Change in the City

I just finished reading an article in the New York Times about our city and the trouble going on here with race and socioeconomic issues. Some things never change, unfortunately. And yet some things do change, slowly but change nonetheless. Read this article if you get a chance and pray for our city, for people being taken advantage of, for people that would rather turn their heads and walk away than to help change this place for the better. It is part of the reason we live in the neighborhood that we do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/business/economy/31memphis.html?pagewanted=1&ref=business

What this article did not report on is some of the good going on in this city, some of the change that has been for the better. Every morning last week I would wake up and see 9 young adults work on Ms. Farris' house next door. They were here with a group from SOS, www.sosmemphis.org, who were giving Ms. Farris a new roof but much more than that when you look below the surface. They were giving her a glimmer of hope, good change in the midst of bad, a picture of Jesus. Each afternoon they sat on her front porch, sharing lunch and a devotional with her. They gave her warm smiles each morning as they arrived and hugs each afternoon when they left. They were young adults who have given up a week of their summer to be in the extreme heat of Memphis not because they had to but because they wanted to, because they know change is a good thing or at least it can be.

Apathy is probably one of the worst problems we see here in Binghampton. Either people are so far at the bottom they don't care anymore or they think that no one else cares so why should they. I believe that if we eradicate this apathy we will begin to see big change here. When people like Ms. Farris see that people love her and care then she starts to care. And hopefully there is a ripple effect.

Yes, there are problems here. Problems with the economy, problems with race, problems with drugs, crime, the list goes on...and truthfully it can wear on you, make you feel like we have taken one step forward but two steps back. But I believe in a God of redemption and restoration, one that is alive and well in Binghampton, Memphis and the world.

Insight

This week was an exciting one for the Brady family. Tuesday morning Tim Tebow spoke at PDS chapel and then Tuesday night we were invited to go meet him in person. The boys were practically walking on air. I am pretty sure Preston's face hurt him the next day from smiling so much.

I can honestly say after meeting Tim Tebow he is as true as he seems. I remember two years ago watching his acceptance speech of the Heisman trophy and standing there with tears in my eyes thanking the Lord that there was a great athlete that my boys could look up to. Someone that loved Jesus more than he loved sports, someone that recognizes where his athletic ability comes from and gives thanks for it everyday. Ever since then our family has been following Tim Tebow. Several times I have used him as an example after Preston or Bennett have lost a game or had a poor sportsmanship attitude. But in the back of my mind I have always wondered, is this guy real? Is he saying all the right things, smiling, wearing scripture under his eyes, etc... but what is really in his heart?

Well, I met him firsthand on Tuesday night and what comes out of his mouth is due to an overflow of his heart. He is in love with Jesus and not afraid to share that. He was one of the nicest guys I have ever met and it was a joy to get to spend some time with him. When I met him I asked him to tell me two things that he thought his parents did to raise him well and for him to be the man of character that he has become. Here was his response.

"It is hard to narrow it down to two things. But if I could just give you two off the top of my head it would be to build confidence in your kids and to teach them to have their own faith." He went on to say that peer pressure was never a major problem for him or his siblings because his parents taught him from the very beginning that their identity comes from Christ. His parents constantly pointed out things that they saw that were gifts from the Lord in their children and instilled a sense of self worth and confidence in them that can only come from Christ. Tim said, "When other kids were doing things that were wrong, I would think, I don't need that or for you to think I am cool. I know who I am in Christ and I know what he thinks of me and that is all that matters."

He went on to say to make sure your kids have their own faith and can stand alone. Don't let them rely on your faith so much that when they get in the world they really don't know what they believe. Teach them how to stand up for what they believe in and make sure never to force them into a religion.

I have been thinking a lot about that conversation over the past few days. And I have started trying to point out to my kids what I see in them in as gifts from the Lord. Yesterday we were riding home and Bennett saw some run down apartments, he made a comment about how if we could help people take care of their property, cut their grass, pick up the trash that maybe they would feel better about where they live. I said, "Bennett you know what? God has given you a gift of great insight. That means that you see things that other people don't see. That you look through eyes that want to help people and see the good in things and what can be done to make it better, not the bad. We are so proud of you and love that you have great insight."

Bennett turns to me puts two fingers in front of his eyes. "I can see through my fingers too mom." Okay, so not the point but hopefully someday he will think back and understand what I was telling him. Preston who was sitting in the front seat looks at me after a few minutes of silence and says, "Can he really see through them mom?"

Wow, we have a long way to go.

Speak into your child today a confidence that comes from Christ. Let them know the gifts He has given them and guide them into making their faith their own. Tim Tebow's parents did and it has made all the difference.

Why?

We have been living in our new house for 2 months now. Crazy! It has really been a whirlwind and I think we all finally feel settled. Emma is now in a big girl bed, Bennett has adjusted to sleeping in a room by himself and Preston has grown 2 inches stands at 5ft tall and sleeps in a Queen size bed. 3 more inches and he will be standing eye to eye with me. He is not even 12 yet if that gives you an idea of what I am going to be looking up to.

