Bein’ Franklin

Posted by mommyfranklin at November 8th, 2007

I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Luke 18:17

I consider one the best things of parenting is that we can get a glimpse of the relationship that God wants to have with His children. I am surrounding by living, breathing pictures of what Jesus is talking about when He admonishes His followers to have the faith of a child.

Timothy is turning into quite a prayer warrior. He’s always been pretty tuned in to prayers. In fact, I just found a post that I wrote just over a year ago that is about Timothy praying.

About a month ago, Timothy’s teacher had lost her voice. On the way to pick Emily up after school, I heard his sweet voice from the back of the van saying, “Dear God, Thank you for our family (which is how we start our bedtime prayers). Please help Mrs. Robertson’s voice get back in her mouth. What else do I say mommy? Oh yeah, in your name I pray. amen.” It wasn’t long before Mrs. Robertson’s voice was back.

Timothy has, I think in response to our move, regressed some in his potty training. He’s been trained for two years, but has been having some trouble lately. It’s really driving us crazy. On Tuesday, he had an accident. I sent him up the stairs to change his clothes. While he was changing, I heard his voice through the baby monitor that is downstairs in our bedroom. He was saying, “Dear God. Please help me be a big boy and stop pottying in my underwear. In your name I pray. Amen.” And, what do you know? He hasn’t had an accident since.

Yesterday, we were driving to an appointment after picking Emily up from school. Once again, Timothy said a prayer. This time, the prayer was, “Dear God. Please destroy the whole world and put it back together and put robots on it and put a robot in my house. In your name I prayer. Amen.”

I think Timothy’s about to learn about unanswered prayers.

Posted by mommyfranklin at August 21st, 2007

We have decided to visit Calvary Baptist Church again. It’s proximity to our house and the fact that they’ve given me a job appeals to us. We visited there at the beginning of the summer, but really didn’t a clear picture of the church since it was the day before VBS. Emily and Timothy attended VBS there and really liked it. So, we thought we’d give them another try.

We had actually planned to visit there last week, but poor Zachary went tumbling down the stairs after he had gone to retrieve a toy dog that had been tossed up the stairs. Poor kid had quite a bump and bruise on his eye all week.

So,we went this past Sunday. About 10 minutes into the worship service, the nursery worker came and tapped me on the shoulder. They suspected that Zachary had a fever and needed me to come to the nursery when I had a chance. Well, I headed right on over there. Poor kid was just laying on the floor next to his teacher, who was rubbing his head. He walked over to me and I held him for a bit in the rocking chair. He fell asleep pretty quickly. I tried to lay him down, but he woke up immediately and expressed his disapproval at that. So, I decided it was time to go home. We went to get Scott and the others from worship. As soon as we stepped out the door of the church, Zachary threw up on the sidewalk. I was actually prepared for such an event, so we changed his clothes and made it to the van with no more incident. We got home and he slept for about three hours. I think he was worn out from our day full of tax-free shopping the day before. He was still a little sluggish the rest of the day and part of Monday, but is back to his normal happy self today.

With all this happening as we visit this church, we can’t help but wonder if someone doesn’t want us there.

Posted by mommyfranklin at August 6th, 2007

Have you ever experienced thirst? When I went to Kansas City a few weeks ago with the Acteens, there were five different ministries being focused on. One that really got my attention is the Blood:Water Mission. This ministry, brought about by the Christian music group Jars of Clay, works to raise money in order to put water wells in poverty / disease stricken areas of Africa. I’ve never experienced physical thirst. I’ve been thirsty, but a drink has never been far away. I can’t even imagine not having acces to water.

On the way home from the trip, the Acteens asked me if I was going to lead the Acteens group at our new church. I told them I didn’t think I would for a while. When they asked why, I tried to explain to them that I am in a place right now where I need to refilled spiritually. I had been so involved doing work at the church and pouring myself into the Christian development of the children / youth of our church that I have really neglected my own relationship with Christ.

I’d like to say that I came home and started really working on having a daily quiet time and am just on fire now, but I didn’t and I’m not. As often happens after attending a church youth event, it didn’t take too long to fall back into the routine. Swimming lessons and setting up house took over. In fact, I had forgotten about all this until last week.

Last week, Scott and I had a conversation in that we both decided that we were missing our faith. By not attending church regularly, we were missing out on spiritual nourishment. In other words, we were thirsty. That day, Scott found a Bible Reading Plan that we are going through together. It has been wonderful to get back into the Word and read. We are following a Biographical Reading Plan using The Message. I have really enjoyed reading stories I’ve read a million times using a new translation.

