Yoblog - Musings of a Church Youth Officer

Sometimes I wonder where my husband left his common sense!!  We had an hour or two shopping time in Perth yesterday while A was at the pantomime with his Granma.

I used the time to mop up some half price bargains in Lakeland and M&S as well as getting L her first pair of shoes in the gorgeous Little Piggy shoe shop.  Sensible.

H came home with a snare drum.  Yup, a real live loud bangy thing.  It has a certain attraction to small children.  As nobody in the house has any drumming talent, I think it may need to disappear in a puff of pantomime smoke.

Boo and hiss!!

…is when people who belong together are together.

It has been a happy Christmas for my family and I was delighted to hear of reconciliation in a close friend’s family. Prayer answered!

From my blog statistics I find it fascinating the number of people who are asking the above question in search engines and stumbling across my blog because I asked it in a previous post.

So I feel a responsibility to offer my opinion on what the answer is. Here goes in no particular order.

1. Young people want to have fun.

2. They want to find something relevant to them.

3. They don’t want to be bored.

4. They want to find other people of a similar age.

5. They want to be accepted as they are.

6. They want to be challenged.

7. They want their opinion to count.

8. They want to be listened to.

9. They want to be able to express themselves using appropriate up-to-date media.

10. They want to have choice.

Any more ideas??

Our internet connection was down this morning and it felt like my right hand had been chopped off. 

I couldn’t check my e-mail, buy anything, sort out my social life for the weekend, check train times, sort out my home insurance renewal, renew my mail redirection or anything else on my to-do list.

How did I ever manage before the on-line world existed?! Thankfully we are up and running again and the panic is over.

There are a few firsts for me this year, including having made my first Christmas cake and cooking my first Christmas dinner.

I am wondering about the Christmas cake - it is a solid lump in the kitchen drawer that could be used to attack any burglar.  Should I impregnate it with more brandy just for the hell of it??!  Or just ice it and risk it being dry?!

I am thinking that I could feed it to the children to keep them calm over Christmas!  More brandy!!

I like it so much, I’ve just put a picture of it on www.edyouth.org.

My 3 year old is at the “why” stage.

Walking to nursery yesterday, I was reminding him that he had a treat that morning and that he would be visiting the school next door to see their nativity play dress rehersal.

Why?

Well, they are doing it to remind us all of the story of Jesus’ birth…

Why?

Because that is what Christmas is all about - celebrating Jesus’ birthday, not just decorations and presents.

Santa might bring me a toy?

Well, he might, but we give presents because baby Jesus also received presents.

Why?

Because, shepherds and wise men came to visit him and they brought something special.

Before we got to the nth degree of why, I was rescued by:

“I CAN SEE A BIN LORRY!!”

I was downloading the photos from my digital camera and there were loads that my 3 year old took at our church Christmas lunch (the camera was given to him to keep him happy while we enjoyed pudding!). 

Looking through them, I was laughing to myself at what a freaky bunch of people we are.  And then I realised what it was like to be age 3 in a church.  You are probably the only child your age, everybody towers above you and if they do stop to communicate with you, it tends to involve bizarre facial expressions!

I won’t embarass anyone by posting the pictures. Bribes accepted!

Our faithful cat walked all the way to church with us today.  She had a nosey around the church before being evicted.  I was amazed that she waited outside to walk us home. 

Evangelism of a sort…we just need to find some new people next time to do the same!

I made a promise in the summer to a close friend to watch out for his son if the worst happened.  It did, he died, and things then got worse as the two sides of his family started a fued.

Today I tried to intervene as an independent person with no agenda apart from keeping that promise.  I hoped I could make them all see sense.  But I saw the power of human stubborness, the need to be right and prove a point.  And that can be stronger than the need to be with those you love and care about.

All I have done is alleviate my conscience by doing something.

At least I tried.  But it wasn’t enough.