FEAST 026

[A QUICK NOTE]

If you are receiving this message, it’s because you have a child who has participated in programs at Calvary recently. We hope you find these articles helpful and encouraging, but you can unsubscribe from them below if you so desire.

FEAST 026 :: THORNS AND SNARES

RESPONSIBILITY

As parents, we have to look for thorns and snares.

One of the most intense feelings I ever remember having is the moment I put my daughter into a car carrier for the first time, strapped that thing into a car, and drove home from the hospital. You remember that experience, right? Suddenly, there was this other living, breathing human whose entire survival depended on ME. Well, more on her mother, of course, but, you know…US.

And of course, it only takes a short time to realize that survival isn’t the actual standard of success. There is much, much more to raising a child than just feeding them and keeping them safe from physical dangers. That is especially true when you are hoping and striving to create the best environment for your child to be able to fall in love with Jesus.

If we are honest, that responsibility can feel incredibly heavy. How can I, a flawed, broken follower of Jesus myself, hope to lead someone else to a thriving relationship with the creator of the universe? What is the best way to do that? What are things that, even if I do them with good intention, might “backfire” and lead my child to rebel against the teachings of Jesus?

RIPPING AND TRIPPING

Let’s consider the familiar passage from Proverbs 22. Well, verse 6 is pretty familiar anyway, but I think 5 is worthy of consideration as well.

5Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked;
    whoever guards his soul will keep far from them.
⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go;
    even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:5-6 (ESV)

Thorns and snares have the common quality of ripping and tripping without our knowledge. They are unwelcomed distractions, and both are harmful. Spiritually speaking, we can certainly name things that would fit the metaphor. The world is full of dangers and distractions that, if we aren’t watching, can damage our soul. But verse 5 argues that a person who “guards his soul” – who lives a life that pursues righteousness – will keep far from these ripping and tripping incidents.

According to verse 6, then, if we train a child where he (or she, which can be implied throughout) should go, then he knows to stay away from these thorns and snares. He knows that they are dangerous for his soul because his parents have told him where those dangerous places are, and have shown him how to avoid them.

INFORM AND INSTRUCT

Of course, this makes me think immediately of the iconic parenting scene from (the original) Lion King. On Pride Rock, Mufasa shows his son Simba the kingdom, and tells him that their kingdom includes everything the light touches…but it doesn’t include the shadowy place and that he should never go there. After just a few minutes and a rousing song, where does Simba end up? The elephant graveyard, chased by hyenas who wish to do him harm.

Simba knew where to go (and not go), but he chose to enter the place with thorns and snares. Does that mean Mufasa failed as a parent? If your child is going to the dangerous places, does that make you a failure? In a word, no…or at least, not necessarily. The failure would have been not telling him about the danger at all.

NOT A FORMULA

I don’t think we can read this proverb as a promise, or as a formula. It’s not that simple. Kids are, in the end, independent agents who make their own choices. And I don’t think the point of this passage is “if you do X, you get Y result.” I do, however, think that the charge being made here is that parents need to inform, instruct, and protect their kids from spiritual “thorns and snares.” We need to talk about these things. We need to share our own struggles with our kids. We need to learn from our mistakes and our kids’ mistakes, but we should also use wisdom to learn from the mistakes of others as well; not in a judgmental way, but in a compassionate way, knowing that we have all had our turn with scrapes from our own thorns.

If we do that, the dream and the hope, and certainly the prayer, is to end up with a child who isn’t lost.  (The Message translation says it this way: ⁶ Point your kids in the right direction—when they’re old they won’t be lost.) And children who grow up to be not-lost adults are those who have Jesus. But, this proverb suggests that it’s also very likely that they had parents who told them where the snares and thorns were, and how to avoid them…even if those kids felt they needed to get their legs scraped and ankles caught first to make sure that the advice actually was good.

ENDURANCE

Moms and dads – keep going, keep praying, keep seeking Him first, and keep doing your best to love and instruct your children in the ways of Jesus. Parental endurance is a holy thing. We’re praying for you as you do!

Until the next Feast,

Brian

[A quick note for anyone who eat the meal on Wednesday nights…all others can carry on with their day.]

Hey Wednesday Night Connect Families! 

I wanted to share something with you simply in the spirit of us being a community and needing to work on problems together. 

