Daydreams and Prayer

When I was a child, I made up stories in my head regularly: when falling asleep, going for a walk, riding in the car, sitting in school; basically, if it was quiet or I was bored, I was daydreaming. I realize now that what I was coming up with was basically self-insert fan fiction: I put myself in the lives of my favourite book characters and worlds and had adventures. Sometimes my stories were about people and places I knew, but usually they were from the world of books. 

(As a side note, I still make up stories, but the subjects have switched: now, while I sometimes include fictional people and places in my stories, they are more likely to involve real-life situations and people.) 

The other day I was thinking about prayer and I remembered my younger daydreams. In my stories, people sometimes prayed, sometimes at mealtimes and sometimes for help. When that was going to happen, I would stop and pray a little prayer explaining to God that the prayer that was coming up wasn't a real prayer; it was just part of a story. Then when the prayer was finished, I would let God know that the pretend prayer was over!

My understanding of God was somewhat lacking at that time as I obviously didn't realize that God can tell the difference between real prayer and prayer that is part of a daydream. My understanding of prayer may have been better: I believed that God listened to my prayers, so I didn't want any confusion about what I expected Him to listen to and what He could ignore. I also knew that some prayers were real and some were pretend.

Now that I'm older and have learned more, I know that if people pray in my daydreams, God knows they aren't real prayers. I still believe that God listens to my prayers and that prayer is important. I know that the difference between real prayer and not-real prayer is not always "do I mean this or is it part of a story" but "where is my heart when I am praying and am I just going through the motions." And I realize that when people pray in my imaginary stories, the prayers often reflect my heart and what I believe (they pray what I think they should pray or what I would want someone to pray for me in the situation).

I think there was something very sweet, though, about younger me earnestly explaining things to God so that there would be no confusion about the pretend prayer!

Dwight Moody

 As taken from my history class, here is Dwight Moody's “Greatest Mistake”; something to think about as we bring the gospel to people:

Moody was preaching the evening of October 8, 1871. He concluded his gospel message that night by asking the question, “What will you do with Jesus?” Then Moody added, “I wish you would seriously consider this subject, for next Sunday we will speak about the cross, and at that time I’ll ask again, ‘What will YOU do with Jesus?”

That evening someone knocked over a lantern in the O’Leary’s barn and started the Great Chicago Fire. Although it is often blamed on a cow, people actually thought that it was done be a robber; later, a man named Louis M. Cohn confessed that he was running away from an illegal card game in the O’Leary’s barn and accidentally knocked over a lantern. It had been an unusually dry summer and fall, and a strong wind spread the fire quickly, destroying 17,500 buildings and 73 miles of street. Ninety thousand people were left homeless, and it is believed that 300 people died in the blaze. After 24 hours, the rains came and helped quench the fire.

Moody’s church and home were both destroyed, as well as the YMCA, but what felt more keenly was the possibility that among the dead were people who had been in church that evening and whom he had sent away to think about their answer. He viewed that as his greatest mistake. “Now, whenever I preach,” Moody said later, “I press for a definite decision. I would rather lose my right hand than give people even a day to decide for Christ, for I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again. The Gospel invitation is a ‘today only’ offer!”

Getting Kids to Read

Some of us were reading at an early age (I don't actually remember learning to read; I just read), while other children took longer. And some could read but didn't want to. Children are different and not everyone will be a reader and not everyone will learn at the same rate. That's okay. Still, you want children to read something, if for no other reason than to practice so they can read the important things as they enter adulthood (recipes, contracts, emails, love letters, menus, street signs, etc.).

So how do you get a child who does not want to read to actually read? 

First, make books a good thing. Start by reading to your child. You can start reading to them in infancy and keep it up until they leave the house (I still like being read to). And don't worry if they don't seem to be listening: the babies are enjoying being with you and the sound of your voice; older children may listen best if they are doodling or something; wiggly children are actually listening. Picture books are great, but don't be afraid to start reading chapter books to them when they are still young. Share books that you enjoyed as a child or that just look interesting. Make reading time a fun time that you enjoy (don't read to them because you have to and with a goal of getting it over with).

