Mustard Seed Devotion

Good Monday morning!

The Showcase Pic is of me and my sister, Beverly. Isn't she pretty in her new brown polka dot dress? I just thought I would use a "sis pic" to get the week started.

The Gallery Pics are from Mother's Day. While I PLANNED on having pictures from our Mother's Day Dinner with Mike's parents Friday night, my brother-in-law's birthday party Saturday night AND Mother's Day photos from yesterday, there will only be a few Mother's Day pictures this week. (You'll find a lengthy explanation below.)

CONTEST! CONTEST! CONTEST! - You have until 6:00 a.m. Wednesday morning to enter the Mystery Bag Party Contest. All you have to do is send your name via e-mail, Facebook or the Comment Section and put the word "Contest" somewhere nearby. That's all. It is easy breezy.

I will announce the six winners May 12, 2010 at 10:00 a.m.

Weekend Review - Talk about having a weekend which did NOT go according to plan! WOW!

Friday night's dinner with Mike's parents was attended by Austin, Roxie and Mikie. Josh was much, much improved, but still not 24 hours clear of the dreaded Stomach Virus, so he and I stayed home. When the remaining Faulkners arrived home, this is the first thing Mikie said to me, "I think I ate some bad mushrooms." This should have been an enormous "clue," but we all went to bed oblivious to the fact the Stomach Virus was about to attack yet another Faulkner.

Saturday morning, bright and early, it was official. Mike had IT. I called my sister to let her know Mike and Josh would not be able to attend Tommy's birthday party, AND I would not be able to host Mother's Day lunch as planned. What should we do?

Having suffered through many stomach viruses as a family, my sister and brother-in-law did NOT want to be around the sickly members of our family one little bit... which I totally understood. I didn't want to be around them either. The solution? Cancel Tommy's birthday celebration Saturday night, and Beverly would host a combo Birthday Party/Mother's Day Lunch for the "still-well" and "newly-recovered" Faulkners. Roxie, Austin and I were able to attend.

And it was a very nice Mother's Day. I missed Josh and Mikie, but since I was mentally, emotionally and physically prepared to celebrate my Mother's Day NEXT Sunday, I wasn't disappointed about the lack of Mother's Day celebration on the part of my family. Actually, I handled everything amazingly well for a control freak with a "powerful" personality. Amazingly well, indeed!

As it stands now, Mikie's doing fine and is heading to work. (His "symptoms" were so different from Roxie and Josh's, we think bad mushrooms really were the problem.)

Josh is going to try a half day at school if he is still doing well at noon. (We're trying to be clear for 24-hours.)

Roxie is good to go (even though she is the one who started the whole mess in the first place). Gotta love her though.

Austin and I are still feeling normal... whatever that means. He's heading to his May-mester, I'm doing my Monday stuff... and I'm praying after a week-long visit, it is OVER. Join me, won't you?

On a side note, several good things happened this weekend. Roxie made the volleyball team (along with last year's teammates Kelci and Shelby). She'll be making some new friends this year, too. She was thrilled and relieved, as was I.

I did get my purple corsage. I thought I was going to have to pick it up myself, but Austin came to the rescue and was able to take care of that little piece of Mother's Day business.

We were able to watch the finale of The Amazing Race together last night which was lovely, as always. I was very, very sad the cowboys didn't win, but they were just as I expected... gracious to the end.

That is probably a little more than you really wanted to know, but that's my Weekend Review, and I'm sticking to it!

Q & A! Q & A! Q & A! - I have one leftover Question from last week.

QUESTION - I have one question about the kids' allowances and haircuts. Do they get haircuts when they want them or when you tell them to?

ANSWER - I have three different kids... and three different answers. Austin has never really wanted long hair, but he does like his money. He would have his head completely shaved each and every time he goes for a haircut so he could save his haircut money for two or three months. I have ABSOLUTELY called the lady who cuts his hair and instructed her to never let him talk her into shaving all of his hair. (He gets monthly haircuts.)

