The Haus Menagerie

August 23rd, 2008 Tim Posted in SevenLakes Info |

(Nancy) Our 12-year-old daughter is at a friend’s slumber party. Her room is far from empty, however. I opened the door and saw the fish tank she wanted for her 5th birthday that has a collection of about 3rd generation guppies from a breeding project she did a few months ago. The family dog followed me in and jumped on her bed, where it tends to sleep when Deanna’s home. But the newest addition to her room is 10 baby quail that hatched a week ago yesterday!

Deanna’s very persistent and makes it hard to say no: she researched quail on Google, walked dogs and babysat to raise the money to pay for the incubator and egg turner and eggs and all and found the best deals on eBay. She recently notified me that she wants to raise a goat with 4-H (Katy ISD supplies the barn!). I can’t help but respect a pre-teen who has graduate-school plans (go to Texas A & M and become a horse vet).  I even sometimes take her jabs about my alma mater of UT.

It seems like just yesterday they were…………..I’m somewhat horrified to find that I’ve become one of those middle-aged moms of tweens with the urge to tell stressed-out parents of toddlers to “enjoy it while they’re little”. So far I mostly resist the urge.  Yesterday Dan and Andrea Hauser had a barbecue for the CrossPoint SevenLakes Set up Crew (you too can help physically build the church some Sunday mornings! They’ll even give you a cool new Crew T-shirt–there are plenty left, just let Dan or Joey know you want to help!) ANYWAY, I got a little teary yesterday when I saw the Hauser’s play room complete with shelves of children’s books, because, though I was a stay-at-home mom until our youngest was 5, I didn’t do it very well.

I’m looking forward to the Life Lesson series on Christian parenting (Games Kids Play). I figure I can miss out on more of the present by living in regret or I can “forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead” (Philippians 3:13). And both ahead and behind and here and now is Jesus.  I believe that the best life can be very simple: love Jesus. That’s not to say that it won’t sometimes be difficult or exhausting or painful but “how to live life?” Simple: love Jesus and learn what He loves and do that, and when we fail, He’s there picking us up and beckoning us on. I think it’s a great life and, by God’s grace, I plan on learning to do that the rest of my days.

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19, NIV)

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10, NIV)