Katelyn's growing up, and so am I

Well it was a rough morning at the Harrison household. The crisis: Katelyn didn't want to get her hair brushed. I'll leave out most of the details of the crisis and give you with a brief summary.

1. We only have so much time in the morning before we leave for school.
2. Katelyn wouldn't obey us.
3. We left later than usual for school, but still made it on time.
4. I learned more than she did.

We're into the second week of school and the kids have been pretty good so far, except for one rough morning last week, but that's another story. The picture above is from her first day of 1st grade, notice the smile and missing teeth. There wasn't much smiling this morning

There came a point this morning where I realized that this was not a 'quick' fix, rather this was something that was going to take a little while, even being late for school. After the usual "you're mean" and "you're hurting my feelings" we were able to make some progress. After telling her to get in the car, she ran to her room and hid in the closet. Up to that point, one of my primary goals was to just get her to school and move on. Obviously, it moved beyond that now. At that point I had to 'invest' in the relationship a little. I'm not going to say what happened in the room, but it ended with her crying and me holding her in my arms telling her how much I love her.

Now here's my question: Who was teaching who in that moment? I would not have planned to have that happen this morning, I would've avoided it at all costs, I did try to avoid it, so did Stephanie, but there came a point where I couldn't. I think that in the midst of the situation God was teaching me more about Himself than I was teaching Katelyn. Let me explain that a little.

God has revealed to us everything we need in this age and the age to come in His Word. Many times we choose to go our own way and God corrects us. He'll do this in a variety of ways, sometimes when we least expect it. Because He made us, we belong to Him and the ironic thing is that when we do as He asks we are actually doing what's best for us. We of course are stubborn in our ways and ignore Him as if we are smarter than Him and know what's best. If you are a child of God who has confessed your sin and trusted in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, then He will discipline you. If you are not a child of God and are wandering in your own direction, you are in a dangerous place. God may get your attention in ways you might not expect it, but then again, he may let you live with your own choices.

I did not want to discipline Katelyn this morning, I just wanted to take her to school, but in the process, he taught me many things.

Like Katelyn, I have disobeyed and tried to go my own way
Like Katelyn, I ran from God, trying to hide
Like Katelyn, I did not want to own up to my sin
Like Katelyn, God pursued me because He loves me
Unlike Katelyn, God did more than give me a spanking, He sent His Son to be crucified.

Notice that this is true both for those who trust in the Lord the first time, but also for the believer who has been a disciple for a long time.

Being a parent is not easy. It is very challenging and can be very humbling. I'm sure that there will be more mornings like this morning. I have a long way to go and a lot to learn about being a dad. As I held Katelyn in my arms, I told her how much I love her, and realized that it's minimal in comparison to the love God has for me and has shown through the death of Jesus.

Definitely Grace undeserved!

Katelyn's cast

Well it was a restful Sunday afternoon in the Harrison house. We had a great morning at church and was getting ready to go to our Sunday evening small group bible study. That was when it happened.

We heard the crash around the stair and the crying of Katelyn. As a parent you know the difference between the fake, whiny crying and that "I'm really hurt" cry for help. I was in the kitchen and Stephanie was in the the office. We immediately dropped what we were doing and ran in her direction. When we got to the stairs we noticed Katelyn stretched out at the bottom of the stairs and Justin's metal ammo box (airsoft gun) lying nearby. She was also in her cowgirl boots. She was trying to get some ammo for one of Justin's guns (nerf) so she could shoot it. She made it most of the way down the stairs when she tripped and fell. Stephanie started saying "she broke her arm, she broke her arm". I wasn't sure if she did or not, but I knew that if she kept saying that she was going to scare her more. We sat her on the couch and put some ice on it. The crying didn't last too long, although she said it still hurt. That's when Stephanie asked me "What should we do?". I love the fact that I have very limited medical experience, but still have to make that call. :)

We decided to wrap it up and see how she did later, hoping it was only a slight sprain. The next day she said that it still hurt, but not as bad so we sent her to school with it wrapped. That evening (Monday) it was a lot better, but still sore. We thought we were on the mend, so much so that the next day we didn't wrap it. The school called us later that day (Tuesday) saying that Katelyn tripped and fell. Guess what, she landed on the same wrist. That night we discussed what to do. We were almost going to take her to the Doc, but then we saw her cocking one of Justin's guns like her wrist was not hurt at all. By the way, the whole time Justin's been telling us "she's faking it, she's faking it". We decided to send her the next day to school with it wrapped as well (Wednesday). That day the Recreation department (where she goes for afterschool) called and said that she fell again and landed on the same wrist. Good grief are we going to teach her how to walk, either that or put her in a bubble. At this point we decided that after falling down the stairs, having the ammo box fall on her wrist (we didn't see this, but that's what she said happened), and two falls over the next few days, we were going to take the hints from God and take her to the doctor, mainly just to confirm that it was only a sprain.

We went to the Orthopedic clinic that night to see the Dr and get some x-rays. She came in and asked Katelyn what happened. Then the doctor said "Well, I don't know which fall did it, but on one of them, you broke your arm". I was shocked. It wasn't a big break, more like a bend, or bulge, still though, it was a break. We think it might have been the ammo box that landed on her wrist, but who knows for sure.

