Thursday, March 31, 2011

Fried Nuts

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child...”
SHIRIN: 4 years old
FREDERICK: 2 1/2 years old 
Frederick enters the front room to play his drums.  Shirin is standing in the middle of the room pushing out her belly.
Frederick: Shaween, augh doooooooing? (Shirin, what are you doing?)
Shirin:  I think I am a big bully. (I think I have a big belly)
Frederick: Ot-a-in. (Not again)
Shirin:  I ate too much green strings. (I ate too much string beans)
Frederick: I-a-a Dreget Drum! (I’m going to drum on Frederick’s Drums!)
Frederick starts to play his drums.  Shirin dances to the music with her “big belly”.  A fly decides to join the fun.  Frederick spots the fly, stops drumming and screams.
Frederick:  Beeeeeee!  Beeeee!
Shirin: It’s a fry because it is back.  (It’s a fly because it is black!)
Shirin disappears for a second and reappears with a fly swatter.
Frederick: Shubel?  (Is that a shovel?)
Shirin: It’s a fried sweater that fights bugs! (It’s a fly swatter that fights bugs!)
Frederick watches Shirin as she tries to swat the fly.  Shirin uses her best fighting sounds as she swings the fly swatter around in the air and hits various surfaces in the room.  Shirin ends every swat with a fighter pose.  The “fight” makes Frederick giggle.  The giggles become a nervous cry-like giggle every time the fly gets too close to him.  After many attempts Shirin finally makes contact.  
Shirin: I got it!
Frederick points to the fly.
Frederick: Her name? (What is that?)
Shirin:  It’s a fry!  (It’s a fly!)
Frederick looks unsure.
Shirin: Bees live in big farts! (Bees live in big tree barks!)
Mom walks in.  Both kids are staring at the squashed fly on the floor.  Shirin is close to it and studying it intensely.  Frederick is not so close and looks unsure.
Shirin:  Mom, I squished a fry and it’s nuts came out! (I squished a fly and it’s guts came out!)
Mom looks surprised.  Shirin uses the fly sweater as a pointer.  She points to the fly with her chest out.
Shirin:  Fried nuts! (Fly’s guts!)
Mom:  Wow, good job Shirin!
Mom can tell Frederick is uneasy. He reaches for her.
Frederick: Old you?  (Will you hold me?)

Mom:  What’s wrong Frederick?
Frederick: Beeeee!
Mom:  Don’t worry Frederick, it’s just a fly. It can’t hurt you.  I don’t like bees too but it was not a bee.  And if it was we would have opened the window and let it fly out.  We don’t want that yucky fear in our heart.
Shirin: The fry made Frederick up-sweat so it had to supper the cwon-sin-quens-es. (The fly made Frederick upset so it had to suffer the consequences.)
Frederick: Like it.  (I don’t like it.)
Mom: I know you didn’t like it.
Shirin:  And I won it!  Pretend you ordered me from Shirin.com to fight the fry.  Pow!
Shirin makes power fighting moves in the air.  Mom giggles as she picks up the dead fly in a tissue and throws it in a nearby trash can.  Frederick becomes less tense and starts to smile. 
Mom: You are a worrier Shirin and always will be.  God will order up some Shirin as you grow up in your faith.  I pray that you will be wise in your fights!  Pow!
Mom tries to throw a power punch herself.  It makes both kids burst out in laughter.  She looks down at Frederick as he goes back to his drums.
Mom:  And you Frederick, as you grow up in your faith I pray God will give you courage and that you will trust Him.  He will use you and your drums to help others have courage too.
Frederick starts to play his drums and hums a rocked out version of “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.”  With her fly swatter weapon in hand, Shirin dances a warrior dance all around the room.
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1 Corinthians 13:11
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Don't Touch

