Sick Sunday

Not a title I want to repeat often! Julian and I have been fighting colds since Wednesday morning. I thought we were getting better, but when I woke up this morning I could barely speak, let alone breath through my nose.

Life with a sick baby would be much easier, I think, if he could blow his nose! The baby torture device nose sucker thing (what is the correct name for that, anyways?) causes loud cries and flailing about before I even get it in his nose. I don't blame him...I would probably react the same way if someone tried to shove that up my nose.

Being a stay-at-home mom, I especially do not like missing church. Not only am I missing out on being fed from the Word (and teaching the Word to our third grade Sunday school class) through Pastor Tom, but I am also missing out on one of the few opportunities I have each week for community. I know that I can (and did!) spend time being fed from the Word in the comfort of my own home, but no amount of sermon videos and worship Cd's can replace the benefits of actually going to church on a Sunday morning. 

This whole month I have been reading I John for my quiet time. In my ideal world I would have time to read the whole book from start to finish in one sitting every day, but reality is that I only managed to do that twice this week, once being this morning. After spending time in Chicago last week and walking down Michigan Avenue with some good friends, I was struck by the consumerism of many American people. We walked through the American Girl store and the Lego store, amidst demanding children and acquiescing parents, and I was reminded of this passage from I John 2:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

I wrote this out and am going to pin it up on the bulletin board in our living room today as a reminder to me who, at times, can be just as demanding as those little children in the toy stores for trivial worldly things that will only pass away.