Luke:Overjoyed

My sister’s 4th child is Luke. He is 2 years old. He was a very happy baby (only showing a little frustration when all 3 older siblings would try to kiss him at once). Last summer he was so excited when the kids played in the sprinkler outside. When I visited last summer, he was in that stage where facial expressions are very entertaining and peek-a-boo is still fun so we had a great time doing that in the car. He loved putting things in his mouth, especially my fingers. And just because I am a loving (or crazy) aunt I was quite willing to let him do this even when he would bite just because it brought him such happiness.

Luke is always happy and having fun with his family, but he is very shy around strangers. When I would visit, it would take him a day to warm up to me before he was comfortable being himself (reminds me of myself). Ruth tells of a funny story when they were at a sporting event in a large crowd of people. He kept hugging onto the leg of the stranger standing next to them. Ruth couldn’t figure out why because Luke isn’t like that around strangers. She finally figured out that the guy was wearing shorts similar to his dad’s. Ruth lifted Luke up to show him the face of the stranger whose leg he had been hugging. He was shocked it wasn’t his daddy. After that, every few minutes he would look over at the man and give a low growl and furrow his brow in a scowl! Too funny :-)



One of my favorite memories of Luke is during last Christmas. The extended family all opened gifts at the home of my grandparents on Christmas Eve. We gave Luke a play vacuum cleaner that makes noises and talks when you push it. We had noticed that he was at the stage where he liked pushing things around, but the only thing in their house he could push was his sister’s baby stroller and she was never too happy about that. We know we gave him the right toy, because he spent the rest of the evening pushing it around. He was very engrossed in it.

I’m sure he’s onto a new phrase now, but I can still hear him in my head saying “Don’t!!”—a word taught to him by his older sister who makes sure he is always clear on what toys he can’t play with. Luke is a real cutie!

Life's Purpose (Part 1)

In April, my brother-in-law posted a topic on his blog about life's purpose. He included the following quote:
Purpose Driven Church author and Saddleback Church pastor, Rick Warren, said this in a recent interview:
"People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven."

Brian then asked for people's opinions on the topic. Some agreed. Others said they did not. Rather, they said they thought our purpose is to glorify God. I did not respond to his question yet and my response is too long for a comment on his blog. Instead it will be part of a series on mine.

I disagreed with everyone else. I don't think our purpose is to prep for eternity or to glorify God. I think it is about relationship. We were made to be in communion with God. Here is the first of my ramblings on this subject:

Many people state that our purpose as human beings is to glorify God. These people are well-intentioned, but unfortunately misled. I attribute much of this to the teaching of John Piper. I had to read his book “Desiring God” when I was in seminary. My initial reaction when reading it was that it was off and made me feel uncomfortable. I should have listened to the Spirit then. But like others, I was swept along by his rhetoric and scripture quoting and became convinced. He describes God as a self-seeking, self-worshipping, self-loving God. It smacks you in the face (as it should) as being off because what we have been taught about God is that He is a self-sacrificing lover of humankind. Piper eloquently defends his position that God loves Himself most and it is not “selfish” because it is right—He is the only one worthy of worship. Piper says God’s main purpose is to bring glory to Himself. What I don’t understand is why such a self-loving God would bother to create humans when He knew that many would choose not to glorify Him. If glory was His goal, He messed up when He made man—because even the best of us don’t have a clue how to give Him the glory He is due. In fact we are the only aspect of His creation that fails in this regard.
One of the reasons I think so many people think this is our purpose is because they don’t really know the true meaning of the word “glorify.” The Hebrew word for glorify is “kabed” (kaw-bade) which means “to be heavy.” Probably not at all what you were thinking it meant, right? In a bad sense this means to be burdensome or dull. In a good sense it means to be numerous, rich, honorable. It means “to make weighty.” So, when we glorify God we are ascribing to Him the proper weight or value due Him. We recognize His worth. We bring Him honor. The Greek word for glorify is “doxazo” (dox-ad-zo). It means to render or esteem glorious, honor, magnify.

Poll on Utensils

After reading "Spaghetti with a Spoon," please take the time to vote on the new poll (scroll down on the right side of the page to find it).

Spaghetti with a Spoon

I'm sure all of my alert readers have been waiting with great anticipation for the entry that would shed light on the enigmatic reference to my preference for spoons in the Intro. paragraph. (One reader commented on this so I know at least one person noticed). The mystery will now be resolved.

My family members know that I am very particular about EVERYTHING. I have favorites and preferences about things most people don't waste time contemplating. The normal person has a favorite color, dessert, song, and movie. I admit here that I have a favorite utensil. And that would be the spoon. As a child, I hated forks because I always thought I'd spear myself to death with its sharp points (okay, so I'm not very coordinated). Ask my family members, I still prefer the forks with shorter points. I never understood why most people used forks for almost everything. Spoons are so much better at handling things without spilling them--especially things like peas. I only use a fork for things like meat or green beans--things you need to spear. I even used a spoon to eat cake until that became difficult because most people don't supply spoons at parties. You will always find a spoon at the place setting in my house. I usually have to remind my family to give me a spoon when I'm eating at theirs.