Don’t Touch
“Even small children are known by their actions...”
MISSY:
Missy stood in the kitchen.  Her attention on the electric stove top.  The glowing red seemed to mesmerize her.  she remembered several months earlier when she was told never to touch it, especially when the stove top is glowing red.  “It will burn you,” her mother warned.  Although Missy knew she was not supposed to get near the stove when it was red, she would catch herself glancing up there.  “Why not?” she thought, “What did getting burned feel like?”
It was only last week when she had stood in the kitchen and saw the stove top was black, not glowing red. She had stood and wondered, “What would one little touch feel like?” just as she was now.  Obeying her mom and trusting her judgment is what had kept her from reaching out to touch it then.  She hated doing things that were wrong because of the feeling it left in her heart.  Missy hadn’t wanted to get hurt, she just wanted to know how it would feel.  Slowly she had reached out her hand and touched the stove which was surprisingly cold sending a shiver down her spine.  Her curiosity was satisfied and a glance around told her nobody had seen her.  Immediately Missy had recognized that yucky feeling in her heart.  It was not about the stove, that was uneventful, but knowing that she had secretly touched it sent a shiver down her spine, just as cold as the black stove top.
But today the stove was glowing and her curiosity burned again.  Missy paused,  “Would it feel the same as last week?  Would it be cold or would it be more cozy?”  She could tell it was cooling down, the glow was slowly going away and being replaced by the black.  With her opportunity slipping away, Missy moved her fingers with anticipation to make a move.  Then her mothers voice rang in her head, “It will burn you.”
Missy’s heart raced at the warning, she frantically flipped her head around the kitchen to see if she was still alone.  She was, but she knew it was probably not for long.  She had not reached up sooner and had paused to contemplate only because of her faint memory of a cold yucky heart feeling.
She loved her mom and didn’t want to let her down.  “But,” she rationalized, “I got away with it last week and my heart felt yucky for only a while.”  Curiosity slowly became stronger than her conviction.  Her thoughts raced, “Mom didn’t know and nothing bad had happened and even more... I didn’t get hurt.” Concluding that her mom’s warning was wrong she continued,  “What came of last week?  Nothing.  I touched and walked away just fine.”  Missy knew if she hurried right now she could satisfy her curiosity once and for all, the glow was fading and she didn’t know if she would have another chance.  “After all,” she concluded, “it’s better to be hot than cold so it couldn’t be bad.”
Deciding that it would be just like last time Missy reached up.  She knew that all this curiosity would be put to rest by doing it real quick, touching the stove and walking away.  Missy paused as she moved toward the stovetop continued to reason to herself, “Nobody would even have to know.”  And this time she knew she would be fully satisfied because she would finally find out what it felt like when it was red.  One thing is for sure, she would avoid that cold shiver.
Readying herself for a quick exit from the kitchen, Missy opened her fist with her fingers spread apart and pressed down on the stove top.  “Aughhhhhhh!”  Missy shrieked as she jerked herself back. The pain ran all the way up her arm and her hand was stinging like she had never felt before.  The shock of it made her fall to the floor and shake.  What is this???  She didn’t realize that it would hurt!  She didn’t know she would actually really get burned!  The pain was unbearable and all she could do was stare at her burning skin and scream.  Was her hand going to fall off?  Her mom rushed in and frantically asked what happened.  “Aughhhhhhh,  stow, stow, Aughhhhh!” Missy whimpered.
“You touched the stove!?!?!?!  Oh no!”  Missy’s mom exclaimed as she rushed over scooping Missy up and proceeding to run her hand under water.  It barely soothed the pain.  
“Why on earth did you touch the stove?” Missy’s mom asked in bewilderment.
Missy couldn’t stop screaming from the pain and her heart screamed even louder at her mom’s question.  As the water ran over her hand Missy thought maybe her scorched skin would just peal off.  After several minutes Missy was able to settle down but felt like her skin was ruined forever.  Maybe her hand wouldn’t fall off and perhaps her the skin was not peeling like she feared, but her entire arm felt the blow.  Maybe the muscles would never work again.
Then Missy noticed that her entire family stood in the kitchen staring at her as she sat on the counter next to the sink with her hand under the running water.  Her dad at the counter flipping through their phone book, her older sister Sherry rattling off stove safety, her younger brother Ralphy demanding to know how it happened and her little sister Candy just tearing up.  “So much for the quick exit.  So much for nobody ever knowing.”  Missy thought with dismay.  Now everyone was there and knew what she had done.  She realized that she had been foolish in disobeying.  Embarrassment creeped all over her.  The pain and the burn was proof.  Missy’s dad and mom called the doctor and followed the instructions of wrapping Missy’s hand up in a bandage that had to stay on for over a week.  She remembered her mother’s voice, “It will burn you.”  Now she understood what that meant.  With all her might she wished she could pull back time and trusted and obeyed her mom and found a way to kill her own curiosity.  But now the consequence was not going away.  She had to live with this pain and it felt like it would never subside.
Every day for the next week the pain did not seem to subside.  Her mom said it would and that she had to be patient saying that her hand would not stay hurt forever even though it felt like it would.  That little by little she would heal and feel better.  Never did Missy want this consequence.  The pleasure of feeding a curiosity was not worth the price she was now paying.  Missy heard her mom say it would be better but the pain told her she would never be better.  That she would never be the same.
About a week later while Missy laid in her bed, her mom came in to say goodnight.
“Mom.  I’m sowy foe tuchin thee stobe,”  Missy said with a large lump in her throat.
Missy’s mom gave her a hug saying  “I forgive you Missy.”  Those words of forgiveness lifted a burden Missy had carried all week.  “I give you rules so that you do not do things that will hurt yourself.”  Missy knew it was true.  The lesson ran deeper then her mom knew.  Deeper than the burnt skin.  It ran all the way to her heart and never again did she want to find out what disobeying would bring.  Maybe that cold yucky heart feeling was a warning.  She prayed that she would recognize that warning for all her life.
“I’m fewing bet-toe today mom,”  Missy exclaimed as she looked at her bandaged hand.  “Wen can de ban-dwidge can come off?”
“Soon Missy.  The doctor will probably take it off tomorrow.”  
When the bandage came off Missy had a hard time moving her fingers and using her hand at all.  It took several more weeks for complete healing.  But the day came when she didn’t think about her hand and she used it just as she did before, without protecting the sensitive spots.  Her mom was right.  She did heal from the pain.  But, on the other hand, the lesson she learned found a permanent home in her brain.
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Proverbs 20:11 “Even small children are known by their actions, so is their conduct really pure and upright?”
Romans 4:7 “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.”