So many times people ask us, "what do you do in Binghampton?" To which we respond, we don't "do" anything. We just live our lives according to the gospel, love our neighbor as ourself, love each other, love Jesus, etc...It is what we should all be doing. No matter what your zip code.

But over the past two months it has hit me several times why we live here, not what we do but why we do it. The bottom line and easy answer would be to tell you that we do it because it is what God has called our family to. But here is the hard answer and much longer one. So for those of you that like easy you can stop now.

A couple of weeks ago I spent 20 minutes having a conversation with Precious ( a girl in our neighborhood) about how we don't hit to get our point across. I then spent another 20 telling her cousin that you don't ask people what they bought you when they get back from the store.

The next day I spent a good chunk of time explaining to one of the boys that you don't cheat in a game just to win. That you should play by the rules. A couple of nights later Erin and I fed 3 kids on our street pizza, carrots and fruit. Kids that otherwise might not have eaten supper. We talked to them about being gracious and kind. Last week I called code enforcement on an empty lot that people had started using as their own personal trash dump, it was cleaned up a few days later.

Every night we pray with our kids and ask for God to bless our neighborhood, to help us share Jesus with our neighbors and for the poor. We talk to our kids about injustice and what the Bible teaches on how to take care of the orphan and the widow.

Tonight my 11 year old shared about Jesus with his two year old sister. He told her how much Jesus loved her and asked her if she loved Jesus. She said No, but that is beside the point. She says no to just about everything these days.

Here is what I am really trying to say. Why do we do it? We do it because someone has to. If Precious, Marquavius, Keisha, etc... are not taught about grace and love, if they are not taught how not to cheat, steal and use their words instead of their fist then they will not know to be or do any different. They will turn into teenagers, young adults, men and women who steal, lie, cheat and maybe worse because no one will have ever shown or told them any different. If someone does not watch out for the elderly like Ms. Farris, she will be taken advantage of. If someone doesn't call code enforcement and get streets, lots and houses cleaned up then this neighborhood will continue to decline.

We do it because we believe that Jesus is bigger than any problem the hood has ever seen. We believe that by our kids watching, learning and growing up here they will learn how to take initiative for the benefit of others, how to share Jesus ( it is already happening with Preston,) and they will know they are not better than others because they are white, live in a "good" neighborhood or get a good education.

I don't know that we will ever see any fruit from the relationships that we build here. And honestly sometimes it feels futile. But I am told to put my trust in eternal things to put my hope in the unseen. So are we making a difference? I don't know, I would like to think so, but if nothing else it is impacting my family to count the cost and realize that this life is not about us. And I could not be more grateful for the call to be here.

That is why we live here. That is why we do what we do. It is why we are who we are.

Full Swing

We just finished up a great weekend of beautiful spring weather, well almost. Friday and Saturday were beautiful, Sunday was cold, wet and dreary but hopefully it won't last. The Brady bunch was in full swing of sporting events and busy weekend activities.

On Friday when Bennett came home he had a note in his bag saying that his art work had been chosen by MAIS (Memphis Association of Independent Schools) to be in an art exhibit on Sunday afternoon at Baptist Women's Hospital. We were thrilled and so proud! I said, "Bennett what did you draw?" His response, "I have no idea." So not only was it an exciting event but an unveiling of sorts as all of us waited in suspense to see what the art work would consist of.

Saturday morning Bennett played in the first soccer game of the season. His team lost and lost bad, friends. He was all smiles until he got in the car he said, "I think I'm done with soccer, I want to play lacrosse like Preston." Well, much to your dismay son, you signed up for soccer and you are going to finish what you started but you can play lacrosse next year. He wasn't too happy with that response but hopefully after a win he can move forward.

We left the soccer field and went straight to the lacrosse field to watch Preston play. This has become my new favorite sport. It is soo fun to watch, like football with sticks. I find myself becoming that aggressive mom in the stands (what Braxton likes to call the Bartlett coming out in me-if you are from Memphis you will get that) the one that yells a little louder than the others, and embarrasses her husband and children but I only do this when the game gets a little rough, usually. And if you know anything about lacrosse it can get a little rough. A few times I found myself yelling "hit him Preston, knock him down." Yes, I did just turn 34 and not 13 but sometimes my competitive spirit takes over. Covered by grace people, we are covered by grace.

All in all it was a great weekend, no stomach bug, no floods, no lady bug infestation, and no busted chins. We did go today to the art exhibit and Emma rubbed two ladies' behinds. I think she got distracted and walked up to them thinking they were me and just gently started rubbing their behinds. Just a wee bit embarrassing but not quiet as embarrassing as her standing in the middle of the exhibit pulling up her dress and trying to take her diaper off. For real, Emma? For real.

Bennett's art work was beautiful. It is a tree house made from popsicle sticks and painted in bright colors. He was so funny, he walked up to it and said, "Oh yeah, I did that, can we go now?" He's got a real appreciation for art if you can't tell.

Here are a few pictures from the weekends events.

I love this one, doesn't she look so proud of him?

Bennett with his art work

I love this, look at that tongue hanging out!

