{"id":3727,"date":"2012-09-11T01:00:36","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T08:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.doorposts.com\/blog\/?p=3727"},"modified":"2012-09-10T23:27:59","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T06:27:59","slug":"messy-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doorposts.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/11\/messy-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Messy Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was re-typing portions of our book, Mighty Acts of God<\/a>, and reading all the Bible story act-out suggestions. They brought up some spicy memories…like Benjamin scrawny and whining, an inside-out T-shirt on his head, stomping his foot and yelling “No” at a\u00a0 half-sized Moses. Johanna, giggling while she pretended to drive a stake through Sisera’s head (my dad’s hair before it was completely white). Yeah…I got a little nostalgic.<\/p>\n

It made me realize something about my Mumsie. She let us make messes–BIG ones. In fact, she often asked for them.<\/p>\n

I don’t like to share the kitchen with anyone…let alone six kids ten and under. Mama would give us each a blob of bread dough to “knead” (meaning make goofy faces with it and laughing until it was time to pile it all back into the five-gallon bucket). She dug out dress-up stuff for Bible act-outs, and she let us tear outside after history reading to pretend we were soldiers, wild Indians, and galley slaves. My parents rubbed their faces with “war paint” and jumped into the thick of whatever wild lesson was being (undetectedly) learned at the moment.\"Kids<\/p>\n

I don’t think that attitude comes naturally. Isn’t it easier to can the peaches all on your own? To keep sticky, clumsy hands out of the kitchen and to keep crazy boys out of trees and sawdust piles? Keep the laundry, dust, dirty faces, questions, and chaos to a minimum?<\/p>\n

Teaching kids to identify the story God is writing, with all its different tastes, smells, and textures is hard work. It takes big sacrifices, lots of time, and a little creativity.<\/p>\n

But the formaldehyde spill in the back hall and the grape juice flood in the kitchen were some of the best times. I can hardly remember any learning that didn’t involve a mess or a wild, spin-off, creative project of some sort. Don’t underestimate what this hard work will do for your kids. We are so blessed and grateful!<\/p>\n

Pull up your sleeves and dig down into that stinky formaldehyde, smear catsup “blood” on your door frame, pretend you’re the slug coming into Noah’s ark–be crazy and be real. Show them how amazing and magical and real all this stuff is spinning around our universe and beyond. Chances are, you\u2019ll learn something new from the tiny, excited minds around you and find yourself gaping at the bigness and the details of our Storyteller.<\/p>\n

There is a lot of dirt and sticky mess in the world. Isn’t digging in, learning what it means, and putting it back in order what it’s all about?<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div><\/div>