in four finishes - flat, eggshell, Satin, and semi-gloss. Some paints also come in full gloss but their application is limited in the average home. Generally the duller (flatter) the finish the easier it is to paint but the harder to clean off once its painted.

Flat – Flat paint hides imperfections but attracts dirt like a magnet. Brush up against it with a black-soled sneaker and you’ve got a black line that is really hard to wash out. Flat works great on ceilings, where your kids don’t rub their hands, and hides the poorly spackled drywall seams. Flat is forgiving to apply and will not leave streaking if you don’t evenly apply the paint. And, if you save your paint, little touch ups are invisible from the original paint job.

Eggshell – If your walls are generally in good shape (no nail pops, patching or bad drywall seams) use eggshell over flat as it cleans up better and won’t grab dirt like flat paint. Eggshell is easy to apply and won’t show streaking easily. It is a good all around wall paint.

Satin – Satin has a bit more gloss than eggshell and a bit less than semi-gloss. Satin is a good choice for locations you want to hold up to heavy soil but that you don’t like too much shine. Possible application includes doors or trims work. If you use Satin on a large flat area like a ceiling or wall you are going to need to keep your paint coverage even and continue the painting while the paint is wet. If you stop your paint job, allowing a section to dry before you continue, you may get streaks with some colors.

Semi-gloss – This is the easiest paint to wash but the hardest to apply to large flat surfaces without streaking. Like Satin, keep the paint wet as you advance across the wall. This paint is ideal for trim, radiators and other decorative elements. This is a great choice for heavily traveled corridors in homes with lots of children - and window sills that catch a lot of dust and dirt. If you have a lot of kids, fix the nail pops and bad seams in those high traffic areas, then use semi-gloss. Hand prints come off with a standard cleaner. If you do get a stain that won’t come off, you might just need to do the whole wall again as semi-gloss typically shows if you only repaint over a smaller area.

Last week my third born daughter turned thirteen, now I have three teenagers and a whole new level of activity in my parenting. Seems like our gas budget is always on “blown.” But, sometimes lost in the wake of all our teen parenting, remain two very young daughters, what I call, “Parenting: Round Two.”

I’ve known about this phenomenon for some time. My wife, the last born of six, has barely a baby picture to remember her childhood. By the time she hit the toddler years, mom and dad were inundated with teens. Lois charged me in the early years of our parenting, “I want lots of pictures of ALL of our children.” She forgot to mention video. Our video log ended after our first two children.

Anyway, what I realized recently is that I had all but given up reading to my youngest two daughters. I did all kinds of reading with the older bunch but had not read much to the younger ones. So, recently I started the first Little House book, “Little House in the Big Woods”, and just in the nick of time. Anna and Amelia are still young enough to enjoy the same stories her siblings came to love.

Looking around the church, I see I’m not the only one in Parenting – Round Two. Some couples like us have larger families, others have adopted a second round and a few, well, round two came as a surprise. Often what happens is the work of investing in our younger kids gets spread between parents and older siblings. This can be a great building block for a family, but it can unintentionally rob us of the small joys of parenting our younger children with the same personal investment we gave to our first children.

So, I’m writing this to pass on to all of us a reminder. Get the camera out, read a story, make a snowman this winter or dust off that special tradition you did with your firstborn children in round one. Round Two can have all the special moments of Round One, plus in-house babysitters as a bonus!

After several weeks on how to read good Christian books, we’re ready to jump into the deep end of the pool. And no pool gets any deeper than the Puritan pool.

Who are the Puritans and why should we read them. Rather than answer that question here, let me refer you to an excellent article by Joel Beekes, called “Why You Should Read the Puritans” which is included in a post on The Shepherd’s Scrapbook blog.

From my perspective – the Puritans are the best antidote to the sound byte cleverness of much of what we can get from modern (and post-modern) writing. Yes, it seems like they never met a point that didn’t deserve exhaustive unpacking. Yes, they use lonnnnnng sentences and words that sometimes send you to the theological dictionary. And not all puritan writing is the same. These men like us, are products of their time. They are not writing scripture – they are trying to apply it to the real issues of ordinary people in their world.

But they are bulldog tough on one thing – ‘what would it mean if the saving work of Jesus Christ were truly applied to EVERY area of life.’ There is no tough question they aren’t willing to wrestle with. And it is in this ‘all of life’ approach to Biblical living that they are valuable to us.

So with this in mind, here are some tips on reading the Puritans.

· Don't read in bed unless you have insomnia.

· Read slowly - small chunks over time. Puritan books make great devotionals – but be prepared to be in one for several months

· Don’t get caught up in all the arguments. The Puritan approach was generally to make a statement, then support it and argue away all the objections to it. Rather than getting lost in all the arguments, try to keep tracing the main point all the way through

· You really want to mark puritan books (see last weeks blog for pointers)

· Consider abridgements to begin with. Banner of Truth has created abridgement (condensed versions) of many classic puritan works that are very faithful to the full length text, but focus on the essential content. We have several titles in our Book Shoppe, or you can check out the Westminster Bookstore for a more extensive selection. The abridgements of John Owen’s “Communion With God” and “The Excellencies of Christ”, are particularly good.

· Consider reading Thomas Watson, one of the more readable Puritans. His “The Art of Divine Contentment” is a great one to start with.

· If you want to tackle something like “Overcoming Sin and Temptation” by John Owen, consider the recent edition by Kapic and Taylor. Tim Challies did a chapter by chapter study of the book on his blog.

Why not make it a point to read one puritan book in the coming year. Come on in, the water’s fine.