Finally....

Well, I think we are very close to feeling settled in our house. We have pretty much finished all of the projects that we have scheduled for the time being. Tonight we will put our bedroom furniture back in place and be done for a few weeks at least. It has been a stressful few weeks with work and not feeling totally settled. I needed to find some closure with getting some projects done. I definitely allow those things to stress me out and want everything done yesterday!

In other news, my parents are coming to visit this weekend and I couldn't be more excited. They are very excited to meet their granddog, Topaz, and see this new place that we have moved to. It is always alot of fun for my mom and I to go shop together.

Mike and I went with Reidland to the ZOE conference this weekend and it was great. We saw SOO many old friends and a few that we hadn't seen in 3-4 years. The worship was refreshing and we had some great conversations with members of the church about the language of blessing and using it in our conversations. The classes that we attended were really helpful and one of the things that I think we brought home with us was teaching with the use of questions. It was interesting that Mike and I were in different classes but both talked about it.

The idea is that kids are used to being told what they are supposed to know and the "answers" to the questions. However, postmodern kids are not always satisfied with these answers. They ask the hard questions and are frustrated when they are silenced for asking questions. As I thought about it, the idea of asking questions is similar to what I do in the therapy room. My goal is to ask questions so the client come up with the answer. When this happens it is much more powerful for them than if I just told them. I think this is the same idea with our kids....let's encourage them to find the answers so that it will be a more powerful experience.

Mike tried this out Sunday night in a discussion with the kids. It was difficult at first on both ends. You have to learn to ask the right questions that open up discussion. The kids were really good at giving the "right" answers. When they were pushed to go beyond that, it was amazing what they came up with. They really think about things and have good things to say. I would really encourage parents to ask questions and not get angry with the answers but learn that this is the reality of what kids are experiencing. They need an outlet to talk about it. If you react they will just find another outlet and you won't get to experience the process of them evolving and learning to think for themselves.