Stuff Christians Like

parents

Thinking your kids got raptured.

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My brother-in-law Justin recently stayed with us for a few weeks while he finalized a move to Nashville. (Everybody is doing it, even Justin Timberlake from what I hear. If Nashville gets an ocean coast it’s game over for every other city in America. Also, North Carolina is in a lot of trouble if that happens now that I think about it.)

One night, Justin (brother-in-law not Timberlake) noticed a pile of clothes from one of our kids on the floor that looked like this.

clothes

Realizing that most people, particularly good parents, don’t store piles of clothing on random floors, I quickly reassured him that we were not messy people. (Even though that collection of socks, shirt and shorts kind of looks like a starfish.)

I told him, “That’s not just a pile of clothes, that’s the rapture.”

After quietly running the math of paying for a hotel versus staying with people who are not pre-trib but apparently “post-socks”, he asked, “What do you mean the rapture?”

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SCLQ – The Spank Offering

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I wish I could take credit for this phrase, but I can’t. The “spank offering” is such a perfect complement to the “love offering” (SCL #72) that it makes my teeth hurt a little. What does it mean? I’ll allow author Beth Moore to explain it. Here’s something she tweeted over the weekend:

@bethmoorelpm
Have any of y’all ever wanted to give a spank offering to someone else’s child? Not really but kinda?

It immediately reminded me of two things:

1. I love Beth Moore. In addition to being amazingly kind to my family, she’s got a great sense of humor.
2. This post – “Not knowing what to do about good friends who are raising punk kids.”

And the funny thing is, that at some point, we’ve all been the parents with kids who need to receive a “spank offering.” This concept isn’t limited to “good parents” or “bad parents,” it’s “all parents.”

So, have you ever wanted to give a spank offering?

Reacting in Christian Love When Your Spouse “Out Parents” You.

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I love my wife. She is the reason I’ve been able to write three books. She’s the smartest, kindest person I know. And though it’s a prerequisite that as a Christian husband you’re required by law to say that you “married over your head,” this is actually true with me. That’s not an exaggeration. Ask John Ortberg. When he signed a copy of his fantastic book “The Me I Want to Be” for Jenny he wrote, “Jenny, you married way beneath you.”

That’s just gospel truth. But recently I’ve faced a new dilemma.

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