We visited Indiana Avenue Baptist Church yesterday. We visited it once before and really liked the Sunday School, but weren’t so sure about the worship. We had the opposite experience yesterday. We weren’t so sure about the Sunday School, but really enjoyed worship. I visited with the Children’s Minister for a bit, and I am very pleased with what they have to offer the children. Anyway, someone in the Sunday School class made the comment that we must take our own relationship with Christ seriously, or we will be turned away. She was referring to Matthew 7:23. I believe in the sanctifying faith of Christ, but it did make me stop and take note. It really spoke to where I am right now, or I should say where I was until we moved. I was so busy feeling important for the work I was doing that I didn’t work on my relationship with Him. Then, in worship, the pastor preached from Psalm 32. He talked about the time in David’s life that this Psalm was written as he shared how we can experience spiritual refreshing. He said there are four steps — cover up (pretending there’s nothing wrong, church work is enough), conviction (when I ignored that little voice that kept telling me to quit some activities), confession, and counsel. I think I am in the confession step now.

One of my favorite choruses of all time is As the Deer, based on Psalm 42:1. I feel like I am finally in that place where I am thirsty and ready to be refreshed. I am done putting things off until the kids are older. That is the best witness I can be for them. But, I am not doing it for them. I am doing it for God and for me.

Along with the Bible Reading Plan, I have a few books in the queue to be read. I really feel my current mission field is my kids, so I am starting with some that are relavent to my life as a mom. I am starting with Gary Chapman’s “The Five Love Languages of Children” and will follow that up with Stormie Omartian’s “The Power of a Praying Parent.” Both of these books have sat on our bookshelf for years. I am ready to get them out and learn from them. From there, I will see where God leads.

Posted by mommyfranklin at July 22nd, 2007

Our church search continues. We’ve started with churches close to the house and are slowly moving our way across Lubbock. We are looking for a church similar to our church in Plainview. We are fairly traditional in our worship style, meaning that we would like to have some hymns mixed in with the choruses from time to time. We want a preacher who digs in and really teaches the word, without rambling. In Sunday School, we came from a class that was taught by a religion professor, so we want to be taught by someone who spent more than five minutes preparing and who knows what he/she’s talking. And, we want to find a church with some of the standard children’s ministries. You know what I mean — GAs, Mission Friends, Children’s Choir, maybe Bible Drill would be good too. If possible, we’d like there to be some kids from Emily’s school there so church friends can be school friends too. I rarely had that growing up, so that is not a priority, but it would be nice. Finally, we are looking for a place where we don’t necessarily have to be overly involved right at first. We have had a tendency to jump in with both feet at the last two churches we’ve joined. In Plainview, we created a young couples’ Sunday School class and served as directors, Scott was part of the media ministry, I was the Acteens leader, Scott was part of the Vision team, and I was involved in the children’s ministry by leading a children’s choir, working as a nursery coordinator, serving on the MOPS steering team, and directing the mother’s day out for a while. While we enjoyed the work, it was a lot. And the fact that I actually received a paycheck there made it a little hard to make church attendance feel like anything besides a job. At the church we went to when we lived in Lubbock before, Scott was basically the volunteer children’s minister, we lead the children’s choir, we headed up the apartment ministry, and we started a couple’s sunday school class. While we don’t think it will be long before we find a way to be involved in the work of whatever church we decide to join, we are being cautious as we conduct our search. We’re staying open to where God wants us without rushing in too quickly.

Let me give you a general overview of what it is like when we visit a church. We are fortunate to have the internet available to us so we can scope out the church and its ministries before actually stepping foot in the building. We check out the schedule online and try to arrive about 15 minutes early to Sunday School so we can get the kids to their classes. So, we walk in and are either greeted by someone who will show us around (a good thing!) or need to seek someone out to help us (not great). Whatever the case may be, the boys are always quite anxious to introduce themselves and announce their ages to whoever is showing us to the class. They talk one after each the other after Scott has introduced himself. It sounds something like this, “Hi I’m Scott Franklin and this is my wife Lori. Name Zachee, I’m Timothy, I’m four years old, years old.” Emily very politely walks along behind us and answers questions about her name and age when asked. (What a difference two and a half years makes.) As we drop the kids off, the person showing us around generally apologizes that attendance is low because of it being summer and sometimes we even arrive before the kids’ teacher (a pitfall of arriving early). We give instructions about each kid and get instructions about where we can retrieve them at the end of Sunday Schol or Worship. We check with Timothy’s teachers to find out what is the “norm” for his age about attending Sunday School or Worship, and follow that procedure. Then, we finally make it to our own Sunday School class about 10 minutes late. Choosing a Sunday School class has been an experience in that we are attending classes for couples age 30 and up. Instead of being one of the oldest in the group, we are the youngest. It’s been nice to meet people our age with children the age of ours, but has definitely taken some getting used to. After Sunday School, we pick up any of the kids going to worship with us and head into worship.