Wednesday night meals have been a part of our ministry model for the last six years. It’s an excellent time of connection, fellowship, and support for busy families and busy people. We want this part of our ministry to continue and look forward to eating with you. (“Breaking bread together” is a very Jesus thing to do, after all!) 

However, last year, our budget for the meals ended up being several thousand dollars over our expected dollar amount. As a team, we budget for some “cushion,” but it was not nearly enough to cover everything. 

We share that not to shame, but in a sense of necessary future cooperation, and we are asking for your partnership to help reduce the overage this year. Therefore, we’d like to suggest the following things: 

1. We are increasing our suggested donation per person to $4 per meal. Adjust down for kids who don’t eat very much at your discretion. As we all know, food prices are up across the board…this will help with that reality. (I still think it’s the best deal in town for a dinner someone else makes and cleans up for you!)  

2. We are asking that you consider simply paying for multiple meals at a time. Perhaps you’d like to estimate your family’s cost for the month, the semester, or the year. If you’re in a position to do that, it may be simpler for you, and help reduce “missed” weeks. 
3. If you are a parent of a teenager and don’t yourself participate in the Wednesday night meal, we’d especially ask you to consider this option! 

3. We are going to be reminding people to donate as the year goes on. Sometimes, we all forget… 

4. We are looking into a digital donating option as well…though so far, we haven’t been able to find one that will work for what we need. 

Lastly, we want to be clear: anyone and everyone should feel free to eat whatever they need and pay whatever they can. NO ONE should ever skip a meal because they don’t have the $4. This is just a way to work together to reduce our overages as a ministry. 

Thank you for your partnership! And bon appetite!  

-Brian, for the FamMin Team 

A FEW ANNOUNCMENTS:

Christmas Kids’ Worship Choir

This year, the Calvary worship leaders would love to invite preschool through 8^th grade boys and girls to join them in leading worship for the Sunday, December 18, morning services. We are in the process of finalizing music for these services and will release more details on that soon.

Rehearsals will be the Sunday mornings of December 4 and 11, at Calvary, between the 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. services. Choir members will need to check in by 8:00 a.m. the morning of Sunday, December 18, and be prepared for a rehearsal with the full worship team. Participation in both services is not required; if one service is more doable, that is totally fine (all choir songs will take place at the beginning of each service). If you know someone who might be interested in joining, please have them contact me as soon as possible. We will not put a cap on the number of participants, but it would be helpful to have an idea of how many to expect. Thank you!

If interested, please email Tenille () to confirm your child’s involvement!

WEDNESDAY NIGHT MEALS

I wanted to share something with you simply in the spirit of us being a community and needing to work on problems together.

Wednesday night meals have been a part of our ministry model for the last six years. It’s an excellent time of connection, fellowship, and support for busy families and busy people. We want this part of our ministry to continue and look forward to eating with you. (“Breaking bread together” is a very Jesus thing to do, after all!)

However, last year, our budget for the meals ended up being several thousand dollars over our expected dollar amount. As a team, we budget for some “cushion,” but it was not nearly enough to cover everything.

We share that not to shame, but in a sense of necessary future cooperation, and we are asking for your partnership to help reduce the overage this year. Therefore, we’d like to suggest the following things:

1. We are increasing our suggested donation per person to $4 per meal. Adjust down for kids who don’t eat very much at your discretion. As we all know, food prices are up across the board…this will help with that reality. (I still think it’s the best deal in town for a dinner someone else makes and cleans up for you!)
2. We are asking that you consider simply paying for multiple meals at a time. Perhaps you’d like to estimate your family’s cost for the month, the semester, or the year. If you’re in a position to do that, it may be simpler for you, and help reduce “missed” weeks.
   1. If you are a parent of a teenager and don’t yourself participate in the Wednesday night meal, we’d especially ask you to consider this option!
3. We are going to be reminding people to donate as the year goes on. Sometimes, we all forget…
4. We are looking into a digital donating option as well…though so far, we haven’t been able to find one that will work for what we need.

Lastly, we want to be clear: anyone and everyone should feel free to eat whatever they need and pay whatever they can. NO ONE should ever skip a meal because they don’t have the $4. This is just a way to work together to reduce our overages as a ministry.

Thank you for your partnership! And bon appetite!

-Brian, for the FamMin Team