Little Bells and Morning Pillows

I am increasingly becoming aware of what probably should have been a self-evident fact long before I reached 42 years of age, and that is this: that whatever I just listened to, or experienced, or dwelt on before I go to bed for the evening, will remain on my mind, making its mark - for good or ill - even as I drift off to sleep.

"Sleep is a time when the brain rehearses recently-learned material," says James D. Walsh, Ph.D., director of St. Luke's Hospital's Sleep Medicine and Research Center.*

So, with that in mind, we are going to try to listen to and review our Scripture memory verses and catechism memory songs just before going to sleep at night. I recently read somewhere (though I can't remember where) that your brain will repeat/rehearse the last thing it heard before going to sleep something like 3-5 times, even after you have actually fallen asleep. Imagine!

In that same vein, I also just became aware of some free, non-copyrighted, public domain children's devotional books available online. They are materials written by hymn-writer Frances Ridley Havergal. She was a 19th century English religious poet and hymn writer.

Little Pillows, or Good-night Thoughts for the Little Ones, is a classic collection of one-month's worth of brief bedtime devotions for children. Author Carol Brandt tells us that, "In Little Pillows Frances' intent was to give children biblical truth to think about as they went to sleep. Each truth was to be like a little pillow - something comforting and supportive to rest upon during the night. She teaches through vivid word pictures that bring everyday images to a child's mind, thus linking the spiritual to the child's world. This is child evangelism as it should be: plain, simple, truthful, without manipulation or deceit."

There is a companion volume of morning devotions called Morning Bells. At the beginning of this second book, also written "with Aunt Fanny's love" for her nieces Sybil and Helena, Frances herself wrote: "But in the morning we want something to arouse us, and to help us to go brightly and bravely through the day. So here are "Morning Bells" to waken up your little hearts, and to remind them that we must not only rest in Jesus, but walk in Him. If the motto of Little Pillows might be 'Come to Jesus,' the motto of Morning Bells might be 'Follow Jesus.'"

You are free to copy them, print them, or share them in any ways you like as long as you do not do so for any profit or material gain. Should you prefer it, they are also available for purchase through many online distributors, including this one.

* See complete article about sleep's improving memory and learning.

"Take Note of This, My Dear Brothers..."

10-year old OG took matters into her own hands and decided to write a song to help her remember this week's Scripture memory verse. "Take note of this, my dear brothers. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. For man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires" - James 1:19-20.

I know I'm extremely partial, but I think this is so cute! I bet this is how our friend Holly got started...

Have a listen:

Disillusioned

This morning I am feeling disillusioned. Disappointed. Confused. Frustrated. I'm not sure what word to put to it, but it is something like those words above. I don't know how to even muse about my thoughts. They're intermingled and garbled and tinged with emotion. And so I stammer...

This morning, I found two equally frustrating emails. The first was a query about how our small church plant congregation felt about switching our church services from 10:00 to 9:30 over the summer months so that folks can get outside to the beach and stuff sooner. I was blown away. I thought of the high view of the Lord's Day espoused by the Westminster Catechism (Questions 115-121) and the PCA Book of Church Order(Chapter 48) , both influential documents in our denomination, and I was puzzled and grieved even at the request. Although I don't ascribe to the restrictive ideas presented in those documents (I do not believe we are required on Sunday to refrain from "activities that are lawful on other days"), I do value the day as a day set apart for different things. Do we view our Sundays - all day long - as privileged days of worship and communion and fellowship and service, or are they just another "day off" for us to play?

The second email was from the youth group leader at our church. They are planning the final youth group event of the year, which takes place next week and involves a trip to see Prince Caspian together. I wrote back asking if this was a family event, but received a reply that it was for the youth group only. This makes me sad, but it doesn't surprise me, really. In my experience, most people (and consequently, most families, most churches, most programs, most whatevers) have one focus or the other... they are either "family-oriented" or they are oriented toward isolating people into age-segregated groups. It is rare to see a place that does both things well. And so my elder two children are placed in a position of choosing... choosing between going to see this movie as part of the church youth group, or going to see this movie as part of our family. We read aloud together The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe last year as a family. We went to see that movie together. EL, then just six, actually wept in my husband's lap during the scene depicting Aslan's murder.

And we have eagerly anticipated the impending release of next week's follow-up film. We have gotten the Prince Caspian book-on-tape from the library and listened to it together over the last few weeks. We've mused aloud together about how they'll depict certain things, speculated about what they might change, pondered how we'll feel about the fact that Caspian is being depicted as a much older boy than in the book. The release of this film is basically something that our family has looked forward to with increasing anticipation over the past year.

And so the choice lies before us. I know what my choice would be. I know what my husband prefers, and I certainly know what their two younger sisters would choose. But I hate that the older two have to choose... choose between sharing this long-anticipated memory with us, or participating in the final youth group event of the year.

Why do we do this to kids? Why do we lament that they are so caught up in "youth culture," and bemuse their obsession with texting and MySpace, yet drive them at every turn to value time and interaction with each other more than with the entirety of the Body... young and old?! I think of the time my daughter was asked (during a youth group Bible study) to share the place where she felt most comfortable. She replied, "with my family," to which a youth group friend replied vehemently, "Ungh. Not me. I don't have anything in common with my family. I prefer to be with people my own age."

And there you have it.