Today was our fifth church to visit. We visited Oakwood Baptist Church. It is about 15 minutes from home. This was the church that our pastor from Plainview had encouraged us to visit, so we were fairly confident that it would have some of the qualities that we were looking for. Once we got the kids dropped off and made it to our class, we learned that the staff and Sunday School teacher had received an email about us from our pastor. Anyway, today was the first time in about a month that Timothy had gone to “big church” with us. He had gotten pretty good at it in Plainview, but was clearly out of practice today. He really struggled with sitting still and following along with the songs. We realize he’s four, so we don’t expect silence or for him to be perfectly still. But we do want him to whisper and to at least stand when it’s time to stand and sit when it’s time to sit. We also realize that most people probably don’t even notice our kids, as they are busy with their own families anyway. A couple from our Sunday School class invited us to sit with them during worship today (which hasn’t happened at any other church). They had four boys ages 4 to 9, so there was plently of activity going on in the pew. Especially when you add Emily and Timothy to the crowd. It was easy to tell which kids had been to school and had a basic idea of how to sit still.

Hopefully we’ll find a place soon so the kids can have some consistency. Every week they tell us that the church we visited was their favorite. So far, we feel the same way.

Posted by mommyfranklin at March 20th, 2007

Words cannot express how special Sunday morning was.

Now we have an important task before us — to help her faith grow.
In case you were wondering, the pastor’s secretary sent me the prayer request form that the pastor referred to during her baptism. I have it tucked away in a safe place.

Posted by mommyfranklin at February 22nd, 2007

On Sunday morning, Emily woke us up telling us that she was ready to walk the aisle. She had dreamt about it all night and was ready. So, we asked her what she was going to say to the pastor. She said she was going to tell him that she asked Jesus into her heart at a Veggietales show on December 8th and that she wanted to be baptized. We asked her if she wanted to walk the aisle alone or if she wanted us to go with her. She said she wanted to go alone, but wanted us to stand with her when the pastor announces her. She had it all figured out. So, we all got ready and were off. She practiced her speech all the way there. I wonder if she told her Sunday School teachers about it too…

Every time the pastor stood in front of the church during worship, Emily asked if it was time to walk the aisle. We reminded her that it would be time when the pastor prayed after he was done preaching. During the sermon, she kept asking me what part of the sermon outline he was on. She was ready.

Finally, the pastor was praying and the hymn of invitation, “Have Thine Own Way,” began. We again asked if she wanted us to go with her. She shook her head and moved to the aisle on the first note of the song. She walked straight to the pastor. He leaned down and picked her up. She told us later that this is what he said:
Emily, are you here to tell everyone that Jesus is in your heart and that you are getting baptized next week?
Yes, sir.
That’s great! Go back to the seat and have your mom and dad come sit with you on the front row. In a minute, we’ll have you stand up in front to let everyone know about this.
Okay.
Then, he put Emily down and she came back to get us. Timothy didn’t know what was going on, but was happy to get to come with us to the front row.

A couple other people joined the church that day, so we needed to wait a few minutes for the song to end. Then, he introduced Emily and asked that we join her. He had some trouble remembering all our names, and introduced us as “Scott Franklin, Mrs. Franklin, and Little Franklin.” He told the church about Emily’s decision, and asked that they come and greet her after the closing prayer.

Here is a video of Emily’s profession of faith that we pulled off the TV recording Tuesday night.

Emily walked out of church with her head held high. She was so happy! It didn’t even bother that she didn’t get to deliver her speech that she had practiced all morning. On the way to lunch, Timothy decided to voice his objection at the way he had been introduced. He informed us that he is NOT Little Franklin, he is Timothy Reagan Franklin!

I didn’t mind being called Mrs. Franklin. I am just so proud of my little girl making such an important decision.

1 down, 2 to go.

