Making Things

We had a prayer service today - just as we've had every day - in the chapel at our church, but the difference with today's service was that Daddy was asked to lead prayer service for the church, and speak for a bit about our nation.  To that end, Daddy sort of wrote out some thoughts ahead of time, some tied to current events in our nation today.

Our government is in a historic shut-down.  But this isn’t the first time our government was shut down. And it isn’t the first time our nation has been so divided.

President Abraham Lincoln faced the greatest division of all, of course, as our nation endured a Civil War under his leadership.  

Get this:  towards the end of it all, he did in fact ask for a shut-down in this country.  He wanted Thursday, April 30^th, 1863 for everyone to stop what they were doing, because he saw something he didn’t like:

“Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer.”

The President and many others had thought we had gotten too far away from our Heavenly Father.  In the beginning, President Washington and President Adams had issued proclamations for days of prayer and fasting, but since that time, no other President had done that.  President Abraham Lincoln agreed that we needed to return back to the Lord, because apart from Him, we can do nothing.

Without Him, we can do nothing.

Just before helping plant the American Flag on the surface of the moon, Buzz Aldrin had this very thought. 

We’re thinking about food today as we fast, so here’s a food-related question:  what is the first food that was ever eaten on the moon?  Do you know?

The answer is Communion.  Buzz Aldrin took Holy Communion on the moon, just after it touched down on the surface on July 20, 1969, and during that moment, he read these words from Jesus:

“I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me.” John 14:6

We have done great things as a nation, incredible things – like go to the moon. But we pray today, we humble ourselves and realize that without Him,we are nothing.  And with Him, we are 1000X more!

Daddy was off at the chapel, and meanwhile Mommy was working on something at home, just making a few things... literally...

We're pretty proud of these little costumes!  We bought some shirts, and some iron-on transfer paper that worked out splendidly.  Tomorrow we'll have Thing One and Thing Two on stage, and we can't wait to see that.

It was cold and wet, and on top of that we were taking down Christmas decorations.  Madison was doing a bit of piano, and folding origami.  She got a book filled with origami ideas, and now there are paper cranes all over the place, along with fortune tellers and flowers and swans and... well, just about anything folded by paper.  The best Daddy could make right now is an origami boulder.  That's where you just wad up a piece of paper and roll it along.

Tonight we watched a few things, including "The Lorax," in order to get in the spirit of this new series.  And we went to bed early, all of us.  We've got a big day tomorrow, the start of a new series.  It's exciting - and hopefully we'll be able to stop talking in rhyme when all is said and done!