Aidanpreneur

Do you remember Aidan’s Yard Work Help Service?  Well, here’s his latest venture…
Do you think the market can bear more than five bucks a month?

Week 46: Acts 1-15

Mia: 

Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.  Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.  Acts 12:7-9.

Beside being a completely amazing story, Peter didn’t even realized he was really being freed from prison!  He was so used to visions, he didn’t even say anything to the angel, neither was he afraid.  I was imagining the feeling:  An angel just freed me from prison and left.  What does this vision mean, Oh, MAN!  That really was an angel!

Ian: This struck me as a beautiful image of siblinghood.

They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.  Acts 14:21-22.

I can just picture new Christians–I guess they were all new at this point in history–enthused about people coming to follow Jesus with a dose of apprehension knowing that the Way was not just counter-cultural but illegal.  To hear older brothers in the Lord say that ”we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” would be strangely comforting.

Compassion Blog Post

If you click on Restoring Social Outcasts to Community under Compassion Blog to your right, you’ll find my latest post on Compassion’s blog.

The Unforgiving D-Pad

After an hour of playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii…

Makaena (10):  Dad.  Look at my thumb.  It hurts.  But it’s a good hurt.  Like a satisfied hurt.

Mindy waching Aidan (8) play MSC…

Mindy:  Mario versus Luigi.  Cousin against cousin.
Aidan:  They’re brothers, Mom.  You know?  Like Super Mario Brothers?

If you’re ever in Augusta, MT…

There’s no better honey than this. Anywhere.

Week 45: John

Mia:  Just a few things I noticed while finishing the gospels:  The gospels are all the same stories and they all agree on what happens but some have more details.  Like in Matthew 27:24 Pilate washes his hands before he hands Jesus over to be crucified.  It was to show he was innocent of Jesus’ blood.  But he doesn’t wash his hands before he gives Jesus to the people in Luke.  Also, Mary of Bethany pours expensive perfume on Jesus’ head before his death in Matthew, Mark and John, but this wasn’t mentioned in Luke.  It’s like some of the authors had more info than others.

Ian:  Jesus’ prayer for us pains me as we’ve all made choices–even choices that seem wise or godly–that run contrary to the Savior’s desire for us to be one.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.  Luke 17:20-23

Joshua (almost four): You can DO that?!

Ian was changing Emmeline’s diaper when Joshua entered the room…

Doc On Prayer

From Cannery Row by John Steinbeck…

On the black earth on which the ice plants bloomed, hundreds of black stink bugs crawled.  And many of them stuck their tails up in the air.  ”Look at all them stink bugs,” Hazel remarked, grateful to the bugs for being there.

“They’re interesting,” said Doc.

“Well, what they got their asses up in the air for?”

Doc rolled up his wool socks and put them in the rubber boots and from his pocket he brought out dry socks and a pair of thin moccasins.  “I don’t know why,” he said.  “I looked them up recently—they’re very common animals and one of the commonest things they do is put their tails up in the air.  And in all the books there isn’t one mention of the fact that they put their tails up in the air or why.”

Hazel turned one of the stink bugs over with the toe of his wet tennis shoe and the shining black beetles strove madly with floundering legs to get upright again.  “Well, why do you think they do it?”

“I think they’re praying,” said Doc.

“What!”  Hazel was shocked.

“The remarkable thing,” said Doc, “isn’t that they put their tails up in the air—the really incredibly remarkable thing is that we find it remarkable.  We can only use ourselves as yardsticks.  If we did something as inexplicable and strange we’d probably be praying—so maybe they’re praying.”

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” said Hazel.

Joshua (almost four): “It’s like a waterfall!”

Joshua used the urinal in the men’s bathroom last night when we were out for dinner.  He flushed it, gasped happily, and yelled…