Posted by mommyfranklin at January 13th, 2007

The past few weeks, Emily has been meeting with our pastor about salvation. On December 8, she prayed to ask Jesus into her heart. We’re delighted for her decision. Because of her age, we felt it best that she meet with the pastor before making a profession of faith and being baptized. So far, she has met with him four times. Her final meeting will be this week. Scott and I have taken turns going with her. I went with her last week. We talked about how each person is created unique and for a purpose. He asked Emily how many 6 years old named Emily there are that are just exactly like her. She seemed to grasp the idea that she is an original.

It’s so amazing to me that we are unique not only by our abilities, but also by our appearance. We often hear about how much Timothy and Zachary look alike. We used to argue that while there is no denying that they are brothers, they each have their own unique look. Lately, we’ve more inclined to just let it go. We are with the boys day in and day out, so we notice their differences more than those who don’t see them as much.

Almost as much as we hear that the boys look alike, we hear that the boys look just like Scott and that Emily looks like me. I’ve been looking at some old pictures lately, and have really enjoyed seeing the similarities in our baby pictures and the kids’ pictures.

These are some pictures of us around the age that the kids are now and some pictures of the kids at age 2, 3 1/2, and 6.

Me

Scott

Zachary

Timothy

Emily

This is not to dispute anybody’s opinion about who the kids look like. All three of them definitely favor both of us at times. These were just some that I found interesting.
What do you think?

We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

Posted by mommyfranklin at September 28th, 2006

Kids are amazing. They can take a hard situation and teach us something about God. And, they don’t even know they are doing it! They don’t have to make lesson plans and figure out exactly how they are going to say something. They just have to be themselves.

It’s been one of those weeks. On Tuesday, Scott came home with no voice. On Wednesday, he went to the doctor and learned that he has laryngitis and is highly contagious. It’s viral, so all we can do is treat the symptoms and avoid his germs.

I don’t know if it’s because he’s recently started going to mission friends or because of the mishaps that have occurred lately, but Timothy has started developing an interest in praying for others. Each night, we all gather as a family in the boys’ bedroom and say a simple bedtime prayer. Generally, it is a prayer of thankgiving that we say in unison. Even Zachary is starting to pick up some of the words. Monday night, after learning of Zachary’s broken collar bone, we decided to pray for Zachary as part of our prayer.

Last night, as we started saying our prayer, Timothy asked “what do I pray for tonight?” He decided to pray for daddy’s voice to come back, I would pray for Zachary, and Emily would pray for Gran and Ol’ Granddad. As soon as we were done praying, Timothy asked Scott if he could talk yet. Scott told Timothy that he can talk a little. Timothy got very excited seeing his prayer being answered. He said, “His voice is back! I prayed for his voice!”

Today, Scott returned to work. He is not 100% better yet, but was able to make it through class this morning. Zachary is on the mend. His clavicle splint is a little big, so it keeps slipping off his shoulder. The doctor has ordered an extra-small for him, so we will trade it in tomorrow. He really hasn’t slowed down much. More than once, I have had to help him off a chair that he’s climbed onto. He’s taking motrin around the clock, and that seems to be relieving his pain. The tonsilitis isn’t bothering him a bit. Thanks to everyone for the get well wishes / prayers!

Thank you, Timothy, for reminding us to have faith.

Posted by mommyfranklin at May 5th, 2006

Yesterday, in observance of the National Day of Prayer, the Acteens led a community prayerwalk. Well, really they led 5 community prayerwalks. I was not able to attend our meeting in the latter part of February because of illness, so the other leader told me she would have the girls plan a prayerwalk for the National Day of Prayer. It sounded like a great idea to me. Being the leader of the group, the staff soon started asking me for details about the prayerwalk. I wasn’t really able to give them much information, and I promised to get more soon. So, at our meeting at the end of March, I asked the girls for the details. It was then that I learned that they had planned quite a project! They had planned a prayer walk at 7am and noon, two at 5pm, and a prayer busride at 8pm. They had determined a route and meeting place for each walk and had decided that we would serve some type of refreshments at each walk. We had our plan and about 6 weeks to get it all put together. We split up the responsibilities of publicity, reserving the meeting places, securing refreshments, and creating a prayer guide for the walks.

By the meeting at the end of April, we had the places reserved and had began publicizing the event. At that meeting, we drove around town and hung posters up all over town. The rest of the details were things that had to be done during the last two weeks leading up to the walk. A couple of the Acteens made an announcement in the church service, another of the girls helped make a prayer guide, the other leader had an ad put in the paper and on the radio, and the church hostess helped us get some food. The church staff was encouraging people to attend. Everything was ready.