Josh would love to have longer hair. However, fate is on our side and since his hair is very coarse, it doesn't grow down into his face... it grows up into a large auburn afro. Long hair in your eyes... very cool. Large auburn fro... very uncool. He did go for a while letting the back grow down his neck a little, but it was curly. While I didn't care for the longer hair on the neck, once football started, he wanted shorter, cooler (temp-wise) hair. At this point, he would also like a shaved head. I have again called the lady who cuts his hair and instructed her to never let him talk her into shaving all of his hair. (He gets monthly haircuts, also.)

Roxie is the lucky one. Since she is letting her hair grow out, she can got three or four months and just get the ends trimmed. She is saving most of her haircut money, AND I don't have to worry about her coming home bald... I don't think. (I may be calling our haircut lady today just to double check.)

So you see, I am not above calling the haircut lady AT ALL.

I will say that Austin had to get a haircut in Jacksonville last fall because his schedule was too busy to make an appointment for one at home. He went to a Korean barber shop. He couldn't understand them, and they most definitely didn't understand him. He came home with a military buzz. He wasn't bald, but I could see every bit of his scalp... and he was able to save his haircut money for two months. He was thrilled, but Melia and I nipped the Korean barber shop "in the bud."

Mustard Seed Devotion

This was one of my favorite devotions for our Backyard Bible Club. It was fun. It was interactive. And it taught the lesson of "faith" in a very simple, easy fashion.

You will need:

A refrigerator or large appliance box
Mustard seed (or other tiny spice)
Clear tape

Before the kids arrive, open both ends of the box, and tape the mustard seed somewhere in the box using a tiny piece of tape. The smaller the better, so it will go totally unnoticed.

After all the kids have gathered on your back deck for the Club Meeting, stand beside the large box and say the following:

Do you believe that inside this box is something that can move a whole mountain?

Do you believe that inside this box is something that made it possible for Peter to walk on water?

Do you believe that inside this box is something that made it possible for Moses to make the Red Sea open up so people could walk across when they were being chased by their enemies?

What do you think is in this box?

Most of the kids will say "God," and that is when the fun begins.

Let each child go through the box looking for the "thing" that makes all of those other things possible.

When they all have finished crawling through the box, reach in and pull out the piece of tape with the tiny mustard seed still attached. Pass it around to each of the children letting them look, and read the following verse.

Matthew 17:20. "For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you."

Explain to the kids this kind of faith just doesn't happen. You aren't born with it. The Bible also says, "This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting." Matthew 17:21.

Talk about the size of the mustard seed, and how much faith we would need to move a mountain. It seems so impossible. End the devotion by saying, "I bet Moses really had to pray and believe and have faith to part the Red Sea so the people he was leading could escape their enemies and cross in safety."

"I know it took a lot of faith for Peter to get out of a boat at sea and walk on the water toward Jesus. And when he looked away from Jesus, and his faith wavered (or became weak) what happened? He fell into the water."

"I imagine it took a lot of faith for Noah to build an ark for his family and the animals. Especially when everyone was making fun of him and didn't understand why he was doing something so odd. But he had faith, and it paid off in the end, didn't it? When the flood came, Noah, his family and the animals were safe."

End the devotion with a simple definition of faith. "Faith is just believing what God says He will do." Pray that the boys and girls will grow into men and women of faith.

Let the kids have the box to play with in the backyard while you prepare the snacks. Before everyone leaves, make sure you set the date and time for the next Backyard Bible Club. (By this time, the kids are really looking forward to this weekly or bi-weekly event.)

I always ended the devotion by saying, "If anyone has any questions or wants to know more about the devotion or God, you can talk to me any time today or this week." As I said before, I made sure the parents knew I would be giving a small devotion, so I wanted to leave the door open for any questions the kids might have later.

Next week, I'll share the third devotion. If you aren't having a Backyard Bible Club this summer, these are fun to do with just your family, too.

Have a fantastic Monday. I hope your family is stomach virus-free... and I hope our family soon will be! Tuesday I have a lovely recipe AND a rutabaga recipe. It will be a twofer kind of day.

Take care, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting AND Still Stomach-Virus Free Belinda