Young Love Update

Jordan's friend Mya came over after school yesterday. Jordan was so excited all weekend about it. Yesterday morning he came down for breakfast wearing a WI Badger sweatshirt. He informed me that he wore that shirt to Mya's when he went there to play, and she loves Bucky Badger and she chased him around all day, so he thought she would chase him around all day that day too. Then he said, "I'm going to stand by Mya in line, and I'm going to sit by Mya on the bus. That's my plan for the day." After breakfast he made me go upstairs with him to see how perfectly he'd made his bed and laid out his pajamas (which he never does) so that his room would be nice when Mya came over. There was a lot of talking and giggling and running around yesterday afternoon. When they finally sat down to color, I overheard Jordan telling Mya that God says you have to love everyone, and that means that he has to love her too.

On another note, I decided that I'm going to read the whole Bible, but I'm going to start with the New Testament. Today I was reading from Matthew 6, and the following passage really spoke to me (as anyone who knows me can imagine it would - since I do worry about money etc. rather a lot): Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?...So do not worry, saying 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough troubles of its own.

Young Love

The person Jordan talks about most from Kindergarten is his friend Mya. This is a picture that she made for him the other day. I think it's too cute not to share. (The back of the picture, in case you're wondering what the arrow leads to, is a graph that Mya drew. Because, as Jordan's recent schoolwork stated, "Graphing is Cool!".)

The day that Jordan came home with a list of all his classmates' phone numbers he asked if he could call Mya. He was on the phone for about 5 minutes, silent most of the time. Occasionally I would hear him say "hello?". When he hung up I could tell he was really upset, and when I asked him what was wrong he broke down and started to cry. He told me that Mya wasn't saying anything so he didn't know what to say. It just about broke my heart, but I still could barely keep from laughing. It turns out that Mya didn't have much phone experience, but since then they've had some succesful telephone conversations.

Jordan was invited to Mya's birthday party, and he spent the ride home telling me the story of how he and Mya became friends.

I heard from Mya's mom that Mya likes Jordan because he's nice but sometimes when she goes over by him she sometimes doesn't know what to say. Jordan tells me constantly that everyone makes fun of his last name, except for Mya.

Jordan came home from school one day in December with two pictures of reindeer that another friend had colored for him. One had green eyes and one had brown eyes. He told me that one had his color eyes and the other had Mya's color eyes.

Jordan was extremely excited to spend a day at Mya's house over Christmas vacation, and can't wait to have Mya over to our house to play. Good thing he's got two sisters so he has plenty of practice playing Barbies, My Little Ponies and dress up!

No Fear

"For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children." Romans 8:15-16

The other night I was having a panic attack. It was one of those moments when I realize clearly how sidetracked I have become by the insignificant details of life, and my fear for the future (my own and that of my loved ones) becomes overwhelming. I was sitting in the bathroom crying, hyperventilating and praying when I found these words.

And so I've determined to let go of fear. Fear that if I'm myself people won't like me. Fear that if I don't maintain control of everything and everyone around me life will fall apart. Fear that I'm making the wrong decisions every step of the way. Fear of so many other things. I want to change the way I live my life. I want to do what I know is right and trust God to take care of the rest.