Enjoying the long weekend

This ended up being a good morning for sleeping in. J was completely quiet so I got an extra hour or so of rest. J played with his trains most of the morning. He asked for pancakes which was right on since I planned on making them. But when they were ready, he wouldn't come to eat them. He just whined and kept playing with his trains. It took several times of asking and finally he came over to eat. Then he went back to play with his trains, hooking them all up together and pulling them across the couch.

I read Luke 10 today during my devotional time. We come to another popular story, the story of Mary and Martha. Jesus and his disciples came to a village where Martha opened her home to him. While they were there, Martha's sister Mary sat at Jesus' feet listening to what he said. Martha was distracted by all her preparations and she got upset. She asked if Jesus even cared about this and even ordered him to tell Mary to help. Jesus corrected her gently saying although Martha was worried about many things, only ONE thing is needed and Mary has chosen it. Beth shares about some of her friends and how they are so different from one another but that is what she has grown to love. She says we need to fight isolation and independence. This was something I needed to fight when J was getting near 1 year old. I was so isolated from people, from friends, from family and was in such a dark place. I see so much value now in the importance of cultivating these relationships. Beth points out that Martha opened her home which is one way of serving, but Mary opened her heart. A key in our lives is cultivating an awareness of his presence.

Daddy got invited to go golfing in the afternoon. A friend won a round for four at a really nice course and this will be the first time he's gone since J was born. He was gone when J got up from his nap. He was looking around for him and was bummed when he learned daddy was gone. I wasn't sure what to do with our afternoon so I asked J. He first said Splash Park, then McKee Farms, then back to Splash Park and then stayed with that. So I got our suits on and we headed into the 85+ heat. The park was a lot more crowded than earlier in the week, but there was still room to move around. J was a lot less enthused with the water today. He followed me in and then at times wanted me to hold him but would say the water scared him or the water was cold. Right when I was toweling off, he started catching the excitement of the other kids and ran around a little bit. The two of us grabbed a bite to eat at McD's and hung out there before church. He's in a teaching room now instead of just a nursery and it turns out they will have teaching over the summer too. This month they continue to teach "God is with us."

Our sermon series on forgiveness continued, this week's focus being forgiving ourselves. One of the highlights was that he shared about how forgiveness can lead to shame. That there is healthy shame, and unhealthy shame. Healthy shame is I am ashamed about what I did. Unhealthy shame is I am ashamed of who I am. The healthy shame is actually good, he says, because it tells us our moral compass is still working. That it is good when there is actually a battle inside of us where we want to resist doing wrong. He reminded us that this is heavy stuff, that our unforgiveness can go very deep and the process can be very hard, but to continue to bring it to the Lord. L wasn't able to make it on time to meet us at church so we met up back at home. We played outside for a while. I just love watching J run around outside. He is so happy and excited. Then daddy needed to grab a bite to eat so we tagged along while he ate at Culver's. Tomorrow, we're thinking of staying around town and trying to avoid major crowds. Maybe a picnic lunch at our university's terrace on the lakefront and then some walking around downtown.