Monday, May 07, 2007

Paradigm Shift, Elnathan's Full Month, Sunday

It's been quite a life changing period. The books that Ben and I have been reading, the movie we watched plus the audio cds that we've finished and those that we're listening to... Plus the sermon this morning. Am really convinced that our personal agendas need to change. The end days are here. Just look at the calamities. It's occuring at a rate like never before in history. As much as I've been quite an environmentalist, the still small voice I hear within says, "Don't worry. I will create a new heaven and a new earth. The end is coming soon."

With that, I have no idea how to carry on my Science Club. I've been passionately converting the little kiddos to "Save the Earth(!)" and "watch what you do coz that's just gonna kill the earth even more!" until I felt it has almost become a religion. So with a gentle reminder from a kingdom perspective, I see the picture in a different light now. I'll still integrate what they are learning from P4 Science to the environment coz that's what it's all about but to focus on people instead of the planet. As much as we fret about it, I got reminded of someone once telling me, "If the Earth was tilted one degree more, it'll be too hot and we'll all die. Similarly, if it's tilted one degree less, everything will freeze and we'll also die." Hmm... so if it gets too hot, I'm sure it would it be too hard for God to tilt his footstool a little bit so that things can be in order once again? :D Heh.

Oh well. I'm just glad all this will be over soon. The end is coming. :) And we're going home.

I once thought about this analogy: Life is like a foetus in the mother's womb. As a foetus, we think that's it. Until it's time and we're born. Then we enter into this world. Likewise, as humans, we think, "this is it." Until we die and then we enter into another world. And in that other world, it's for eternity.

Cheem eh?

Anyway, after church today, we went to a friend's baby's full-month celebration. Baby's called Elnathan. We were once all part of the Ezzo group, and I think they aren't really devout followers... sounds like a cult? But I caught up with another mother and she's all struggling with her soon to be 3 yo. She said that she really can't manage to get her girl to be 'First Time Obedient' as much as she's trying so hard. (FTO is part of the Ezzo syllabus.) As she said that, I tried comforting her by saying, "Even when God asks us to do something, we don't usually respond with First Time Obedience. What more with little kids (who are so fond of testing boundaries)?" I didn't have the heart to tell her that we aren't Ezzo-followers anymore. It creates really unhealthy expectations and messes up relationships - parent-child and between parents. I also mentioned about my 2 English classes. For my form class, I have higher expectations and usually get way more frustrated. For the other class, I don't expect as much. As a result, with less frustration and tension, the second class is performing better than the first class. I yell more at my form class, and it's really affecting them a lot. I read elsewhere that research has shown that yelling so often at a living thing will actually kill it. I think they used plants. I hope.

I must learn NOT to yell at the kids. I am destroying them. And I'm not supposed to do so.

Back to today. I actually met my primary school good pal! I saw a familiar face and then called out to her. She took a moment before she recognised me. We actually hung out very often together when we were little girls! And after I left, we lost touch. We lost contact for TWENTY YEARS. So old liao. :P She actually remembers me! :) Must go dig old photos. Heh. She's got a little boy now, and even said that her mum will be so surprised to know that we met. (Her mum? Wow, she'll actually remember me too?)

After that, we exchanged contact and took a group photo. Abby wanted to go swimming coz the celebration was at a condo, so she was offered two choices - Aunt's condo or beach. She wanted the beach because of the sand.


May Day's outing to the beach. The only decent picture.

It was rather early, so we thought we could catnap at home first. She didn't really wanna sleep, but we bribed her with McDonald's plus beach after the nap. We overslept and tried to get her to wake up. We told her we couldn't go to the beach. She was fine with that. But almost immediately, she whined, "McDonald's?" with tears in her eyes. Wah lau.

Oh well. Her daddy got her a corn cup before we reached her great-granny's place. When we got there, she was very terrified of Joy - now my mum's pom. Actually was mine but I really can't manage so many especially with a terribly noisy pom plus 2 babies. She kept crying whenever she saw Joy, until her dad said, "Joy joy is a hamster!"

That was the thing that did the trick. She likes hamsters but really doesn't like Joy. So when Ben said that, she was way much better. She even mentioned her 'Mouster' - her Godma's hamster. It's Mouse and Hamster combined. She keeps calling that. Oh well. Quite cute eh?

So we got back. Because of the late naps, the kids didn't sleep till late. It took almost an hour to lull them to sleep. Shalom kept getting up - almost like the Gremlins which keep appearing! Except that this one is way cuter! :D

Late. Gotta get up early tomorrow later. Back to work.

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