Preston plays middie in Lacrosse, I have no idea what that means but I figure if I am going to scream I might as well look knowledgeable!

Boogers on my Pillow

The past week in the Brady house was completely exhausting. 4 out of 5 of us had a violent stomach bug. And I don't use the term violent loosely. Picture what you may in your head and I promise it was worse. Much worse. I am pretty sure I reached whatever legal limit may be on the consumer warnings for Clorox. The only good part was that the bug hit us during spring break and so everyone was out of school, oh wait a minute, that's not good news according to my children. We all survived and I must say I do like the "skinny" feeling you get after that much of an exodus from your stomach and intestines. I had that thought as I shared a donut with my children Sunday morning before church. Oh well, skinny like happy is a fleeting feeling, I like chubby and content much better or at least I have worn them well for the past 34 years.

In the days prior to the above mentioned Bennett glided into age 7 and I slammed into the "thirty somethings." I guess there are some things worse than that, like cleaning up vomit and other unmentionables for 72 hours straight.

This morning I woke up with a two year old turned sideways in my bed. Feet in my chest, her head in her daddy's chest. As I started to get up I noticed her boogers on my pillow and I had to laugh. It seems that there have been lots of boogers on my pillow lately, both literally and figuratively. I think sometimes that is just life. You wake up and there is some yuck you have to deal with.

I also think there are two options of how to respond. I was reading in Colossians yesterday and in chapter 1:9-13 it talks about walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him. So I think we can respond to these "boogers" by being discouraged, frustrated, angry, bitter, etc... or we can seek wisdom in the Lord, trust in Him and respond how he would have us to respond.

It doesn't matter how old you are, where you are in life, what you do or even if you have children, at some point you are going to wake up with boogers on your pillow. I pray that my friends, children and husband see me handle them having "patience with joy and always giving thanks to the Father" even when it means cleaning up vomit for what feels like the 10,000 time.

Chin Up

Today was a rough day for our Emma Sanders. At approx 10am she took a spill from one of our barstools and hit the concrete chin first. Split it wide open. It was traumatic and in case you don't already know your face bleeds a lot more than other parts of your body. I managed to get the bleeding to stop for a little bit and then it would start up all over again. I took her to our pediatricians office and they cleaned it up and glued her back together. It took me and a nurse to hold her down while the doctor worked on her. It was so sad, she was screaming her head off and there was nothing I could do. That's the hard part of being a momma, or one of the many hard parts I should say.

She was a trooper and we were both worn out when it was all over. One cute highlight while we waited on the doctor was that she kept kissing herself in the mirror. I am not sure if she was kissing her boo boo or if I should worry about her being a little vain but it was cute nonetheless. Hopefully the rest of our week will be a little less uneventful. I think we are due for some boredom.

Floods, Ladybugs, and a Sick dog for starters

It has been a week and 3 days since we moved into our new home. I sat down several times last week to blog about the move but was just too exhausted to do so. Not to mention we had a few natural disasters that made things a little extra stressful.

On Saturday as we moved 18,000 boxes into our home along with furniture and other assorted goodies we decided to start a load of wash. I thought it would be helpful if we could wash the sheets and get the beds made, you know so we would all have a place to lay our tired heads. Well about 15-20 minutes into the washing cycle my friend Susan, who was helping us move, did a flying leap through the air towards my laundry room screaming at the top of her lungs. I went into complete shock and paralysis as I watched water rise, quickly mind you, from my laundry room throughout my kitchen, dining room and den. I could not move. All I could do was watch boxes and furniture start to get wet.

Braxton runs to cut the water off as I quickly gain control and move into action. We managed to get all the water cleaned up and nothing was ruined. Did I mention that our floors are stained concrete? So all it did was cause my floors to smell like Tide, which was not a bad thing.

The next day Rudy, the dog that no one in this family likes but we can't seem to get rid of, begins to have diarrhea...everywhere. As I chased her around the house she continually pooped, she thought I was chasing her to spank her I guess, not sure but she literally pooped all over my newly cleaned by my washing machine floors. And again, we are praising God for concrete.

And as if that were not enough the next day I happened past our bedroom window and noticed a swarm of ladybugs had come to live with us in our room. I guess they saw how much fun we were having and thought they would join in. And when I tell you a swarm I mean swarm, like 100-150. I immediately called the pest control people who told me two things. One, they don't guarantee flying insects only crawling ones and two ladybugs only have a life span of one day. So no worries they would all be dead by in the morning. To which I responded oh well good, because I was getting bored and was hoping I would have something to do tomorrow, like clean up 150 dead ladybugs, on second thought maybe my dog will just eat them and get sick again because according to our vet, she was either stressed due to the move or ate something she was not supposed to.

I am just wondering if we sprayed those ladybugs with insect killer and then the dog ate them, could we kill two birds with one stone? Just kidding...don't go run and call PETA, this dumb dog lives better than I do.

So we are getting settled. The boxes are just about all unpacked and the kids are loving their new rooms. Our new home is beautiful and we are so grateful for all we have. We can't wait for the weather to warm up so we can meet more of our new neighbors and begin to build relationships here.