We decorated our house for Christmas a few days ago. We have a lovely, warm living room with a brick fireplace and an oak mantle. The room is decorated in earthy fall colors year round, but when the Christmas tree and other Kruger family decorations are finally in place the room comes to life - as if it is finally able to fulfill it's destiny. Decorating the house is more than task or chore however...
Entries Tagged as 'Family, Holidays, and Life'
Searching for the Manger
Posted by Mark Kruger
The Face I Love
Posted by Mark Kruger
While absent mindedly listening to the radio the other day I heard an ad for a beauty product or procedure. I don't remember if it was botox or liposuction or some kind of fancy pants skin cream, but it promised to make you look years younger. I remember thinking, "If you really want me to look years younger add copious acne and a vacant stare". In the commercial, a man speaking of his wife said something like, "I hardly recognized her. She looked like the day I married her." That got me to thinking about my own wife, Ann. Would I want her to turn back the clock and "look like the day I married her"?
Learning About Trust From Your Kids
Posted by Mark Kruger
I was thinking about the issue of trust the other day. How do we examine our trust of God? It's one of those abstract things we think we understand. We seem to think of trust as a rather flat emotion or decision with no layers or nuances. If you trust the bank you put your money there. If not, you take it out. Our trust in a bank is based on its credibility as an institution. There aren't many layers to such trust. We don't put our wallet on the bank's front step and then watch closely ready to swoop in and grab it away if our heart fails us and we get nervous. It's black and white trust. The bank has met its threshold of proof that it is worthy of trusting - therefore, we trust. But this simple illustration can't really plumb the depths of what it means to trust God. Personally, I think my understanding of trust has been deepened by my relationships with my children.
Granny
Posted by Mark Kruger
There is a point in life where we look backward for the first time. Through our teen years and usually through our twenties, we have our shoulders firmly braced against the wind - surging forward to carve out our niche in the world. Somewhere in our late twenties or early thirties something usually happens - some event like the birth of a child or the death of a grandparent - that causes us to stop and contemplate not just where we are going, but where we have been. In that moment, if we are in tune with reality, one thing becomes very clear. Life never turns out the way we plan.
Grinchy Moments in Worship
Posted by Mark Kruger
Those of you who have a son passing through his teenage years are familiar with the phrase "marching to the beat of his own drum". You can call it a lot of things like, "lack of self-consciousness" or "being unaware of his surroundings" or "still adjusting socially" (My wife even describes me that way occasionally). In some ways it all boils down to the same thing - a blissful self-absorption that keeps him talking with his mouth full, making odd noises at exactly the wrong moment, and generally saying anything that pops into his head. I like to think of it as an inability or (sometimes) unwillingness to see himself in the context of his relationship with other people.
To put it another way, if he was more aware of others he would not be rampaging through the house singing "If I Only Had a Brain" at the top of his lungs while his mom is on the phone. Why? Because he would consider her. He would be able to distinguish what she might like in her environment (peace and quiet) from what he might like in his environment (some kind of lively cross between indoor football, Charles Ives and a pep rally). As parents we try to teach our kids to be "self-aware". What we really want is for them to see others as they are.