One winter, many snowflakes ago-- my youngest son--decided to engage in naughty behaviors…and yet with Christmas only days away, he still expected that he would receive a mountain of gifts.
Let me back up the sleigh a minute to share that we did not incorporate Santa into our Christmas celebrations. And before you reach for a tissue out of sympathy for my children, let me assure you that they charged down the stairs just as excitedly as your children to many gifts under the tree…that were from us.
We just opted to only celebrate the real reason for the season without the inclusion of the man in the red suit.
Sleigh ride forward…our son was perceptive enough to comprehend that Mommy and Daddy were not going to overlook his naughty behaviors without consequences, so he declared, ‘I do believe in Santa Claus and he will bring me presents’.
I went along with it. I even went out and purchased a ‘Cookies for Santa’ plate and a Santa mug for milk. ‘Twas the night before Christmas and he gingerly placed cookies on the plate and filled the mug with ice cold milk.
He charged down the stairs Christmas morning and his eyes beheld just a trace of milk left in the mug and only crumbs on the plate along with a lump of black coal…and a letter from the man he was counting on.
Dear Justin~
I was checking my list and checking it twice--to find out if throughout the year-- you were naughty or nice. You were very naughty…and do not deserve any gifts.
Try to be good next year! ~Santa Claus
His eyes were as big as saucers and filling with tears—as he turned around and saw in the corner of the room a huge pile of gifts with this letter on it:
Dear Justin~
I don’t have a list and I’m not checking it twice. I love you unconditionally whether you are naughty or nice. My love and gifts for you are not given to you because of anything you do or don’t do~but because of everything I did.
Among all your presents may you discover that I AM the real reason for the season. I am the Gift of gifts. ~Jesus Christ
Wendy’s Witz-dom: Keep CHRIST in Christmas!
God’s Wisdom: For God so loves each of us—naughty or nice. His love and forgiveness is a gift, not deserved or earned…but because of whom He is…and what He has done.
©WitzEnd Writings
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Chase's College Daze
sooo, i am enraged.... i caught the bus at 7:27 this morning... this very cold morning... this bone chilling morning... this morning that i would rather have died than gone out in.... this sooooo cold morning that i almost did die because i went out in it...anyways, i digress... i then got on the bus, rode it of course, got off, and walked the very long snowy quad to my class room to proceed and take an all important, grade deciding final exam for one of my classes. i was patiently waiting with about 80 other people, whom i have never seen before, for my room to open. i figured that the professor must have let people from other sections take it with our class, and the people i knew must have just been lost in the crowd...right?... wrong. so eventually a different professor proceeds to unlock the door and i was like uhhhmmmm eff i am screwed!!! of course there is still that thought back in my head that maybe she is a substitute, just there to give the test. so i turn around and one of my friends is there and she is like "what are you doing here" and i said "this is my nightmare... i apparently do not know where my (all important, grade deciding) final exam is, i am obviously in the wrong place!" so i ran without even thinking about the cold, or the ice for that matter.... because i slipped and fell!!! (good thing no one saw).... to the library. so i get there and frantically rush to the nearest computer, and wouldn't you know it took about an hour for every single page to load. so, i had all the time in the world to think: o my gosh i am going to miss this all important, grade deciding final exam and fail, my parents are gonna kill me, my GPA will drop, blah blah blah you know in panic mode the horrible thoughts that one is capable of thinking. so finallyyyyy my e-mail comes up and i sift through my deleted e-mail, like my life depends on it, and i finally find the one telling me when and where my exam is. i open it up... expecting to have to log off and sprint to my eventual doom where my professor won't let me take this all important, grade deciding final exam because i am late... (waiting for an eternity for it to load of course) i read the time of this all important, grade deciding final exam... and it says 10:30. in case that does not resonate with you, 10:30 actually is not the same as 8:00.
so here i am, sitting in the library, having nothing to do because i brought no study material or anything with me to take a final. i guess i will have to wait and take the exam... hopefully it goes better than my day so far... i expect it to at least. alright well i guess i am done and will waste my time in some other fashion now.
hahaha, ok love you
-chase
(Engineering Major at James Madison University, VA)
12/15/10
Sunday, December 5, 2010
The 'happiest place on earth'...Really!?!
The ‘happiest place on earth’ ….Really!?!
My Family just spent Thanksgiving week in Florida, mostly at Walt Disney World. Walt Disney Word is often referred to as the ‘happiest place on earth’.
Even my family~ with children in their twenties~ puts that motto to the test after walking around for hours upon hours from ride to ride and store to store and catching the monorail back and forth from Magic Kingdom to Epcot and bus transportation to Animal Kingdom and a ferry to Hollywood Studios!!!!!!
Yet it never fails when we are at the ‘happiest place on earth’ we often witness a parent threatening a crying child with ….’or else’. What is ‘or else’ in the ‘happiest place on earth’? Is it that she will not have to stand in line for another hour-- for another ride-- that only lasts 3-5 minutes? ‘Or else’, that she will receive a pre-packed snack instead of enduring another long line at the food court… ‘or else ‘that she will be taken back to the hotel for a much deserved and needed nap to return to the Park refreshed for the 10 PM Wishes Night Spectacular at Cinderella's Castle?