She was able to pick out a pink splint. The Dr. wanted to give the injury a few days to let the swelling stop before putting the cast on. A few days later she was able to pick out the purple cast in the picture above. She was pretty excited about having everyone sign the cast, as you can see the signatures above.

We're thankful that it was still a minor injury and that it appears that it will grow back normal. The cast comes off next Wednesday, March 16th.

We're also thankful that she hasn't figured out that her cast can be used a weapon!

Silly Bands

I'm sure by now you know what Silly Bands are, but if not let me inform you: They are mainly bracelets, although there are rings now as well. They come in farm animals, dinosaurs, and musical instruments. You name it and there is probably silly bands for them. It's very popular in schools to collect and trade them. Now there's even a Christianized version of them called "faith bands". Leave it to someone to try and make a Christian imitation for a few bucks. Justin has some of them, why they are popular with middle school boys I have no idea, and Katelyn has many as well, I believe she's acquired most of Justin's. Now with that background in place, I can tell you what happened the other night.

Katelyn was told to not have silly bands at the table during dinner. After a few minutes she thought that didn't make any sense so she decided to play with them anyways. Well, this caused Stephanie to confiscate them, or try to... What happened next was complete pandomonium. Katelyn ran upstairs screaming "I want my silly bands, I want my silly bands". I'm sitting there thinking "this is going to be a long evening". We eventually get the silly bands from her and have a long talk about how she won't be getting them back soon. This was after her slamming the bedroom and closet door, which led to a spanking. She was crying so much over losing the silly bands that she almost threw up and her nose was running like crazy.

While talking with her, I told her that we love her very much. We wanted her to have 'things' to enjoy. We wanted her to be happy with her silly bands, but when it came time to be obedient to us, she needed to obey and put the bands away. I asked her if she knew she was getting into trouble by not putting them away, she said yes. She knew all along that she was getting into trouble and did it anyways (sounds a lot like you and me huh). Gradually throughout the evening she ended up eating her dinner, drawing some pictures and having a nice night.

The point of this post is not to talk about how sinful and evil my daughter is. My point is that I don't think that we are much different. Sure, it may not be silly bands, but there's other things that we don't want to give up. And while we may not scream out loud, cry and pout, that's exactly what's going on in our hearts. It's crying out "I want, I want, I want, I want". So the next time you really want something and don't get it or have something you think you can't live without, just think of silly bands. It may not last as long as Katelyn's episode with her silly bands, but it does happen, even for a split second sometimes. We act like kids only bigger and the silly bands change to __________. It may not be bad in and of itself and neither are silly bands, it's our hearts that's the problem.

We can either acknowledge that we really are this way and seek to know our hearts better, ask the Lord to show us our shortcomings, cry out for forgiveness through Christ, ask Him to change our hearts, or we can ignore it, pretending that it's only other people that are like that, or we can admit that we're that way, but think that we do so many other things that are good, that the good outweights the bad.

Which is your response?

by the way: Katelyn now has her silly bands back and she doesn't play with them at the table, at least she didn't last night. :)

Somebody did it

I think eating as a family is something that rarely occurs in most homes these days. Even when it does occur the tv is usually on distracting everyone from conversation.

Recently Stephanie noticed that there something on the floor around the table. Then we noticed that it was on the chair as well. What was it?: Parmasean Cheese. Usually food on the floor isn't a problem, we simply call Daisy, our beloved Jack Russell Terrior and she takes care of it, she left the parasean cheese though. We had this discussion at the dinner table over it, more or less:

Stephanie: "What's on the floor?
me: "It's also on the seat"
Stephanie: "It's parmasean cheese, who did this?"
Katelyn: "somebody did it"
Stephanie: "do you know who this somebody is?"
Katelyn: "no, but somebody did it"
Justin: not saying anything, just laughing!

After several moments passed:

Katelyn: "well, when I shook it, the lid wasn't on good"

Yes, "somebody" did do it, and that same "somebody" helped to clean it up!

When we uploaded this picture we thought "I didn't eat the brownie"

It was from a fudge pop.

Isn't it amazing how we don't want to admit what we've done. Katelyn's not alone here. We all want to shift the blame. She got it from her mom and myself, who got it from our parents, who you guessed it, got it from their parents. Our orginal parents Adam and Eve didn't want to admit it either. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed Satan. The fact is "we did it". The question remains: "Will we admit it?"

A daughter needs a dad

Recently I read something about daughters being a gift from God and thought I'd share a portion of it that lists some of the things a daughter needs from her dad:

A daughter needs a dad...
to show her that true love is unconditional
to teach her that her value as a person is more than the way she looks
to teach her that family is more important than work
to show her that a man can be trustworthy
to be the safe spot she can always turn to
to teach her that a man’s strength is not the force of his hands or his voice, but the kindness of his heart
to be the standard against which she will judge all men
to help her take risks that will build her confidence
to hold her when she cries
to teach her she is important by stopping what he is doing to watch her

There are many gifts that we are given that we take for granted. Kids are one of them.

As I read this list of what a daughter needs I thought back to the night before when Katelyn, who just turned 5 in September and started kindergarten this year, was sitting on my lap, leaning back and snuggling while watching tv.

I wonder...how long will she do that.

As I am typing this she came into the office with a pair of blue earmuffs on her head singing a song. With the last one on the list in mind, I'm off to play with her and give her a bath.

My prayer: Thank you Lord for the gift of a daughter. Please help me to be the dad that she needs me to be.