The True Vyne

No wonder my children think I'm a nag. I'm no fun compared to Buck. I home school and make them make their bed. I make them fold laundry and put it away. They must clean their rooms before they are permitted to have screen time.

However, when I go out of town, my husband takes them to incredible events. Last time I went to Atlanta, Buck hooked up with our beloved master of fun middle school ministry intern and took the children to see Charlie Hall. Buck says Charlie is his inspiration for his won hairstyle. I could hear and feel the electric current of excitement in my family when I returned.

Over the weekend, Buck took everyone to see Group1Crew and Toby Mac. Nerdy or not, three of my children can't take the noise of concerts and must be back from the stage a bit, and Pooh Bear wears earplugs to safeguard her developing ears. Tater, who can't hear music unless it's loud, made his way to front and center stage to watch the sweat pour onto guitars from the musician's brows. Everyone showed off their Toby Mac wrist sweat bands to me. Have we returned to the 70's or something, and I completely missed it? Do people actually wear running gear like jewelery again? Seriously?

Apparently, the cameras caught my family a few times and put their faces on the jumbotron. Buck got a call from our youth pastor on his cell, saying, "Hey, I see you're here, man!"

Buck replied, "Yeah, the cameras are scanning for good looking people. I wonder why they haven't found you?"

For me, it was the final weekend of the course I was team teaching. The other two trainers inspired me to no end. I learned more about the work I do with children from my co-trainers and the participants than I ever have. As team teachers, we discussed running our course in an experimental and experiential mode. The traditional way to teach the course has been for the participants to take note on lectures and presentations (lessons for the children). Thankfully, the trainers I learned from had a particular knack to make the lectures more discussion than preachy. However, the format didn't match the method we offer children. Liz, Lori, and I took the lecture notes in our leader's manuals and asked the question, "How can we take this from lecture to a meaningful experience?" Here's an example of how that played out.

My assigned "lecture" was titled The Method of Signs: Baptism. I'd hidden five dollars in the room the day before and told no one. I led a warm-up discussion on how God has hidden things for us to find in the Liturgy and the Word. I told them about the money I'd hidden for someone to find and asked, "Why didn't you find it?"

"We didn't know it was there," they replied.

"What can this experience tell us about God and signs?" I inquired.

"They're everywhere, and we just have to know to look." came the answer from the participants.

We explored the parable of the prodigal son for signs. Their search yielded a white board of interesting and wonderful signs I, for one, had never considered. We went into the children's classroom and looked for signs leading us to God there. The participants filled the white board with what they found hidden in the work. These people see.

Lastly, we were to end with the gifts and signs particular to baptism. Such rich faith. Discussion lasted ten minutes past my concluding remarks. To me, that time of reflection showed the depth of the participants.

Good weekend. Now, back to the task of being a mom. How in the world can I measure up to the bliss my dear husband creates while I'm away? Fortunately, he's going to stick around and keep making fun for us all.