Sabbath Rest

Last night we attended a prayer and worship service called VERTICALE. It was creative and interesting, with the chairs arranged in different sections like you would in a Paris metro car. Probably 60-80 people were present, which was encouraging. It's good to see this monthly event developing.

Our 2 daughters did really well there. Our older daughter (age 5) exclaimed that she really enjoyed last night, as she enjoyed talking with different people. We want our kids to have positive experiences about "church."

Our son had a harder time. As he is strong willed, we're going through a process of having to be stricter with him. This is not really fun for my wife and me, as we were both fairly compliant kids. I won the "good citizenship" award iin my 4th and 5th year classes. But it struck me fairly recently that, out of love for him, we need to get tougher. If we don't, then it will fall upon his future employers and teachers to do so. A verse that struck me is one from Proverbs that says something like "A man without self-control is like a city without walls." He needs to do better at developing self-control and choosing good attitudes. But my wife and I are now on a united front about this.

I drafted a letter (which my wife advised) in French to my son's teacher about a current difficult situation in with our son and a classmate. We're trying to get her to move our son to a different section of the classroom.

We've often thought that a Saturday night service would be fantastic, as it leaves Sunday as a true day of rest from our normal "work." I woke up rested at 6:00 a.m., so I was able to take the older kids when they woke up so my wife could sleep in a little longer. She made waffles for breakfast and I bought Pizza Hut for lunch. We took down our Christmas tree and decorations in the afternoon, then I took them down and reorganized our storage area in the basement. It's nice to have this done in order to get ready for 2 birthday parties in a couple of weekends.