Wednesday night, we had some thunderstorms roll through. This made me a little anxious about the prayer walks. In a farming community of West Texas, you just don’t pray that it doesn’t rain. I found myself praying that the weather would not hinder attendance.

At 6:00 yesterday morning, I got out of bed and got Emily ready for school. The first walk was at her school, so she was going with me. We got in Scott’s car, coasted in to the gas station closest to our house, and made it to Emily’s school about 6:50. It was a nice, crisp morning. We were joined by 7 other people ready to go. It was a little cool, so we made it a prayer drive instead. The nine of us visited the private school, the YMCA, a park, a fire station, and a public elementary school. We had donuts and were done by 7:45. The extra donuts were donated to the private school.

I left Emily at school and headed home so Scott could go to work. He had to finish grading finals so he could get his grades turned in by 4pm. Zachary and I took Timothy to school and then went to the church to take care of things for the next walk and then to Wal-Mart to get some cupcakes for a party that would take place at Timothy’s school later that day. We finally made it home around 10:30 to relax for a bit.

At 11:45, Zachary and I picked Scott up at work and headed to the church for prayerwalk #2. We served a light lunch and then headed out on the walk. It had warmed up nicely. We were joined by the church staff and secretaries, a couple church members, and a few people from surrounding businesses. The twenty-two of us walked to the police department, the 6th grade school, the courthouse, and then back to the church. It was just under a mile. The Acteens led a prayer at each stop. As promised, we were done just in time for people to get back to work.

Next, Zachary and I headed to Emily’s school to sub during naptime. Poor Zachary was running on adrenaline by this time. He was pretty hyper and that made the kindergarteners a little hard to manage. We survived the hour and then went back to Wal-Mart to pick up the cupcakes we had ordered that morning. We made it to Timothy’s school just in time for his birthday party. We had a great time having cupcakes with his classmates.

By the time we picked Emily up from school, Zachary was out of steam. He was snoozing. I was getting low on prayer guides, so I needed to go to the church to make some more. I left the kids in the van while I ran inside to make the copies. I promised Emily and Timothy I would get them some candy from the children’s minister while I was in there. This all ended up taking much longer than I anticipated because I managed to jam the paper folding machine while I was there. Everything worked out fine, thanks to the help of the church secretaries.

We left the church at 4:00. Time to go home. Scott soon joined us at home and I headed to the high school for the next walk. We had one at the high school and one at another of the elementary schools. These were attended only by the Acteens. There were three at the high school and six at the other school (one of the girls had brought her boyfriend). At the high school, we decided to drive around as we were all pretty tired. So, we went to a fire station, 6 schools, and a church. The other group went to two schools, the airport, and the sheriff’s office. There were lots of cookies to be enjoyed!

I got home and we had a nice dinner with some friends. We got home around 7 and I had some time to get ready for the last walk. Timothy decided to go with me on this one. It was his first bus ride. We had nine in attendance — 5 Acteens, one Acteens’ boyfriend, one set of one of the Acteens’ grandparents, Timothy, and me. We drove to the hospital, three schools, and back to our church.

It was a great day. We prayed at each school in town, several fire stations, the police department, the sheriff’s office, the airport, the courthouse, two parks, two churches, and the hospital. We prayed for our nation, state, and local leaders. We prayed for our staff by name. We prayed for the families of Plainview. We prayed for the media. I am so proud of the Acteens for all their hard work.

Today, I am tired. Emily’s a little sick so she’s home with us. We have a birthday party tomorrow to get ready for. What am I doing? I am sitting here writing about my day. Hmmm… I better get a move on!

Posted by mommyfranklin at April 11th, 2006

You are invited to my online party for my re-birthday. I am 22 today! Here’s a fun little game I thought you may enjoy. How many books of the bible can you find hidden in the following paragraph?

There are 30 books of the Bible in this paragraph. Can you find them? This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much, he passed it on to some friends. One friend from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot. That’s a fact. Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or a scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this paragraph. During a recent fund raising event, which featured this puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phi lemonade booth set a new record. The local paper, The Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, “The books are all right here in plain view hidden from sight.” Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation that may help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind, that punctuation and spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete really well against those who claim to know the answers. Remember, there is no need for a mad exodus; there really are 30 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found. God Bless.

Here’s the solution –
http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/hidden.htm