I want to take a moment to give a shout out to my small (but devout) blog readers to ask for your prayer and financial support for Our Beautiful Mission. Our next door neighbors (and very dear friends of ours) - Bryan and Anita Geurink - have responded to God's calling on their lives to live as missionaries at Beautiful Gate orphanage in Maseru, Lesotho (South Africa) to be the hands and feet and voice of Jesus Christ to His children at the orphanage.
Jaclyn and I fully support God's calling on their lives as they prepare to run the day to day operations at Beautiful Gate for the next five years. This is no small endeavour and I'd like for you to prayerfully consider making a financial commitment on their behalf today.
You can check out their story and get more information by going to:
http://ourbeautifulmission.blogspot.com/
For more information about the orphanage, go to:
www.beautifulgate.org
Grace & Peace.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
naivety & shifting responsibility
Well I believe I was a little overly optimistic about blogging my way entirely through Forni's book, Choosing Civility, for this summer project. Due to time constraints (and the fact that I'm going camping next week) I have decided skip to the end of the book (hey...it's my blog and I can do what I want) to talk about shifting blame and dodging responsibility.
Rule #25 - Don't Shift Responsibility and Blame. Throughout the entire book I've had the feeling that somebody beat Forni to this list of civility guidelines. And I was right! Back in 1990, Robert Fulghum wrote a little (but highly successful) book called All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Here's what Fulghum says: "Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the
sandpile at Sunday School." Wisdom is found in the "sandpile at Sunday School." I don't know about you, but I like that. It's humbling because I have two master's degrees, but it's so true. Accepting responsibility and blame has been one of the most difficult lessons I have been teaching my children. Like a broken record, I hear from their little lips, "But he/she _________ me first!" You know, I'm not surprised by this. Thus is the nature of children when left to their own, but unlike broken records, I try to respond differently than the standard, "Well, I'm going to end it." Rather, I tell my kids to own it - to own what they did and accept their punishment (or reward).
Here are the things that Fulghum learned in kindergarten (and I wonder if most of the problems we have in the church today could be worked out if we followed these simple guidelines):
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life - learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody
really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even
the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.
So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books
and the first word you learned - the biggest
word of all - LOOK.
He closes with this thought...
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.
Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any of those items and extrapolate it into
sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your
family life or your work or your government or
your world and it holds true and clear and firm.
Think what a better world it would be if
all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about
three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with
our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments
had a basic policy to always put thing back where
they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you
are - when you go out into the world, it is best
to hold hands and stick together.
© Robert Fulghum, 1990.
Found in Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, Villard Books: New York, 1990, page 6-7.
Rule #25 - Don't Shift Responsibility and Blame. Throughout the entire book I've had the feeling that somebody beat Forni to this list of civility guidelines. And I was right! Back in 1990, Robert Fulghum wrote a little (but highly successful) book called All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Here's what Fulghum says: "Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the
sandpile at Sunday School." Wisdom is found in the "sandpile at Sunday School." I don't know about you, but I like that. It's humbling because I have two master's degrees, but it's so true. Accepting responsibility and blame has been one of the most difficult lessons I have been teaching my children. Like a broken record, I hear from their little lips, "But he/she _________ me first!" You know, I'm not surprised by this. Thus is the nature of children when left to their own, but unlike broken records, I try to respond differently than the standard, "Well, I'm going to end it." Rather, I tell my kids to own it - to own what they did and accept their punishment (or reward).
Here are the things that Fulghum learned in kindergarten (and I wonder if most of the problems we have in the church today could be worked out if we followed these simple guidelines):
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life - learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody
really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even
the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.
So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books
and the first word you learned - the biggest
word of all - LOOK.
He closes with this thought...
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.
Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any of those items and extrapolate it into
sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your
family life or your work or your government or
your world and it holds true and clear and firm.
Think what a better world it would be if
all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about
three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with
our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments
had a basic policy to always put thing back where
they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you
are - when you go out into the world, it is best
to hold hands and stick together.
© Robert Fulghum, 1990.
Found in Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, Villard Books: New York, 1990, page 6-7.
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