"Have kids today changed"?

On November the 19th Patrick and I had the huge honor of hearing the legend Bobby Bowden speak at an FCA event here in Hattiesburg.  For anyone reading this that doesn't know who Bobby is read here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Bowden.  Although he has an impressive history as a long time football coach to Florida State(Master P's favorite team) his biggest accomplishment as been his passion for Christ.  When I heard the advertisement that he was coming I knew that would be Patrick's Christmas present from me.  They had a ticket available for purchase that allowed you to come in early, get your book signed and have a picture made with Coach Bowden.  That was it, this was huge, Patrick had never met him and here was a chance in our home town! I was so excited for him.  He was an excellent story teller and is full of wisdom!  He tells stories like no other, he would bounce from one story to another sometimes not even finishing the first story but you never "got lost".   He said a lot of things that stood out to me, one thing he said with a very serious look on his face, "If you don't know Jesus, you better get to learning him"! :) But something he said that has stuck with me, something I have thought of almost daily since I heard him say it, something so simple yet so profound, something that if I tell the truth, rocked me to my core was this.  He told how once in an interview he was asked, "Coach you have been coaching for a lot of years, you have seen a lot of kids come through here.  Have kids today changed"?  His answer, "No kids today haven't changed, they are the same as they have always been, the parents have changed".  Wow! He went on to say that their appearances have changed of course but they are still the same, the parents are the ones that are to busy, to much to do.  HOW COULD I HAVE NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT!  There is a huge epidemic of bad parenting going on, it is evident all around us.  I have strong opinions about this.  I am by no means the perfect parent but I do try to be an aware parent.  I am raising toddlers and a teenager, I have to be aware.  I choose to do things that may be questionable to other parents but I do it out of love and concern.  I don't believe that teenagers should be "turned loose" with cell phones, they have the world at their fingertips with those smart phones and they are not old enough to always make wise decisions when left to their own vices.  Alese has to put her cell phone on the kitchen counter every night at 7:30.  That doesn't mean she can't use it after that it just means she won't be laying in her bed surfing the web or texting at midnight.  I know this is just one of the small things and I may discover it helped nothing but I want to protect her, not control, protect.  I could go on and on about little things that I try to do or try not to do but I won't get on my soap box.  My prayer for myself is that I will never be so busy or so caught up that I will be the mother who just turns my kids loose, let's them "raise themselves", run around unsupervised etc....  Bobby Bowden nailed it, and it hit me in my gut, "kids haven't changed, the parents have changed".  PLEASE Lord Jesus, slap me in my face if I am ever becoming the parent that has changed.  I want my children to be responsible, caring, loving, contributing members of Your work and our society! Amen.


One thing I forgot to mention, there was a silent and live auction at the FCA event.  One of the items up for grabs in the live auction was an FSU helmet signed by Coach Bowden.  I told Patrick, "we are bidding on that". He laughed and said we could but we would never go home  with it. Well we did.  We had a little discussion during the bidding and I really wanted him to get it so the last and final bid was mine! :) It is proudly displayed at Patrick's office. 

Coach personalizing Patrick's helmet

It was such an honor to meet this man

The heart of giving...

I want my children to have a heart for others, I want them to be compassionate, affectionate, caring, loving and always put others before themselves.  This is a prayer that I pray for them almost daily. I learned a lot of those traits, thankfully by WATCHING the actions of both my Mama and my Daddy.  They have both always been this way.  I pray for the Lord to show me opportunities to do His work so that my children may learn by actions.  