Conversely, don't use books and reading as punishment (unless you have a devoted reader, in which case taking away the current book for a bit may be a good deterrent). Forcing a child to read won't make the child enjoy reading, especially if it's seen as a consequence for bad behaviour (which are supposed to be negative to discourage the behaviour).

Have books in the house. Go to the library regularly. Surround your child with books of various genres, topics, and reading levels. Give your child options of what to read (within reason; there are things that you may hold back because your child isn't mature enough for that topic yet). Don't worry if your child prefers either fiction or non-fiction; many children will find some overlap in time and expand their horizons. Just provide the books. You won't get a reader if there aren't any books around!

Very importantly: You need to read. Your child won't think that reading is important if you never do it. More, it will seem like a kid thing to do and all children want to seem very grown up. So pick up a book that you will enjoy and read it.

Limit screen time. I have dealt with kids who "don't have time" to read, but who have time to play on-line games, watch movies, and spend hours on social media. Books can take time and effort to read and understand, and for a child who is used to the easy entertainment of computers and television, it can seem like too much work. Limit screen time and encourage reading time.

Be careful of finding a long series that "turned my child into a reader". Did it turn the child into a reader or just a reader of those books? The challenge is that these tend to be books that are easier to read and getting the child to read anything else can be almost impossible (I speak from experience here; there is a series that I will not name that I dislike for that reason). It's not always that bad, but you're better off finding a book, or even a trilogy, that your child likes, and then finding similar books to keep the reading going.

Do all that and I can guarantee that you still may not have a reader on your hands.  Again, some people are not readers and that's okay as long as they can read and comprehend well enough to enjoy life and not get sucked into a cult. Nothing I've suggested will harm your child and it just might get him or her interested in reading.

Muffins!

Today is National Muffin Day, so in honor of it, I am once again sharing my favourite muffin recipe. It is a banana muffin recipe that I got from my friend Faith many, many years ago, and I use it all the time. I have it memorized, which was helpful when I was visiting friends and they wanted to make banana muffins to use up the "definitely ready to be bread or muffin" bananas!

I also use this recipe for many types of muffins: zucchini chocolate chip; strawberry; blueberry; ugly muffins (using frozen mixed berries, which give the muffins an interesting colour). Just use whatever fruit or berries you have on hand instead of bananas.

With no further ado, I present my banana muffin recipe:

3 bananas (well, 3-ish; if you have 4, by all means use all four, especially if they're small)

1 egg

1/3 cup oil

a small container of yogurt (the size you pack in lunches) or the rough equivalent*

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cup flour

Mash up the bananas, add the egg, oil, yogurt, and sugar, and mix well. Add the baking soda and flour and mix just until everything is wet and mushy; do not over-mix.

Fill your muffin cups and bake at 350 for around 20 minutes or so minutes. You should get 12 muffins.

*The yogurt is optional. The original recipe didn't call for yogurt, but one day I was making muffins and discovered that I didn't have any eggs. I searched on-line for a solution and discovered that yogurt can replace eggs when making muffins, so I threw in a small container of vanilla yogurt. I liked the texture and now I add it all the time, even when I have eggs. The muffins are moister and the vanilla flavor is nice. You can leave out the yogurt or try different flavors.

Wednesday Morning

Yesterday my board room helper was not available (he was at a family reunion) so I had decided to grab one of the other big boys to help. Of course the least responsible, most likely to either be too bossy or just talk the whole time, young man wanted to help! I turned him down and got one of the boys I wanted instead: one of the oldest in his family, responsible, and likely to do his work and make sure the others did theirs. 

Our trivia cards were about reptiles and amphibians. We had fun, and I made sure they knew the difference between poisonous and venomous creatures. They tried to name every turtle some variation of "Giant, Huge, Enormous Turtle" only to find that they were actually named things like "Green Turtle" and "Leatherback Turtle". One young girl had both of her older brothers in the room and they kept suggesting the wrong answers when it was her turn...and she kept believing them! My middle group boys thought it was funny when I referred to them as the "unusual reptiles" (the girls thought it was hilarious). 

