Rock Solid

Rock Fans Unite
I'm a big rock fan. Not heavy metal, blow-your-hair-back loud kind of rock fan, but a fan of real rocks. I collect rocks from places I've been. Rocks are amazing--they are all so different and many are beautiful. (I enjoy rock jewelry, too--lapis, quartz, turquoise, and others)
God did some pretty creative things with rocks--Kansas limestone, New England granite, Florida's beautiful white sand beaches made of quartz particles, and even silver and gold flecks and veins in rocks.
When I think of rocks, I think of strength that will endure. The Bible speaks of God and Jesus as being our rock. Consider Psalm28:1, 7
"To you I call, O Lord my Rock...The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in my song."

Speaking of songs, some of my favorite hymns are rock-themed: On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, Rock of Ages, and The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock. One of my best moments doing AWANA object lessons is demonstrating the parable about the wise man who built his house on the rock, and the foolish man who built his house on the sand. I use a bird house on a rock foundation and poured water over it, and like our lives, if we build on the foundation of Jesus the rock, we'll stay standing on firm ground, even when the storms of life hit us. Then I put the bird house on a sand base and pour the water, and sure enough the sands erode and the house falls. This is what happens if we build our lives on the shifting sands of what the world says is important--money, fame, etc. When the storms hit and troubles come, everything we built on falls apart. A pretty powerful lesson for all of us!

Rock Pile
This month's theme is prayer, and I really am getting there. Besides calling out to the Lord, our rock, in prayer; rocks are used to remind God's people of what He has done for them. When the Israelites were finally crossing the Jordan river into the promised land, God told them to have a man from each of the twelve tribes pick up a rock from the dry river bed and make a pile of them on the river bank. In the future, whenever their children would see the rock pile and ask about it, they were to tell and remember all the Lord had done for them.

What would your "rock pile" look like? This is a tangible way to see the way God has answered prayer and worked in your family's lives.
Here are some of the "rocks" of rememberance for us: a scrap of fabric from a shirt my husband was wearing when he was piloting a single-engine plane and crashed on take-off. A wind gust caught the wing and flipped them at about 90 miles per hour. Of the three men on board, my husband was the only one injured when the radio came out and hit him in the chin--just a little blood on his shirt. All three men also had pregnant wives, and God knows the heartache He spared us when protecting the "daddies". (That shirt has been hanging in our closet for 22 years, the age of our daughter, and I won't part with it !) A hospital ID band belonging to our youngest son would be another "rock". He had an emergency appendectomy last fall, his freshman year at college. His appendix had ruptured and he had severe infection. After a week in the hospital, he was released--God knows how scared we were and how grateful for his recovery. There would be other items, too, not all as traumatic as these, but symbols to remind us of God's provision and answer to prayers.

Make your own "rocks of rememberance" pile so your family can praise God for His love and care.

Rock-a-bye-baby
This is for all the young moms out there. Several years ago, our church secretary had made copies of prayers for mothers and had us each take one home on Mother's Day. This faded, crumpled little scrap of paper was my prayer for many years, taped to the inside of a kitchen cabinet door where I'd see it everyday. May it serve you as well.

A Mother's Prayer
Oh give me patience, when little hands
Tug at me with ceaseless, small demands.
Oh, give me gentle words and smiling eyes,
And keep my lips from hasty, sharp replies.
Let not weariness, confusion and noise
Obscure my vision of life's fleeting joys.
And when in years to come my house is still
No bitter memories its rooms may fill.
Happy Mother's Day!

Rock It Out--Family Prayer Ideas
-Teach your children to pray. Listen to their prayers(they will amaze you!) and pray with and for them. We had a lengthy bed-time routine--pick-up, wash up, then we all gathered for bedtime stories, then tuck-in bed and prayers with each child. Something about holding hands and praying with and for your child in the dark brings you closer than at any other time. You will learn things they would never tell you during the rest of the day--don't miss it! (I also sat in the hall between their rooms and sang bedtime songs, but that is optional--I had one who would get up and prowl around if I wasn't there!)

-Meal time prayers, or saying Grace, is also a way to remind your family to be grateful for God's provision. My husband prayed the same prayer he heard growing up, as had his father--only in German. This prayer is a lot more common than I realized, or maybe we just have lots of people with German heritage around here.
"Come Lord Jesus, Be our Guest. Make this food to us be blessed."
You can have your own family prayer team, as well. We still call and remind each to pray for one another in certain ways and times.

-Praying Hands
For little ones, a fun way to learn to pray is to hold up their hand, palm facing away from them. Spread their fingers--their thumb should point toward their heart. Pray for those you love, those close in your heart- family and friends. The index finger will be called the pointer finger. Pray for thosewho point you toward God and good--pastors, missionaries, teachers. The middle finger is the tallest--pray for leaders like our president and others. Your fourth finger is the weakest, so pray for those who are weak--the sick, grieving, lonely. The pinkie finger is last--that should be you! Pray for yourself, that God would help you and forgive you.

-As a mother and wife, the best and sometimes only thing you can do for your family is pray. It gives your family a certain security to know they have people praying for them, calling their name before God. Start your own prayer group. I have 3 other friends who meet at my house weekly to pray for our children, our schools, churches, communities and country. We've been agreeing in prayer for 12 years now, and 2 have prayed longer than that. We've prayed our children through high school, college and relationships--and spiritual growth. Our kids are used to us asking them their prayer needs. Keeping a family prayer journal is another way to see how God has answered prayer over the years.

Rock Garden

I have an area where I pile the rocks I've collected on trips. (Some people buy post cards, I haul rocks--it's another one of those quirks we all have, or in Christianese," God made us all special"!) They remind of fun times and places, or times when God was indeed my rock, getting me through a hard time. (Such as a very small rock I carried down from the top of a mountain I climbed) Here are some other ideas for fun gardens to make for yourself or with kids.

These Gardens Rock

-Plant a pizza garden. Clear and work-up a circle of ground and divide into pizza-shaped wedges. Plant basil in some, little tomato plants in some, oregano in some or even salad greens. You can make this into a salsa garden by planting different pepper plants.

-Another cool idea is a salad garden--work up some dirt, then trace kids' names and plant different lettuce seeds in the tracings to spell out their names!

-Sunflower house or tunnel--plant sunflowers every 10" apart to make walls of a tunnel, or the four sides of a house. You can tie the tops together to increase the shade/wall feeling. This is really fun.

-Plant a garden in your sneaker--really easy. Choose an old shoe or boot, fill with potting soil and add an easy care plant. You don't have to worry about drainage if the shoe is old enough and has holes in the bottom! We planted some cacti plants in an old hiking boot.

-Did you know plants can tell time? Show your kids how amazing God's creation is that He made some plants that only bloom at certain times. Find a trellis or wire fence and plant morning glories (bloom only in the (guess) morning), and moonflowers(bloom only at night).In front of them, plant some Four O'Clocks. (Bloom in late afternoon or earlier on a cloudy day--you can confuse them into blooming earlier if you hold an umbrella over them!)

-Touch and sniff garden. Plant lamb's ears plants (they're drought tolerant and have fuzzy leaves like, well, lambs' ears), different types of mint to smell and taste, (mint is very invasive, so plant in pots or buckets!), and other herbs like lemon balm.

-Don't forget to celebrate May Day--have the kids roll construction paper into cones, staple the bottom shut and add a handle. Tuck a cookie or two, mints, etc. plus a flower and hang it on a neighbors' door knob--ring the bell and run!

(See other ideas for May in the Home Matters blog)

Pray about summer plans for your family--and now, go play in the dirt--and the rocks!