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This photo was taken by our daughter, Sarah Timmons, or my wife, depending on who you ask. We were in Rehoboth Beach, DE on Easter Sunday, 2011.


Several years ago, on the way home from a family vacation, I picked up a notebook and quickly recorded an incident that had occurred involving our son. Eventually, I used that story to illustrate something about my spiritual walk as a believer in Christ. Thus began a deliberate attempt to document the significance of everyday events. Almost any ordinary circumstance in daily life can become fodder for another story. This, almost by definition, lends itself to a blog.

Of course, many of the entries here are just ordinary diary style stuff... the stuff of ordinary blogs. Good grief, I don't want to be ordinary.


Thursday, November 24, 2011

I’m Not Really Interested

While we are all for freedom of speech in our family, we have a seldom followed meal time rule regarding complaining about the food.  The rule is simple - do not complain.

One Saturday morning, we had just started eating after Tina had spent roughly forty five minutes cooking a breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and apples.  Elias started with the borderline comment “are there any small pancakes?”  We let this slide, as it was just a question, and while it could have escalated into a complaint, it did not.

Then Asher chimed in with his opinion of my wife’s labor.  When he first uttered it, the comment was so unusual that I initially did not understand what he had said (it didn’t help that his mouth was partially full of food).  “Did you say I’m not into this bacon?” I questioned him.  Where did he pick up that terminology I wondered.  How does a six year old even know what he is into, and what he isn’t?

“No”, he replied, “I said I’m not really interested in this bacon.  It’s too soft and salty”.

I pondered that a moment.  Not one to pass up an opportunity for some positive reinforcement, I said “I like the way you said that Asher”.  His mother quickly agreed.  My son (the boy formerly identified as a genius) had stumbled onto the perfect way to comment on food he did not like. 

There was such beauty in his comment.  His statement did not attack his mother’s cooking.  It did not express ingratitude for The Lord’s provision of daily bread.  He was not stating as a matter of fact that he was not going to eat the bacon.  It was brilliant, executed perfectly, and couldn’t have been said any better if he had contemplated it for years.  But he didn’t, he just blurted it out off the cuff.  It came out graciously, almost miraculously.  Boy genius strikes again.

Where did our son get such tact, such control?  Could years of diligent parental instruction finally have taken root?  Did my own consistently appreciative attitude towards his mother’s cooking suddenly become his own after my extraordinary role modeling (and humility)?  On the other hand, perhaps The Lord Himself did a work in this young heart, and it was manifested in this masterful piece of conversational art.

Suffice it to say, Asher’s attitude was a small miracle.  Not that our son is totally insensitive and inconsiderate, but he is six.  At that moment, he was living in another realm completely out of character.

It is a realm in which we could all aspire to live.  If somehow we could address certain circumstances with an attitude that said “I’m not really interested in that”, what a difference it would make in our relationships.  It is a realm where we would share what’s on our hearts without treading on the hearts of others, a realm where we would allow The Lord to meet another believer in the way He sees fit, in a way that may not necessarily interest us

The applications in church life are endless, and they all reflect the same basic premise:  while those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ may be headed in the same direction, I may not be too excited about the particulars of the course you have chosen (or The Lord has chosen for you).  You may not be too excited about the course I have chosen.  But I can allow you to press on in your way, you can allow me to press on in my way, and we can love and encourage each other as we press on in the common direction of The Lord.

Like Asher’s apparent epiphany, this may take a small miracle.  Our natural tendency is to argue our own point, to attempt to make our own course everyone’s course, or to become frustrated when others don’t choose to walk the same particular path on which we walk.

Thankfully we have been freed from our “natural tendency” by Christ.  We can live in another realm, where we find ourselves living and behaving outside our natural tendencies, a realm where we treat each other with gentleness.  When we do, we must be quick to thank Him for doing a work in our heart.  We fully understand that it is not us, but it is like that apparent out-of-character miracle that our young son experienced.  And just as Tina and I thought as Asher gently stated his position on bacon, we may catch ourselves saying “where did THAT come from?”

Note:  Asher is now 8 1/2 years old.  

First appeared in the December 2009 edition of the Manna. http://readthemanna.org

Who ARE these people?

According to the tracking information that Blogger provides me, since I started this blog, there were 19 page views from Russia, 10 page views from Germany, and 14 page views from Romania.

