Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Whose Round Table?

This one is especially for my father-in-law.

This week, we've been studying about Alexander the Great. After reading a book about him and his army, Hailey, my 8 yo, came to me with this question.

Hailey: Was Alexander the Great a real person?

Me: Yes, he was.

Hailey: Hm. I didn't think he was because that would mean Merlin and the Sword in the Stone were real too, and I didn't think that was possible.

Me (stifling a laugh): Honey, I think you're getting him mixed up with King Arthur.

Hailey, smiling sheepishly: Oh, yeah.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Church Signs

Can I just ask that churches with church signs be careful about what they put up? Frankly I'm of the opinion that church signs should be restricted to church info like times of service or to Scripture. Anything else seems to get the church into trouble.

Or make them look foolish.

There is a certain church not too far from where I live that makes me cringe EVERY time I drive past it. It's a Baptist church, and for some reason Southern Baptist churches seem to be the worst about this. We're not Baptists anymore, but even back when we were, we would never visit this particular church in large part because of the stupid signs on the front of the building - which faces a major highway here in town. I have always wondered where they get their kitschy little quotes, figuring it had to be some cute little blond secretary who had a book from the local Christian bookstore. If so, please put the book in the trash!

The sayings are either just cheesy and rather stupid like this one from a couple of years ago:

"SALVATION... It does a body good!"

To just really bad theology, like the one currently on the front of the church:

"Seek first God's kingdom and the things you want will seek you."

I have no idea the motive behind the church leadership allowing such things on the front of the church, but I have a hard time believing this will draw in new visitors. It for sure kept us away years ago when we were searching for a Baptist church to attend.

Stepping off the soap box now.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Defeat is its own reward

Lauryn, 6yo, is not a very gracious loser. The girl hates to lose a game, and we are still learning to do so without pouting. We play a lot of math games as part of her "Kinder" math, many of which rely on rolls of dice, so are purely "luck" games. Yesterday we played such a game and I beat her by one roll of the die.

And she got that familiar pouty face. I decided to try to reason with her (yes, I now realize the futility of that, but it was worth a shot, right?).

Me: Lauryn, does anything really bad happen to you when you lose?

Lauryn: Nothing except LOSING.