About a month ago we whipped into Subway to pick up a sandwich for Master P aka P-Daddy.  We all noticed a man on the sidewalk in front of the building dancing around like a crazy man. He had long dreadlocks and reminded Cash of a Jamaica man from our vacation this summer.  I won't lie, my first thought to myself was not positive.  I have a strong opinion about people that I "think" are druggies, you will have to look back at some much earlier posts this year for that information.  Cash and Arden asked me what was that man doing dancing and I told them he was just happy.  I carried on inside with my original, thoughtless plan of buying a sandwich.  While standing there I asked the guys,"you know there is a guy out there dancing around on your sidewalk"? They knew, they actually knew him.  I asked them if he was a druggie or a homeless guy.  They said they didn't believe he was a druggie and that he from time to time came inside to get a drink or something, he was harmless.  As I was checking out I looked down and saw a gift card.  How hard could it be to purchase a gift card and share God's love with this man?  That's just what I did.  I went back to the car and told the kids that we were going to show this man God's love by buying him something to eat.  The man was very thankful and he even said "God bless you ma'am". I don't tell this story to "toot" my own horn, in fact under normal circumstances I would never even told it, in fact until now I have not.   I don't know how profound an impact that had on my children that day but I like to believe it led to an event the next week.  I have been really talking to Cash about giving to others in need and how we are so blessed.  We packed a shoe box, one for each child, they went with me to the store to buy all the goodies and I talked to them about where the gifts were going and we prayed for the children that were going to receive our boxes.  We watched a video at my parents church that showed the children getting to open their shoe boxes, I really played this up to Cash.  So after the Subway incident and after the shoe boxes were packed Cash comes up to me from out of nowhere and says, "Mama, I wish we could get a big ole box to back my spider man bike in and give to one of those kids that doesn't have a bike".  My. Heart. Melted!!  They are watching, they are listening, they are hanging on to every word, what are we teaching them?  I fail all the time but sometimes I get it right.  Thank you Jesus for the times I get it  right and for teaching me again when I get it wrong.  Cash has a huge heart and I am SO thankful for it! I am not sure about Arden yet, she did recently break the dog's toes so I guess time will tell?! :)

Love Come to Life

I just posted a song from youtube, Big Daddy Weave's "Love Come to Life".  I LOVE when this song comes on KLove! I try and fail daily, but thankfully my Lord is forgiving and he picks me up and says, "okay let's do this again".  This song is special to me right now.  We should all pray for God to break our hearts til it moves our hands and feet.  I will follow up with a post (tomorrow morning) about doing for others.  

I’ve been restless on the inside
wondering about this heart of mine
I’ve been desperately trying to find
a way to prove that I’m still alive
Has the love I speak so loudly of
quietly grown cold

Is my life been an empty voice
what I sing needs to be seen
I need to step out and make the choice
to let go of everything

Would you reignite this heart spark here in the dark

Bring your love to life inside of me
Why don’t you break my heart ’til it moves my hands and feet

For the hopeless and the broken
for  the ones that don’t know that you love them
Bring your love to life inside of me

The generation you’re calling out
living everything we sing about
The revelation right here and now
love beyond the shadow of the doubt
Love that is greater than our own
won’t remain unknown

When you bring your love to life inside of me
Why don’t you break my heart ’til it moves my hands and feet

For the hopeless and the broken
for  the ones that don’t know that you love them
Bring your love to life inside of me

love to come life
love to come life
bring love to life inside me

love to come life
love to come life
bring love to life inside me

love to come life
love to come life
bring love to life inside me

love to come life
love to come life
bring love to life inside me

Bring your love to life inside of me
Why don’t you break my heart ’til it moves my hands and feet

Forthe hopeless and the broken
for  the ones that don’t know that you love them
Bring your love to life inside of me

Bring your love to life inside of me
Why don’t you break my heart ’til it moves my hands and feet

For the hopeless and the broken
for  the ones that don’t know that you love them
Bring your love to life inside of me

love to come life
love to come life
bring love to life inside me

love to come life
love to come life
bring love to life inside me

love to come life
love to come life
bring love to life inside me

love to come life
love to come life
bring love to life inside me

Big Daddy Weave - Listen To "Love Come To Life"

"Mama, what does God look like"?

I talk to my children often about praying, Jesus, God, being kind and loving to others in hopes that some of it will in fact stick in their heads.  Cash has been asking questions about Jesus and heaven for a while now but he came to me the recently with this question, "mama, what does God look like"?  I had no idea how to answer this to make a four year old understand so I told him that I didn't really know, that no one had ever seen him so there were no pictures to show him.  He quickly said, "I think I have seen a picture of him at Papa and Gigi's church, you know the one up where the people sit and sing? Is that God"?  I was almost certain of what he was talking about but I told him next time we were at their church for him to show me and we would talk about it.  Sure enough some weeks later when were sitting in worship he said, "look Mama, that is the picture I was talking about, is that God"?  It is the stained glass picture in the baptismal of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus.  I explained to him that it was John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin baptizing him.  His next question, "well who baptized God"?  I told him no one because God was the almighty, he was here first, he didn't need to be baptized, that seemed to please his eager mind.  Now when Cash talks about heaven he says, "Mama when I get to heaven I am gone(gonna) hug my Pappy and Jesus and God and Jesus and God's cousin John the Baptist". :)  This warms my heart!!  I am thankful for his interest in these things and I pray that I will continue to teach him in a christian manner!! I fail daily but I do keep trying!

