Random Thoughts 9/28/05

• Every night we pray with Brennan and Tanner. Brennan asked several weeks ago that God wouldn't let him have bad nightmares. Well, Tanner (three years old) latched on to this and now, every night, he prays, "Dear Dahd [God], pees, good notmares, is name, amen." It's hard not to giggle. Brennan, who turned five Monday, is growing more articulate day by day. I'm routinely impressed with quantity of information he consumes and retains.
• I heard a minister the other day make reference to bad PR his church had received in the community that was hurting his ministry. When did the bad PR happen? The 1950's! Not only are the elderly still bitter, they've taught younger generations to have the same prejudice against that particular church. Ouch.
• Elijah is becoming quite a ham (that's a reference to his personality not his girth). He tilts his head and shrugs at you. He smirks and casts glances over his shoulder. He's just pretty adorable… except for when he's throwing a tantrum. He's at that age now where the terrible twos begin. In our experience that's from age 18-42 months, lasting about two years. Tanner is just now coming out of it, where he can actually be reasoned with instead of just being a frustrated ball of stubbornness.
• I'm still in mortal fear of having a girl. The other day we were at McDonald's and these little girls were dominating the play area. One little despot in particular stood out. She struck me as the snottiest, bossiest, cruelest, little person in a dress I'd ever seen. Yikes! And she was maybe 4 years old. What are her parents going to do ten or twelve years from now?
• We're settling in to some names for the new baby. Our girl name right now is Annaliese Sophia. Our boy name right now is Graham Ryker. Ryker is Dutch for Richard, my dad's name and my middle name. It was either that or Ricardo (not really). We also liked the name Garrison but we got such a sour reaction from folks that we balked.
• We had a minister's meeting yesterday in Dekalb, Mo. It was encouraging to spend the time with the other ministers. Misery loves company? It's so easy to become discouraged in ministry, to just have all the wind taken out of your sails. Everything can be going great and then just one person can throw you into a tailspin. It makes all the difference that we love the church. The ministers who don't don't last long.