Tatum and the story of Noah's Ark

Tonight I sat down before the girls went to bed and read the bible story of Noah's ark out loud. Tatum came over and showed great interest at first. The pages didn't have any pictures, but were just full of words that she does not yet understand since she's just 4. As I read, she started to fiddle around with some things and I felt bad for her trying to pay attention because there was quite a bit of repetition. She stayed with me nonetheless. After I read past the part where God filled the boat with animals, I asked her what she thought about the story so far. To my amazement, she was able to retell the whole story even down to the detail of Noah making a window in the side of the ark. Even though she was playing with her hands and flipping pages through a nearby book, the clear reading of scripture got through to her and she really learned something. Don't be fearful of reading scriptures out loud in your home, the best thing that could happen is someone's life might be changed for Jesus' sake. It's a lesson I'm still learning, but I'm thankful for the little bits of encouragement that God gives us along the way.

The crushing of the enemy - vs. - Joy

Today was a strange day with conflicts and crushing from the enemy, but there was still much joy to be had. God has a strange way of granting us moments of joy. I came home today from church without my wife and oldest daughter because they had more going on at church, and I had the two younger ones with me. They needed to go to the bathroom, and were restless from being at church all morning. Turns out that I didn't have a key to the house, and couldn't figure out the way to get to the spare key, so we were in distress. I got frustrated with myself and with the girls, but asked them to just go play, and it just so happens, by God's plan, that the kids really just wanted to play outside, and that's exactly where we were. They played for a while around the back yard, and we ended up leaving to get some lunch and use the bathroom. When we returned home, I found the spare key and our afternoon was ready to start. I hadn't really lost my joy by this time, but I hadn't really experienced it either.
Zoe asked me about the leaves in the back yard. See, the leaves have been falling and huge piles of them are all around. Zoe remembered that jumping in leaf piles was a fun option and asked me to help her out. I was deep in school and trying to press on, but I thought that it would cost very little time to set up a good pile and I could watch them from the window while I worked. Well once we got out there, they just lit up with excitement. There was nothing that could get in the way of their fun with the leaves. I piled them up again, and they played even harder. I was really surprised with Zoe because she was so big compared to our pile, that the leaves were just a formality in her playing on the ground, but she still had that joy that only kids can have because the burdens of life have not yet attacked them. I can't explain the sheer abundance of happiness that came out of those two little girls. This blessed my heart. I needed the blessing, too, and God knew it. This fleeting moment of happiness didn't completely dissolve the troubles of the world that have been weighing me down, but it made me realize that God really cares about me and He wanted to show me that the worldview of a pair of Christ following baby girls is the prescription glasses that I need to put on every once in a while in order to even be able to see Him in all of his glory. The burdens are a barrier between me and my Lord, and unless I take a moment and allow Him to show me pure joy, I will be crushed.