Molasses and Memories

Do you ever have a song or a moment in your life that takes you back to another moment in your life?  I love those moments when I am in the middle of something and I am instantly transformed to a sweet memory!! That happened at breakfast last week.  Cash and I wanted biscuits and molasses.  Man I sure am glad to have been raised on molasses and that Cash loves them so much.  Maybe because he sees his Papa eating them! :)  Anyway, the kids were playing, we had our Christmas music playing and the biscuits were baking.  Cash likes his with jelly and molasses.  I would probably like that too but at my age the sugar in the molasses is more than enough to keep my pants from zipping so I skipped the jelly.  The minute I took the lid off the can I started flashing back to when we were kids.  Daddy use to take us to Mr. Clark's down the road where he was making cane syrup.  I loved watching that steam and smelling that strong, sweet smell.  To this day I still love sugar cane and there is no better place to eat it than on the back of a tailgate with Daddy's pocket knife.  Molasses also reminds me of something else, early mornings at the cow shows at the state fair.  There is a booth there that gives away hot biscuits, before they hand you that hot goodness they ask you if you want molasses on it!! Well of course I do!!!  I had not been to the state fair for many years until last year and when I decided to take the kids that was our second stop.  Our first was the livestock barn of course.  Speaking of the state fair, I have some of the best memories there.  The state fair reminds me of Penn's chicken on a stick and eating them with my bestie Julie.  It also reminds me of the many times that my other bestie Anna would tag along to the cow show.  I can even remember the time we took our cabbage kids and their strollers!! :) I think we were in kindergarten.  I love my girlfriends and am so thankful that both of them are still in my life!!!

Cashism's

Cash will turn 5 in January (sigh) and the older he gets the more vivid his little imagination gets.  I love to hear him tell me stories that clearly he is making up as he talks but he is so funny.  I know that he knows he isn't telling "the truth" because he will usually follow up with "don't tell Papa" or "don't tell daddy or such and such" whomever he has told the story about.  We did have a talk last week about telling lies and what lies are and how important it is to always tell mama the truth but that was in regards to him whispering in my ear that Arden had done something when it was so obvious that he had done it. :)  He is learning but I do enjoy that he has an imagination and I will pray that he will always keep it.  It seems sad when children get to that age when they loose that, can't think of anything to play anymore etc...


A few weeks ago Cash decided to wear one of his cross necklaces to church.  Not a chain necklace a leather one, a small appropriate one.  When we got home he came up to me and said "Mama, you have got to take this necklace off of me, it is giving me a heart attack"! :) Where did THAT come from? Who knows, but just in case, I took it off. LOL.


I know it is no secret just how much Cash loves my Daddy, it is also no secret how much I love that!  My daddy is the hardest working, busiest man I know.  Dairy farmers have no set "schedule" of going to work or getting off nor do they ever really know how their day will go or where it will lead them.  They have to be adaptable to any situation at any time, the tractor has ANOTHER flat, the hay baler burnt up in the hay field from a baron that went hot etc...things you don't plan for but better adapt to and fast.  So in saying all that, it makes my heart smile to know that my daddy always makes time for Cash.  He lets him tag along with him everywhere.  Cash doesn't care how hot, cold, rainy it may be he wants to be with his Papa and Papa is okay with that.   A little while back I was driving the children to school and Cash said "Mama I got to tell you something. When I grow up I am gone (gonna) change my name." Me, "what ya gonna change it to, Cash"? Cash, "Pat Ard". :)  And there you have it my friends.  The best investment you can make in your children and grandchildren is YOUR TIME! That's all they want, and it is certainly all they need.  :) I am thankful.