My little ones enjoyed Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin (written by Chieri Uegaki and illustrated by Qin Leng), although they thought her brothers were very mean to her (they were at the beginning). They also liked the story A New Coat For Anna (written by Harriet Ziefert and illustrated by Anita Lobel), especially seeing the sheep, the spinner, and the weaver. I try to make sure that the children will enjoy both the story and the illustrations, and these were definitely successful. 

In all, it was a good Wednesday morning.

Church Stuff

We moved into our new building 7 years ago; I wrote about that here:   https://dorothysthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/01/my-church.html

Things went along fairly normally for a while, although we lost a pastor to a church up north and gained another one. Then covid came and everything changed. You can look up past posts from those years if you want to know more about that. When the dust settled, we had pretty much doubled in size. We have two services now because we couldn't all fit (and in first service, full of crazy morning people, there are chairs in the library and in the foyer; second service is smaller but still sometimes sees families up in the library). Sunday School is full and there are more children every year, both from new families and many new babies.

Plans are in process for a new building with a sanctuary big enough to hold everyone, and then a later building for education (with so many Sunday School rooms!). We're at the paperwork, permits, petitions and permission stage. If things go according to our plans, we may have the first new building in a couple years, and then Sunday School can stretch out and fill up the current building. Of course, our plans might not be God's plans. I know that the elders pray a lot for wisdom in all this, and that we do things in a way that will glorify God, not us. I pray this too.

It's all very exciting. It's sometimes overwhelming as well, trying to manage the number of children and cope with a very, very crowded foyer between services. Sometimes I would like to go back to when there were fewer people, but as I told my history class once: I want fewer people, but I don't want anyone to leave!

A Word of Advice

If you find yourself caring for a group of 7-10 year-olds, and for some reason decide that making friendship bracelets is a good idea (because they have been asking to make them): stop and reconsider! Maybe another activity will be better.

But if you do it anyway, have the thread precut to save time, have everyone make the same pattern (especially if most of them don't know what they're doing), and be prepared to repeat the same instructions at least 87 times in the hour.

(This might be mostly for myself so I remember this for next time.)

Something from Nothing

Last week I read the little guys Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman. It's a retelling of a Jewish folktale about a grandpa and his small grandson, Joseph who firmly believes that Grandpa can fix anything. Grandpa made a blanket for baby Joseph, and as Joseph grows the blanket becomes tattered and worn and mom wants to throw it out. Joseph brings it to Grandpa who makes it into a coat for Joseph. The story is basically how Grandpa keeps making new (and smaller) things as the items too small, dirty or tattered. I won't tell you the end!

It's a pretty simple story with a lot of repetition, but the kids seemed to really enjoy seeing what Grandpa could make. The illustrations are wonderful as well. There's so much to see on each page and I had to make sure to take time for everyone to see everything. A family of mice live under the house and use the scraps of fabric from Grandpa's sewing for pretty much everything, including blankets, clothes, curtains, and a tablecloth.

It's a delightful story with delightful pictures.

A Grammar Lesson

Semicolons are used to connect two complete sentences. "The child did not want to go outside; he was afraid of monsters."

Semicolons are used when two complete sentences are linked by a conjunctive adverb (e.g., however, moreover, therefore, thus, consequently, furthermore, unfortunately). "The man wanted to leave; unfortunately, he had lost his keys."

Semicolons are used to separate items in a list when a comma would be confusing (e.g., when the items in the list include a comma and/or are longer items). "We visited Toronto, Ontario; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Montreal, Quebec."

Do NOT use a semicolon if you use a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) to join two sentences; for that, you would use a comma. "The bird flew away from the house, so the cat ran after it."

Do NOT use a semicolon if you are combining two sentences and use a subordinating conjunction (e.g., although, because, since, while, after, before, until, as soon as, if, unless, provided that, wherever, as long as, so that, in order that, though) at the start of one sentence; you either need a comma or no punctuation. "Because she was tired, she decided to stay home." or "She decided to stay home because she was tired."

Finally: Do NOT use a semicolon if you don't know how to use a semicolon.