In His Image

I have heard a few times in the recent past from a couple of young people that being raised in a conservative (Mennonite) home left them ill prepared for dealing with “life” and reality as they know it.  I have been pondering that for a couple weeks and I would like to share some thoughts about being prepared for life.

As parents, we endeavor to train our children up in a path that is best for them.  No, it is not the most exciting path, neither is it the most daring, or risky path, but it is the safest and best path that we know of!  Our goal is not to deprive them of worthwhile experiences, but to steer them through the rough waters of life so that they can then learn how to chart their own ship to avoid capsizing, or crashing on some shoal.  But what happens if a child thinks that we are not steering them correctly?  That we are somehow not allowing them to experience life to the “fullest” of what they see the world can offer them?  Should we be giving them some more instructions as to how to live in the world, as the world, while trying to maintain their Godly moorings?

As I was praying about this, the Lord brought to mind this analogy.  In this world, we have many roads.  There are a tremendous amount of different roads, and not matter where you live, you will encounter them.  Now one thing that I think every parent tries to teach their child is to stay off the road!  The road is not a play land where you can romp around and dodge cars!  No, there is too much danger there to allow your children to play on the road!  And so we teach them that there are rules in how to deal with the roads.  There are specific places where you can cross a road safely, and when you need to move along a road, there are traffic rules and laws that can greatly increase your safety while on this dangerous concourse.  But then your children look over at the neighbor’s children and see them running back and forth on the road, dodging between cars, and laughing when one gets close enough to almost knock them into the hereafter!  And to your children, that looks like fun, it looks very exciting and they don’t see those children getting hurt at all, and they start to doubt whether what you said is true.  Now my reasons for telling my children to stay off the road were not to prevent them from enjoying life, but to protect their lives so that they can enjoy them longer!  Our desire is for their safety and well being, to shelter them from danger that they cannot perceive, but that we know is there.

In our families’ spiritual lives, we are seeking to shelter our children from the temptations and snares of this life.  We seek to teach them how to interact with the world according to God’s rules of the road, for there IS safety in them.  We try to teach them to stay off the road where there are temptations and dangers far greater than they can imagine, so that they will not have to be tempted beyond what they are able to bear.  You see, the “cars and trucks” on this highway of life, are not driven by caring human beings who will do all they can to avoid running over a child, but instead they are “driven” by the devil and his minions.  Jesus told us that Satan goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour.  He is not trying to keep us from turning into a spiritual casualty; he is trying to make us into a spiritual casualty!! And so we teach our children that it is safer to obey the rules of the road that God Himself made and enforces, for then are they safest from Satan’s attacks, for he cannot go where God forbids him.  How do I know that?  Because when we are under God’s authority, God has promised that He will not allow any temptations to come our way that we will be unable to stand up to, but will with every temptation also provide a way of escape. 1 Cor. 10:13

So, do we teach our children to juke and jive around the devils devices, or do we teach them to stay out of temptation’s way in the first place and to learn God’s laws of this life and abide by them, so that they will know how to live amongst all these dangerous “roads”?

If you are a young person who was taught God’s ways, and you have turned to what you think is better and are winging it on your own, then understand that God’s promise of temptations deliverance is not for you and someday you will not be able to jump out of the way quite fast enough and will wonder how you could have smashed your life up so badly.  I suggest to you to read the book of Proverbs.  Start with the chapter that is the same as this month’s date, and read through the book of what the wisest man wanted to convey to his son.  Note how much this father sought to have his son follow truth and righteousness, not to cause him hardship, but to preserve his life.

How about you and I?  Are we doing what we know is God’s best, or are we flirting with the devil?

I want to thank all of you for your prayers for our little niece, Regan.  I just got a call this afternoon from Loren, her dad.  The lab at Johns Hopkins found that the tumor is a “poly???  ?????.” I repeated the words to him several times but couldn’t get them right and don’t want to confuse you here.  The tumor was neither malignant, nor benign.  They did another CAT scan today and everything looked really good.  There is still a little more fluid in the brain sack than the doctors like, but it probably took a long time to build up, and will take a while to shrink back down.  They will NOT have to leave a stint in for drainage!  This is a big blessing since that would have been a major source for potential infection. 

As far as Regan goes, she is on the road to a rapid recovery.  She spent quite a while today walking around the halls pushing a little toy shopping cart.  Loren said that he believes that her peripheral vision is better now than it was before the surgery in the fact before, she would often walk into things, counters, tables and such, and now, she avoides them with ease.  She went up to the therepist today and they said to take her home and keep letting her do the things she has been doing and she will get along just fine.  The only thing that she made need help with is a speech therapist for some of her slurred words.  That may disappear on it’s own, but they are not sure.

Loren said that they were getting ready to go home this afternoon and we praise the Lord for that!!  The doctors are pretty sure they got the whole tumor but she will have to be watched regularly for the next 20 years.

Loren doesn’t know that I am going to write this, and if you don’t tell them, they won’t be the wiser.    As many of you know, Loren and Kendra felt God leading them to move further south and buy a farm earlier this summer.  I know personally that their strength, endurance, and finances have been stretched to the max.  I asked him the other day if he had any way to pay for this incident and he said that they were still a part of a brotherhood aid and they would be helping to pay for most of it.  However I know that they had to hire help for the farm while they were gone, and numerous other expenses of being gone for a week from the farm.  If you would like to help them out financial, please email me for their address, or if you want to use a credit card via PayPal, please send it to my email address of jaimee@paulbunyan.net and write a note to be included with the gift.  I will then download it to my bank and send them a check.