I suppose the most surprising dish that I eat with a spoon is spaghetti. I actually "cut" the spaghetti by turning my fork on its side and cutting in rows horizontally and vertically. So I create neat bite-sized sections. Then I scoop those up with a spoon. Really--you should try it before you knock it. It is much more effective than trying to twirl the long uncut noodles around a fork. Here is a picture:

Grace: Picture Perfect Niece

Grace is my only niece. She is now 3 1/2. Being the only girl, she holds the monopoly on the hearts of all her brothers and father. For all of her female relatives, she is our only doll so we can go overboard when it comes to pictures, dress up and girl stuff. She is a princess to the extreme. Often she will wear her cinderella dress all day.

Grace was her Daddy's shadow--never letting him out of her sight. Even when he would go to the bathroom she would wait outside the door. When Mommy had baby brother Luke, Grace started to mimic Mommy by feeding and caring for her twin dolls. She also likes to help Mommy cook. She likes to mimic Mommy by discipling her dolls and brothers. She can definitely hold her own in a house full of boys. She is full of sass and 'tude. She can be a bit bossy, but she is also precious and sweet. She sings with a very sweet voice and loves to twirl.

Every night before she goes to bed she gets at least 30 minutes of "girl time" with Mommy. They have tea parties, cook in her play kitchen, play with polly pockets and dolls. And then the night culminates with Ruth announcing Grace's full name as she proudly steps up onto a little platform. [Ruth told me she thought this was every girl's dream. It was never mine. But then again I'm not a last born who craves the limelight ;-)] Grace displays incredible dexterity at a young age. She is able to get the teensy polly pocket clothes on. She also has a sense of style. She matches the clothes and accessories properly without any help from Ruth. She's been doing this since she was 2 which I thought was impressive. She is going to start kindergarten in the fall because Ruth thinks she's ready. She knows all colors and numbers up to 20.

One of my favorite stories about Grace is her obsession with stuffing as much as possible into her little purses. She would break them because they couldn't hold up to the cramming. There was a hole in the wall in her bedroom made by the door handle. Her desire to stuff things was not limited to the purses. She put her artificial fruit in the hole in the wall. When her parents finally fixed the wall they found all kinds of interesting toys, socks, and even things Ruth never recalls owning stuck in the wall!

David: Entertainer

My sister Ruth's second born child is David. He just turned 5. He went through a difficult period when he lost the ability to speak (we think it had a lot to do with his immunization shots that he had an allergic reaction to). His younger sister began to speak more clearly than he did and he was frustrated by the inability to express himself. Fortunately, Ruth was able to get a speech therapist to come help him and he speaks perfectly now. Perhaps it is because of his struggles with speech that David's face became so expressive. When he still couldn't speak well, he would keep me entertained at the dinner table with his adorable expressions. We had our own communication going on and I feel that gave us a special bond. David loves performing to make me laugh. Last summer he came up with this odd way of walking (in order to keep his flip-flops from falling off his feet). It made me laugh so hard, so whenever he caught my eye he would do his walk. His siblings tried to mimic it, but no one can do it like him. I always made my mom laugh, so maybe it is just a second-born thing. Anyway, just thinking of David makes me smile. He loves to sing the catchy theme song from the movie "Madagascar": "You've got to move it, move it." It is so cute when he does it.



David absolutely loooooves his little league baseball team. He used to be so forlorn when he was too young to play and his big brother would go off to practice with his Dad. He is now an enthusiastic player--always cheering, "Go Rays!" One of my favorite stories about David comes from the time when he was still a spectator at his brother's games. He would either play in the dirt or run around terrorizing the little girls whose brothers were playing. He would only wear one of 2 things to each game: his batman outfit with cape or his T-Rex t-shirt. When wearing the T-Rex shirt he would chase the girls and pretend to be T-Rex.



Like his brother, David has a tender heart toward spiritual things. When he repented and asked Jesus to forgive him for his sins and come into his heart, he was deeply grieved over his sin. He was a little confused later because when I asked him about it, he said Jesus didn't take away his sins. He thinks that because he continues to do bad things. He will understand this in time, but I think that is something that all of us struggle with. We know that when we repented, we were forgiven of all sins past, present, and future and yet we continue to do the things we don't want to do and don't do the things we want to do. (See Romans 7:14-25)


What else describes David? His favorite color is blue. He likes superheroes, T-Rex, glow-in-the- dark t-shirts, and cow milk (this is an inside joke). He is very good at Math. He was always so great at anything mechanical. He always takes apart his toys and puts them back together again with ease. He is good at physical things. He learned to climb, jump, etc. sooner in his development than his siblings. David is a sweet boy.

Busy Month

I'm so sorry I've been missing in action for about 3 or 4 weeks. I'm the test coordinator at my school and we've had testing these past 4 weeks. We will finally finish up on Thursday. I had to do CRCT with elementary & middle school and other tests for our DC clients. Then it was immediately followed by End of Course Tests for our high school students. Over the past weeks I've had to work late nearly every night. When I came home at night I only had enough time to make dinner and go to bed exhausted. The good news: there are only 11 more school days before summer break! I will be taking 3 classes for my media degree so I'll stay busy, but at least I'll have a break from Devereux.