Yu-gi-oh and the Gospel

I must confess that our family is not the model for family devotional life. There have been many attempts that have fallen by the wayside. But we do try to bring scripture to bear on the life that we live with our kids. Two such incidents that have occurred recently have got me thinking. The first is so funny I have to share it.

Huck has now become a Yu-gi-oh (did I mention I hate Cartoon Network) fan of late. As the youngest he is always in tow, going somewhere to either drop off or pick up one of his sisters. And in the spirit of Yu-gi-oh (I don't even know if I am spelling this right), he wants to "duel" me. Well, I feel for the boy because I don't even want to be in the car driving around... so I humor him and we "battle". I don't really understand this dueling, except that it is all about smack talk. And there are very few rules.

Huck is always "playing cards" and introducing monsters that are conventional to the show. Not me...cause I try hard not to watch the show. So when we first started dueling I would "throw down" cards from our everyday life....Eli (our dog), Grandma (with her laser shooting wheel chair)..you get the idea. One night I tried to "throw down" only characters from the Bible. So now (just as we are preparing to celebrate Easter) Huck had added one Bible card to his arsenal....the JESUS card. The Jesus card has the power to resurrect monsters from his graveyard.

After he threw down the JESUS card three times in one duel last night we started talking about resurrection. He listened and then asked me, "Mom, if Jesus is in my heart, how can he be in heaven too?"
I said, "well that just shows how powerful he is he can be in more than one place at a time."
"Does that mean he clones himself?"
"No. He is just so powerful; He can be with you right now and Daddy who is on the airplane at the same time."
"Holy-crap-a-mole!"

the value of order

I am not an orderly person. I mean I like to run across the grass. I love things when they are loud and messy and fun. But I also love organization. I am obsessive about things having a place they belong...and with putting them there. I want the shoes in the bin and the lunch boxes in the pantry.

So this week my love for organization morphed over my love for tutoring. After working for about an hour with the kids, I began to sort/research AR books from the class library. The kids were tired of the few AR books they could choose between. And I felt certain that some of the other books in the classroom library were probably on the AR list.

I worked until lunch but I wasn't through...so I kept working. I left at the end of the day with 6 big stacks of AR books. But I still wasn't finished. Here is where the obsessive Ginny takes over. So I went back today to finish the project. And I did.

When I arrived this morning I felt very obsessive about order. I mean, wouldn't it be better to spend my time one-on-one with the kids? Does organizing books really make a difference? Well, the answer is YES! As I gathered the books, something began to happen. The kids began to take notice. "We can take tests on ALL these books?" Yes! They could hardly wait to look through them and begin reading and testing. And I can't wait to help them with their tests next week.