"I am still not sure about God"

This is what my daughter announced as she was settling into bed! At that point we just finished praying and thanking God for the day. She said: "I am still waiting for some scientific evidence to make sure that God created the world". I was surprised by the word "still", as she is only 9 years old and has not been looking for evidence for the existence of God that long! I listened to her as she put all her ideas across and I was really fascinated that no matter how old we are, we are looking for assurance that what we believe deep down is the right thing. She said that the "big bang" doesn't really make sense and that to have come from monkeys was really silly. But she wants to see a sign..a big gesture..then she said.."I have only one thing that I know is true, the bible and it was written by so many different people that it could not have been all made up". I was glad and reassured at this point :) We had some discussion and I love the fact that we can share all the questions, ideas and even the doubts. God is like that with us, he loves us so much and he does not mind when we come to him as his kids and ask all kinds of questions, HE loves us to chat with him more than anything else. As for the time being, I am asking for wisdom, a lot of it and quick!!

Cake, Candles and Birthdays

I was so busy in the last few days preparing for my daughter birthday party. Lots of organisation and preparation, from invitations to organising food, presents,etc. Deciding on how to design the invitation was like the middle east peace process negotiation. As my daughter wanted the invitation to be in the shape of a little book of information, pictures and stories given to each one of her friends. I voted against giving a "dossier" to each child and at the end we reached a compromise and we agreed to make the invitation long enough but not too long. As my daughter wanted a sport party, the decision was made to go for rock climbing and archery party (instead of cannoning and high rope which I felt was going to push my blood pressure to the limit with all aspects of health and safety). Praise God the party went really well and all had fun and more importantly, all were in one piece by the end of the 4 hour party celebration. At these times, I thank God for his mercy and that birthdays are only once a year. So time for me to have a little rest before we start counting down to Christmas :)

Bring on the excuses

As a parent, I know that kids are very clever and they know which buttons to press. But recently, I awarded my daughter the first prize in inventing excuses to get away from doing homework or music practice, etc. Here are the best excuses she has come up with (so far that is):

*I can not leave the cat alone and do my homework or else I will hurt his feelings
*I do not want to practice my music as my friend is not practising today and I do not want to be the only one who practice
*I need a back massage before I get changed to go to school
*I do not want to go swimming as I will get wet
*I have a bad headache can not do my homework but must watch TV to relax!
*I can not go to sleep because I m so tired (my favourite)

Childern In Need? more like Parent In Need

For so many years now, Children In Need been going on as a charity and lots of funds been raised to help lots of people and today it is a big night for comic relief with more fund raising. As I listened to one comedian talking about children in need saying: "when did you ever see a child who is not in need? they are always in need of the latest toy, fashion item, etc". That made me think of starting my own charity: Parents In Need :) This is just about simple needs like
*A good night sleep.
*An uninterrupted bath.
*A small hand bag that actually has YOUR things and not your kids stuff (only mothers know that the size of your hand bag relate to how old are your kids and how many kids you have. The younger the child is the bigger your hand bag size).
*A trip to the shops without buying GOGOs figures or Pokemon cards.
*A night out without having to look for the push chair and then remember that you do not actually have one with you as the kids are already asleep at home.
*Not having to eat the rest of the kids meal (and pretend that you -in fact-love the chicken nuggets cold.
*A time to brush your hair in the morning before you get called to help one of the children in the bathroom.
And so many small requests that will make a difference to tired parents allover the country. Being a parent is a great blessing, so let us give a helping hand to parents and give them a chance to do the wonderful job that God trusted them with. Hooray for Parents In Need.