I'm so sick of hearing about senior pastors abusing youth workers! I'm not talking about my own situation, which is very good. I've been blessed with a wonderfully supportive pastor. Why do many pastors make themselves feel better by making youth workers feel like crap?! Why are they allowed to get away with it? There has to be a set way to discipline pastors who try to do this! I realize sometimes there are personality conflicts or sometimes youth workers run off in their own direction and the pastor must correct incorrect behavior. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about pastors who abuse youth workers. Pastors who yell and scream, who are dictators and will force youth workers to do things the youth worker feels is wrong. Or the pastor who tries to force the youth worker to quit by making working conditions so uncomfortable the youth worker feels he or she has no other choice! Senior pastor doesn't mean dictator. It doesn't mean it's the pastor's church and he or she can do whatever he or she wants. The church exists for the people on the outside. It is not the pastor's playground. Makes me nervous to ever consider another ministry job, because I know how good I have it now. End of rant.

What does that mean? I mean really, what does it mean? I was listening to a podcast from Rockharbor and Mike Erie was asking that. It made me think. He even suggested that having a blog and expecting that people will read it and find your life interesting is an act of pride. Ouch! It got me thinking what if you try things you know you'll fail at? Isn't that humbling? Don't we, by nature avoid things we know we'll fail at? I have this whole fear of failure aspect to my life, and most times I shy away from stuff I'm not good at. But lately I've been challenging myself more and more to try new things. If I fail big deal. Man that's hard! I'm going to keep going and see where my life goes by trying new things, even things I think are impossible.

I reconnected with my best friend from jr. high and high school on Sat. We reconnected on facebook, but this was our first meeting. It was so great. It was like time stood still in some ways, yet here we both sit with 4 kids and we're both a bit (just a wee bit) older. We still can talk about anything. It was so comfortable. She was the best friend I've ever had and now she's back. I definitely feel God's hand here. It's good timing for us to reconnect.

A friend just became a legal guardian to a teenager, and that got me thinking what makes a person a parent. Is it biology? Well technically, sure but birth parents give up their kids for a variety of reasons. Is it raising a child? Lots of kids are raised in neglect or abuse, and do they really have parents? That's what I'm trying to work out. Do adoptive and foster kids have real parents in the people who take in children and love them, nurture them, discipline them lovingly, listen to their endless ramblings, take pride in their accomplishments, no matter how small, get up in the middle of the night with them, stay up waiting for them to come home, etc? I'd say the latter are more a parent than the abusive, negligent parent. I don't think biology plays the biggest part in being a parent. I think it's love and responsibility...

This morning I was really annoyed that the schools were closed and instead of a phone call as they used to do, they now email. Email requires getting up and checking email. A phone call requires reaching next to the bed to answer. I got up, got dressed, came downstairs, checked email to find out there's not school. Well by then I was wide awake! I lost sleep cause the recorded message they used to send out and the high school utilizes, wasn't used. So I'm annoyed.

Yesterday I dropped my kids off at school. Some person had the bright idea to park her car right in front of the school and go into the school, thus backing up all the other cars. There were open spaces close to where this person parked, and yet this person inconvenienced every other parent who was waiting to drop off their kids.

Really these are minor annoyances, but yet here I sit annoyed, angry even at times. Why do such minor things matter. They're but a blip on the daily radar. They're not worth the energy of anger or annoyance. How many times do we get annoyed over the little things? Little annoyances have led to road rage and even at times murder. Why? Why didn't I take that extra time in the car with my kids to realize that I had a few extra minutes with my kids? This morning I'm the only one up. Gives me a chance to blog and maybe journal without interruption. Maybe it's time for a collective change in mindset. How can we change the world by changing the way we view minor annoyances? Anyone care to join me in trying.