Volume

So, I've had trouble coming up with a post for this week. I have had several ideas at one time or another but never wrote them down when I had them and then forgot them. I hate it when that happens! But last night, on the way to small group, my children provided me with rich material again...

Summer is a long season for a stay at home mom. There is no school, no mother's day out, fewer playdates and it is really too hot to send the kids outside for long periods of time.

One of the symptoms of this summer illness is that siblings get a little sick of each other. My girls are the best of friends and the worst of enemies in any given moment! They stay up late whispering across thier room to each other and giggling. And they scream at each other for taking a precious toy or writing in the other's diary.

Last night, we are in the minivan (can I just say again that we cannot live without our minivan?!) driving to our weekly small group meeting. The younger is writing in the air...yes, the air, with her finger. The older is screaming that the younger is writing on her rainbow. But, they are both writing in the air. After the first three screaming matches about this encroachment, the hilarity of it left me. They were getting on my last nerve.

As any other mother of young children, I want to teach them to resolve conflict in a healthy and constructive way. So, I turned the music on so loud that they both had to cover their ears! :-) After their jaws began to close, I turned it down to listening level and marveled that immediately they began singing praises together. In fact, their daddy would love to hear that there was even some harmony trying to work itself out from the back seat as we all belted out "How Can I Keep from Singing?"

That got me wondering about our church. We are in a painful time when lots of people seem to just be getting on each other's nerves. Maybe we should just turn up the praise a little...