Taking the show on the road

Tomorrow I shall attempt the impossible.

Today my four oldest are at a leadership training for a camp the kids attend. So I am at home with the youngest 8, plus a cousin we are delighted to have with us for a few days.

Tonight they will come home and sleep, and return for the rest of the camp in the morning. They have the option of sleeping over, but we are declining that option for various reasons, not the least of which is that I selfishly want them to sleep, because having my four besties dead to the world, grumpy, and exhausted isn't a great idea for anybody.

There are other reasons too. While the event is Christian, and the leaders are Christian, and the intentions are Christian, there will be a decent percentage of teenagers there who know about Jesus but don't know Him, and another decent percentage of kids who don't even know about Him. This is my kids going out into the world. Certainly the framework is church-ish. But even so, it is a somewhat worldly environment, partly because of who is there, and partly because it is designed to attract worldly kids. (The desire of the leadership is to get those kids to church and hopefully bring them into the Kingdom of God. I agree with the goal, and I don't necessarily have a problem with the method. But that doesn't mean having my kids sleep over is good or beneficial or necessary.)

Being there for 8-9 hours today and another 4-5 tomorrow is quite a jump for my gang. It is quite a dip in another pond. We may have a lot to talk about.

But spending the night is a whole nuther thing. I would be willing to wager a large number of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that the entire populace of the leadership training event(unsaved and saved and somewhat saved) will not all drop right off to sleep at 12:00 a.m. And I have an opinion (conviction) that people get stupider with sleep deprivation. They (we) are more likely to say things and do things that otherwise they would think twice about or choose not to do.

Will my children someday have to make those choices on their own, when to sleep, who to hang with, what to say, what to do? Absolutely. Are they mature enough and old enough to be permitted to make those choices now? Maybe. But do I want to put them in an environment where the odds are potentially stacked against them? No.

I don't put myself in an environment where the odds are stacked against me. If it happens, it happens. But I don't choose it. And God forbid I choose it for them.

I'm not eating sugar. It's a committment I've made before the Lord. So I don't go to dessert nights. It isn't wise for me. As a woman who belongs to Jesus and my husband, I try not to spend time alone with other men. It is not wise for me. As a person who remembers everything I hear and see, I don't watch movies that probably contain content I'll remember for years to come or that direct my feelings and convictions away from Truth. Why? Because I know my weaknesses.

My children are young and weak. Spending 12-14 hours in a 24 hour period immersed in an environment of a mixed bag of their peers in a somewhat worldly setting will be challenge enough. Sleeping over and becoming sleep deprived in that same environment with that same crowd and making good decisions is setting them up for failure. So their dad will pick them up tonight and take them back in the morning.

Then, I will attempt the impossible.

I will pick up the four of them at noon and take 13 children to Walmart. Yep, I'm gonna do it. We have another appointment close by at 2, no point in returning home, and some things to do at Wally world. We need to try to find some more affordable material for making some skirts (sewing with my girls :) and a new BB gun (for my oldest son ;). Big stuff.

I'll try to let you know how it goes.