Thanks again for all your prayers!!  Loren testified that they could feel God’s presence with them the whole time.! PTL!

Greetings from the sporadic writers guild! I must confess that the author of this blog hopes that the remainder of his life does not keep speeding up as it has the last couple years and especially this last summer!

August came and went and with it the 1st anniversary of A Stitch in Time’s founding. It also held another move for the business as the old location of 160 sq. feet was insufficient for it’s growth. I now have 270 sq. feet that is contiguous space and is only three-fourths of what I was spending. I moved the last week of August and only now feel like I may be getting settled in.

We are on the move again though. It has been two years since I have been east to see Aimee’s family and with her brother-in-law needing an addition to their trailer, thought that this would be a good time to make a quick trip into Virginia. We plan to leave this Friday after work and drive through the night since that is the best time to travel with small children anyway!! We will be in Ferrum, VA. for the next week before making a quick pass-through trip up to Harrisonburg and Lancaster, PA for a few days before heading home. We plan to return about the 4th of October.

On the humorous side, I had to stay home due to an illness and kept the four oldest children with me. They LOVE having story’s told to them so I decided to tell them several from my growing up days. The one was when I accidentally shot a ring-necked pheasant because I was not using my BB gun properly. So even though my boys are several years away from that right of passage, I decided it is not too early to start instilling in them the need for proper gun safety. After explaining that you never point the gun at something you do not want to shoot, we had a dialogue that went like this.

“Should you point the gun at the dog?”
“NO!”
“Should you point the gun at Grandpa’s chickens?”
“NO!”
“Should you point the gun at the clouds?”
“NOOOO!”
“Why not, son?”
“Because Jesus lives up there!”

We had just gotten done reading the Bible story were Jesus talks about coming in the clouds of glory.

Well, after a LONG hiatus from this blog, and a reminder from Jon, I have resolved to confine myself to this room until I get a bit of an update done to this thing! Not that I have a great affection, or a responsibility to this thing, but I realize that others have come to count on these ramblings for an idea on what is going on in the crazy, far-off world of the Stauffer’s.

I was touched this morning by the sermon from the last few verses from Hebrews. My father, (the pastor) has been working through the book for the last ten months and it has been an encouraging, though somewhat baffling at times, study and has given much food for thought. This morning the part that really stuck out to me was the plea for the ability to live with a pure conscience. It was brought out about Paul who was able to say that he has always lived with a pure conscience. Paul!! The one who persecuted the church most mercilessly, and wrought great havoc among the early believers, was able to say that he did it because, he was deceived and thought that it was right. BUT, once he found out that it was wrong, did he make excuses? Did he justify it and try to reason it “his way.” No, he made an immediate about face and strove to work just as hard for the true church, as he had destroying what he thought was a false one.
The thought came to me that I have never fought and destroyed the church the same way that Paul had, but I still cannot say that I always have walked in a pure conscience. There have been times to my shame, that I have “walked over” the Spirit and hae done what I wanted to rather than what I knew God was calling me too. Oh the weight of grief that follows such actions and what I wouldn’t give to go back in my younger teen years and get rid of so many of those actions that I am still reaping fruit from to this day. I can say that when I have walked in the truth that I know, there has been unsurpassed peace and joy that nothing else can compare with!!

On another note, we are facing another change here this week. The place that I have been housing my business in is much too small for my needs and I was struggling to know what to do. I talked to my landlord and he said that for me to have more space, I was going to have to pay more per foot than I was now and I would have to foot all the remodeling expenses myself. Along the main road that the store is on, the going rate for lease space is $15 – $18 a square foot per year. Where I am now, I would have been having to pay almost $32 per square foot. Also, I had never signed a lease due to my landlords supposed right to come and go from my stores space whenever he chose, with, or without, my permission. I was nervous about that and talked to numerous other commercial landlords and found that he had no grounds for this and it raises a lot of sticky situations. So I decided to look for a new place.

To make a long story short, we are moving the store this Friday to another building about 100 yards away and I will almost double my floor space for ¾’s of what I was paying before! God is good and with the way that sales have been going, I may b able to pay off my business contract within the year.

We also have started Lakewood Christian Academy and have enrolled our first three children in it. We are home schooling for the main reason that there is no Christian school around and even in there was, with the wide diversity of “Christians” we feel that it would be better to give them their training here and exposing them to the culture only in steps that they are mature enough to handle.

Japheth Jr is in first grade though he already is reading some simple story books. He loves to have stories read to him and we look forward to his being able to enjoy them without us having to read it for the 75th time!

Jeremiah is going to be starting to learn his phonics and maybe start on math.

Loraine is going to be three next March but she doesn’t want to miss out!! We are planning to teach her the alphabet and number 1 thru 20. (and go potty where all the big people do!)

Wayne, well… let’s get him talking and then go from there eh?

Sunday morning, we were on the way to church and to pick up Aimee’s brother who cam to visit for a week.  Our boys had been ecstatic with anticipation of all the fun times with their Uncle Skyler.  However it had been almost two years since they would have seen him so I asked Japheth Jr. if he still knew what Skyler looked like.
     “Yes Papa, I know what he looks like!”
“What does he look like?” (I, who never misses a chance to learn better how to describe one’s looks
“Oh Papa, he has a round head just like Jeremiah’s!”

Oh how the laughter rolled.

Japheth was only trying to find words to describe his uncle so he compared him to someone he knew.  The thought came to me later, what do people compare me to when they try to describe my physical features, or more importantly, my spiritual features!  Truly, “by their fruits ye shall know them.”