Apparently, B.A.Timmons has become a world-wide internet sensation. 

How will I ever remain humble under these circumstances?

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Negotiation Tactics of Boys

We were going through a junk drawer, and Tina found this note from our two boys which they had written some time back.  The boys slept in bunk beds for years, and then one day decided they wanted a change.  Apparently their request was not moving fast enough, and in an effort to move things along more quickly, they presented us with this written argument.

We did move the big wooden train out of their room, moved the dresser, and separated their beds to opposite sides of the room.  For the record, Elias has found a way to sleep with a "small pile of well used toys to keep him occupied" piled on the end of his bed.

What concerns me the most, however, is that when our boys are grown, and they think back to their childhood, what they will remember is their daddy being unhappy about the state of their room.

This is the definition of a no-win situation for a father.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Robert Frost


I can't recall what year it was, but we were given an assignment in English class to pick any poem and interpret it for the class.  I chose this Robert Frost poem.  It's imagery grabbed me, and I talked about the serenity of the scene depicted by the snow, the harness bells, the horse plodding along, and the woods.

When I finished my analysis, the instructor informed us all that this poem was really about dark things... the contemplation of withdrawing from society and obligations, or even from life itself.  It was a depressing poem, said he.  I think my dislike of poetry began at that moment.

Recently I read that no one really knows for sure what Frost was getting at.  But it may not be as suicidal as some would like to think.  Perhaps he just liked the way the words sounded together.

I believe I like poetry again.  Mr. English teacher, stick your analysis in your ear.


Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
By Robert Frost
 
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. 

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Christmas in Odessa, Delaware

Today we considered taking a quick hour and fifteen minute drive up to Odessa, DE to take a tour of 18th century life.  After some discussion, we elected instead to go once they are decorated for Christmas.  So within the next couple of weeks, we will be off to Odessa.





Historic Odessa, DE







This is what our wreath and entry usually look like after Thanksgiving.  O.k., so our wreath is not quite this big.




Note:  All pictures are courtesy of the Historic Odessa Foundation web site.

 Postscript:

This is the Appoquinimink Meeting in Odessa.  It is said to be "the smallest brick house of
worship in the United States".  I think I would like to attend here.



 Appoquinimink Meeting House


Postscript to the Postscript:  

Unfortunately, we did not make it up to Odessa for the tour, due to the ubiquitous busyness of the season.  It will remain on our list of things to do.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Sea Finds

I first met Al and Linda Abrams when they asked me to build a deck for them in May of 2002.  One day while working alone at their house, I noticed a container of Skittles sitting out.  I ate a majority of them, and left a note informing them of my dirty deed.  Since then, every time I have done any work for the Abram's, I always find a supply of Skittles waiting for me on the job. 


The Abrams opened up a little gift shop in Rehoboth Beach, DE a few years ago called Sea Finds.  I wasn't aware of it until they decided to move to a better location and needed a counter/room divider built.  I fell in love with their shop.  I especially appreciated the fact that Al makes many of the items, and others are made by local artists.  I took my wife and children in, and they all fell in love with the shop as well.



When our anniversary rolled around last summer ('11), I knew the perfect gift for my wife.  The Abrams carried sea glass pendant necklaces.  I devised a plan to stop in the shop with my wife, where she would pick out a necklace, and then we would continue on to dinner.  I texted Linda of my intentions, and asked for suggestions for dinner.  She suggested a Mexican restaurant directly across the street from their shop, the Mariachi Restaurant.  Perfect.  Linda told me to let her know when we were on our way so that she would be sure to be there.

Tina was pleased with my plan as it unfolded.  We found a necklace she liked.  As we left the shop, Al gave me a business card and told me to give it to the man at the door of Mariachi's.  "Ahh," he said, and took us upstairs to an outside deck table.  We had a wonderful dinner, and when it came time to pay our bill, the waiter informed us that it "was all taken care of".  Of course, we knew immediately what had happened, and hightailed it back to the Abrams to thank them.

It was a beautiful gesture, and a defining moment in our relationship.  This couple genuinely cares about us.  They have become much more than customers over the past 9 years.  They have become our friends.  This type of developing relationship is one of the things that gives me the greatest satisfaction in my line of work.  It's what turns work into pleasure.  And without it, work would just be, well work.