Friday, March 18, 2011

The Green Things

THE GREEN THINGS
My favorite color
Is in many things
My favorite shade
Has to be green
Grass, leaves and 
Tangled up seaweed
Algae, Ivy and 
The Statue of Liberty
Green apple
Green pear
Dinosaur scales
Oscar the Grouch hair
Green means go
Green bean stew
Hard shiny emerald
A chlorine hair due
Green is a tea
But it’s also mold
Green Eggs and Ham
Oriental Fire-bellied Toad
She’s going green
He’ll get a Green Card
Your green with envy
My green thumb in the yard
Asparagus and broccoli
And most vegetables too
So eat your greens
Even avocado the fruit
Vampire Garlic
The Incredible Hulk
Jade stones
American Money in bulk
Umpa Lumpas
Green Tree Frogs
Leprechauns
Caci Camouflage
Lots of Iguanas
All kinds of mint
Some Axolotls
Have a greenish tint
Political green parties
Muddy green hogs
Melting green crayons
March 17th egg nog
Uranium Glass
Pyrotechnic flares
Calvotomena viridis
Anolis carolinesis’ bare
Wise old Yoda
Is green in the pores
Nine-year-old Anakin
Is green in the force 
Mucus appears green
Many dessert cacti
Aliens are green
Also gas in the sky
Slithering snake
Slow moving Turtle
Green Tree Python
Dragon who is fertile

Green stool
Sea sick on a ship
Green barf
A bruised upper lip
Green flash
A watering hose
Evergreen
Tons of tadpoles
Moss and Olives
Ferns and Limes
Watermelon bites
Trees that are Pine
Hot Jalapenos
Cold popsicle ice
Inner green guts
Outer green eyes
Green is life
Throughout time
Symbolizes growth
Always more to find
My favorite color
Is in many things
My favorite shade
Has to be green

Sunday, March 6, 2011

The Ins and Outs

The Ins and Outs
The sun comes up
Blubbery pancakes with syrup
Make-up for the face
Perfume just in case
Sweep, vacuum and mop
Beds made with stuffed pets on top
Dishes in and dishes out
More dishes coming without a doubt
Take out meet for the stew
Out of rice so pasta in leu
Make the lunches in a row
Button fell off and it’s time to sow
Pick up the kids and drop them off
Keep the schedule and don’t get lost
Homework, piano and some sports
Games, movies and home made forts
Walk to the park or take a hike
Ride a scooter or maybe a bike
Dust falls here and over there
Pledge the counters for ultimate care
Do my Bible study now 
Take a moment with a reverenced bow
Lots of stuff that wants to fit in
Organize it all and do it again
Check every tank and dish
Feed the dog, cat, frogs and fish
Scoop up the poop
Air freshener for toots
Unclog the toilet and scrub the tub
Looks like the sink need a good rub
Liquid plumber for the drains
Call a professional when it rains
Cover up that boo boo
With a bandaid of Winnie The Pooh
Plan vacations for time to bond
Cover the grey with brunette or blond
Shopping for the perfect dress
Cover the belly and pay way less
Date nights gotta be a must
Get a babysitter we can trust
Volunteer for this and that
Take up a cause and go to bat
Pay the bills without a pout
Mail comes in and mail goes out
Don’t forget to fill up the tank
Don’t forget to go to the bank
Drug store and the super market
Home depot and good old target
Wonder what the darks about
The hallway bulb just burnt out
Water for that silly hiccup
Stand upside down and dink it up
Set the table and don’t stall
Dinner conversations and eat it all
Eyelids are getting heavy
Bedtime so let’s get ready
Stuffed pets on the ground
Pull the covers all the way down
Good night stories and a hug
Prayers of blessings from above
Lights out at the curfew
Kids in bed and more to do
Email, facebook and maybe texts
Recorded shows and maybe sex
Separate the darks from lights
Spray-n-wash on the knees of tights
Fold the clothes and put away
If it’s too small it just cant stay
Now it’s time for the details
Paint the finger and toe nails
Wait for them to dry
Get in a really good cry
Consider tomorrow’s ins and outs
Dinner leftovers or takeout
Preparations for the next day
Time with God with much to say
Listen to His words for me
Absorb His presence and just be
Get in bed before midnight
Wonder if I’ll get sleep tonight
By Michelle Fozounmayeh
Sunday March 6, 2011