Proverbs 1:33 But whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease without fear of harm. “You really let your kids shoot nails?” My friend and I were drinking coffee on my deck, and a few minutes prior she had witnessed the workings of my middle son’s most recent project. A handmade blow gun with little picture frame nails for ammunition. I may be a little on the crazy side, allowing my kids to do riskier things than some people are comfortable with. But I struggle living in a culture where we are hyper-concerned with physical protection…
BOYS. Every single one of the backsides in the back row of that photo belongs to a boy. Why is that a big deal you ask? Because my boys have long been almost the only boys in their age-group at church. Just Carter, Owen and a sea of girls. I’m sure at some point in a boy’s life, a lopsided ratio of boys to girls that lands heavy on the girl side is a good thing. In elementary school, not so much. On Sunday mornings, the Harms house was a battlefield: two boys with an arsenal of arguments and emotion…
At some point during the morning rush each day these words run through my mind. Dear Lord, Please protect their eyes from seeing things they should not see their ears from hearing things they should not hear and their mouths from saying things they should not say. Amen. It’s tempting to feel like I need to come to God on my knees with elaborate prayers and eloquent words. But if God was impressed by eloquence, he never would have called Moses to lead his people. And though there is great value in spending time on my knees before the Lord,…