The Hallelujah Report

In my Sunday School lesson yesterday there was a quote from Augustine: "A Christian should be a hallelujah from head to foot". Hallelujah was defined as "praise the LORD". My mother used to use the word hallelujah for just about everything. For example even in the last weeks of her life as she did puzzles with my sons and myself, she would say "hallelujah" when she or someone else found a puzzle piece that fit.

Doing this lesson made me smile as I remembered my mother using that small but powerful word. I have noticed that we continue that tradition of my mother's, punctuating our conversations with "hallelujah". My boys can be heard using it with regularity. With the common place things like puzzles and with the successes of potty training and school. Today we have a list of "hallelujahs" to report:

Carson had a great field trip to the Ruth Lilly Health Center.

Carson did not miss any of his words on his spelling test that was returned today.

Ephraim had a good day with no potty accidents.

We got our new at&t U-verse service for TV/Internet/Phone. Very fast, Very good picture, Very clear. Supports Troy's "bread and butter".

We had supper with Troy at McDonald's (not so great location, but great company).

Troy had a productive day at work.

I put away a big pile of laundry.

As you can see "hallelujah" covers the big and the little things of life. This idea also makes me think of my mother's tradition of the "happy and sad things" that were discussed around our supper table as children. Each evening we would offer up our "happy thing" of the day (you could have more than one, but you had to have at least one). You could also share your sad thing, if you had one. We do this with our boys. When we forget at dinner we share before bed after devotions. It gives us a chance to evaluate our day and our emotions.

I think we may consider adding the "hallelujah report" to our evening routine. A great opportunity to practice "praising the LORD" for the big and little things in our life. Praising the LORD as a routine takes an attitude shift. Choosing to praise God even in the hard times isn't easy, but it sure makes you appreciate what God has given you. Hallelujah!

Like Grandmother Like Grandson

This morning a groggy Carson was brought to the counter by his father to have breakfast. He was really still asleep having been roused from bed only a few moments before. He sat there just looking at his breakfast of french toast bites. I tried to engage him in morning conversation to no avail. So I returned to my task at hand. A few moments later, Carson announces "Alleluia" and sings "Today is Omi's birthday". I was taken aback that he remembered. I am sure I had mentioned that it was coming up, but I don't remember getting specific. Anyway, he knew and he was excited about it. We moved on to other conversation.

Later as I was fixing his lunch, he said "we can have a big party when I get home". Not completely awake and getting older myself, I didn't catch on to the fact that he was referring to having a party to celebrate Omi. I said "why are we having a party?". Carson looked at me exasperated "to honor Omi of course". Oh yeah, of course. My boys are pretty sensitive and honestly pretty practical. Birthdays call for parties and Omi's birthday would call for a big party. We can celebrate Omi's life and thank God for the time we had with her. We will be honoring her with a toast of apple cider, a tradition started by my mother's father when she was born.

As we continued to get ready for school and Carson was relaying a story from lunch yesterday. He said "Mama, this boy at school had a Star Wars lunchable like I did the other day and I said, "hey don't throw that away, it has Star Wars cards on it". The boy looked at it and then he threw it away anyway.", "I saw it in the trash, Mama", Carson continued. He had a pained look on his face. I said to Carson "You wanted to pick it out of the trash didn't you?" He said "Yes, but I didn't". I said "You are my boy. You are your Omi's boy". We all have picked quite a few treasures out of someone else's trash. It is good that Carson showed restraint at school, I don't think they would of have considered it a good idea there to pull things out of the trash.

But Omi, she would have pulled it out of the trash. She was a treasure hunter. She could do things that other people wouldn't dream of doing with things she had rescued from the trash. That was her creative mind. My mother had ideas about things, she had the idea that her concrete front porch should be carpeted. She would salvage larger remnants of carpet and used them as runners. On the porch of our 639 Sycamore childhood home we had two large pieces of green "astro turf" that I remember well. At the 919 4th Street home, she had two pieces of Berber that she had wrangled from Troy. She wasn't picky as long as it was free.

I was never a fan of the carpeted front porch look, but that was her deal. Interestingly enough, as I sit and write this blog, Carson just came in and asked for a carpet or rug. I said, "what do you need it for?" He said, we are making a house in our playground. "Okay" I say and I go off in search of two old rugs. Usually, I would have dismissed his request, and tried to dissuade him from the project, but lately, I have decided that I often say no, when there is no reason to. Why not carpet the outside playground clubhouse? I mean his Omi used to carpet her porch.