Summer is coming and kids will soon be out of school for the summer. I remember the times when parents and kids had to adjust to the new normal. That inspired this How to Increase Your Prayer Life cartoon.
There is nothing like a crisis to increase our prayer lives. It can be a minor, annoying crisis like boisterous kids that are trying to entertain themselves. Or we can experience major crises that bring us to our knees. Both types of situations make us reconsider increasing our quiet time.
When my youngest sister was still a toddler, I could tell she inherited our mother’s musical talent and proclivity. As soon as the worship music began, she was up and ready to belt it out! This led to my idea for this making a joyful noise cartoon.
The phrase, “joyful noise,” comes from the King James version of Psalm 100:1. It’s a short chapter that packs a powerful message of why worship music is an important part of a church service.
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Psalm 100:1 (KJV)
My wife and I love fixer-upper shows. It’s impressive to see the transformation of a ramshackle, abandoned home into a mini palace. But sometimes I wonder if they should raze the house. Similarly, it takes discernment in many situations to ask ourselves, “Should you change it or replace the whole thing?”
According to Wiki Diff, change means to make something different. While replacing means restoring to its former self, position, or condition. It means to place again, naturally.
So the whole phrase, “change the diaper,” sounds strange to me. Should we replace a dirty diaper with a clean one? Can you change a dirty diaper into a clean one? I suppose you can if it is a cloth diaper. But today, we’re most likely to just replace the whole thing with a clean one.
The Angry Birds phenomenon had been around long enough in 2011 to come up with a cartoon about an angry bird sermon. People love to give pastors ideas for sermons much like they love to give ideas to cartoonists!
So when I thought of this idea, I considered how technology has changed the church. If you walk into most churches today, you’ll at least see a projector on the wall. They have replaced hymn books with Powerpoint and lyrics projected on a wall. I see it as a good thing.
Parents endure a lot of pressure to measure up. Is it all too much? I’ve wondered that in the past. So I developed a humorous list of seven keys to tell if you’re pushing your kids too hard.
There’s plenty of pressure when it comes to being the perfect parent. Kids have to be involved in multiple sports, or they’re missing out, right? What about the science fair? And then you must be sure every minute is filled with meaningful activities, right? How do you know when you’ve pushed your child too far?