Cinderella’s Castle turns many colors throughout the evening, however I saw red!...when after the children and I rode ‘yet one more ride’ –my husband shared with us an interaction between a father and a daughter that he witnessed—as he sat out the ride after eating a full meal and immediately going on Space Mountain—his stomach still needed to return to earth. His stomach might have been feeling nauseous but after what he witnessed his heart was sick. He observed up close and personal a male parent not happy with his daughter’s attitude and to expediate an attitude change in her-- he began screaming and cursing at her, immediately followed by a slap across her face.
A slap across the face…at the ‘happiest place on earth’, really!?!
Shame on this father who verbally and physically attacked his daughter. We could ask ourselves, was ‘he’ too tired from a long day of walking or too over stimulated from all the dazzling lights and the Disney characters? Or was he frazzled that one day at the ‘happiest place on earth’ was probably equal to a week’s worth of income? Does it really matter? No, as there is no acceptable reason for his behavior.
No one in my family was able to step in and stop the father’s assault on his daughter. Nor were any of us able to reach out to protect her from the onslaught. Others turned their eyes away—maybe in an attempt to trick their minds that what they saw they really couldn’t have seen--not at --the ‘happiest place on earth’.
Yet, when no one steps in—it sends the message to both the abuser and the abused that the behaviors are acceptable.
I am always very happy to spend days at Walt Disney World, especially Magic Kingdom and Epcot. However, I would not be so naïve as to describe it as the ‘happiest place on earth’. The ‘happiest place on earth’ should be in our own home with our family. A place where one feels safe, secure, loved and able to dream of ‘happily ever after’, not a place filled with fear, uncertainty and doubts of being loved.
Next time you or I are in a grocery store or at the mall or attending a sports event or at the airport or attending a school function or enjoying a leisurely walk in our neighborhoods or even at Walt Disney World, lets step in and speak up when we observe a parent being verbally or physically abusive to a child --of any age. The parent might become enraged…or hopefully educated--but more importantly the child might have a twinkling of hope that there really might be a ‘happiest place on earth’ in her tomorrow land.
Wendy’s Witz-dom: There is no place like Home…that should be the ‘happiest place on earth’.
God’s Wisdom: ‘And now a word to you fathers*. Don’t make your children angry by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord’ (Ephesians 6:4, New Living Translation, The Bible)
*Mothers---this applies to us also!
©WitzEnd Writings
My Family just spent Thanksgiving week in Florida, mostly at Walt Disney World. Walt Disney Word is often referred to as the ‘happiest place on earth’.
Even my family~ with children in their twenties~ puts that motto to the test after walking around for hours upon hours from ride to ride and store to store and catching the monorail back and forth from Magic Kingdom to Epcot and bus transportation to Animal Kingdom and a ferry to Hollywood Studios!!!!!!
Yet it never fails when we are at the ‘happiest place on earth’ we often witness a parent threatening a crying child with ….’or else’. What is ‘or else’ in the ‘happiest place on earth’? Is it that she will not have to stand in line for another hour-- for another ride-- that only lasts 3-5 minutes? ‘Or else’, that she will receive a pre-packed snack instead of enduring another long line at the food court… ‘or else ‘that she will be taken back to the hotel for a much deserved and needed nap to return to the Park refreshed for the 10 PM Wishes Night Spectacular at Cinderella's Castle?
Cinderella’s Castle turns many colors throughout the evening, however I saw red!...when after the children and I rode ‘yet one more ride’ –my husband shared with us an interaction between a father and a daughter that he witnessed—as he sat out the ride after eating a full meal and immediately going on Space Mountain—his stomach still needed to return to earth. His stomach might have been feeling nauseous but after what he witnessed his heart was sick. He observed up close and personal a male parent not happy with his daughter’s attitude and to expediate an attitude change in her-- he began screaming and cursing at her, immediately followed by a slap across her face.
A slap across the face…at the ‘happiest place on earth’, really!?!
Shame on this father who verbally and physically attacked his daughter. We could ask ourselves, was ‘he’ too tired from a long day of walking or too over stimulated from all the dazzling lights and the Disney characters? Or was he frazzled that one day at the ‘happiest place on earth’ was probably equal to a week’s worth of income? Does it really matter? No, as there is no acceptable reason for his behavior.
No one in my family was able to step in and stop the father’s assault on his daughter. Nor were any of us able to reach out to protect her from the onslaught. Others turned their eyes away—maybe in an attempt to trick their minds that what they saw they really couldn’t have seen--not at --the ‘happiest place on earth’.
Yet, when no one steps in—it sends the message to both the abuser and the abused that the behaviors are acceptable.
I am always very happy to spend days at Walt Disney World, especially Magic Kingdom and Epcot. However, I would not be so naïve as to describe it as the ‘happiest place on earth’. The ‘happiest place on earth’ should be in our own home with our family. A place where one feels safe, secure, loved and able to dream of ‘happily ever after’, not a place filled with fear, uncertainty and doubts of being loved.
Next time you or I are in a grocery store or at the mall or attending a sports event or at the airport or attending a school function or enjoying a leisurely walk in our neighborhoods or even at Walt Disney World, lets step in and speak up when we observe a parent being verbally or physically abusive to a child --of any age. The parent might become enraged…or hopefully educated--but more importantly the child might have a twinkling of hope that there really might be a ‘happiest place on earth’ in her tomorrow land.
Wendy’s Witz-dom: There is no place like Home…that should be the ‘happiest place on earth’.
God’s Wisdom: ‘And now a word to you fathers*. Don’t make your children angry by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord’ (Ephesians 6:4, New Living Translation, The Bible)
*Mothers---this applies to us also!
©WitzEnd Writings
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