Perfection, Sweeter than Gingerbread

By Desiree Glass (aka Grandma)

Adults and children converged upon the kitchen table—and two gingerbread houses, previously constructed by Aunt Bekah and Aunt Emma. Multi-colored candies awaited their purpose in clear glass dishes, while children awaited their signal to begin. Grandma worked quickly to squeeze rows of gooey white frosting on rooftops to create a sheathing for confectionary shingles. Then children grabbed communion-wafer-like discs to decorate in a mix-match pattern across the gable roof. Chewy gumdrops and candy beads left glass dishes and found their way into toddler’s hands—but more landed in their mouths than on the house. Uncles painted clothes on gingerbread men and drew faces with smiles to match the grandchildren’s. Little ones climbed on the table and reached over the gingerbread house to snag more candy, while Grandma prayed the icing mortar was strong enough to prevent a collapse. Aunt Tara snapped photos as fast as she could to keep pace with the flurry of activity and hopefully capture the perfect shot for the front of Grandma’s card.

Church, Out of the Mouths of Teens

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

—Hebrews 10:24-25

Out of the mouths of babes. Out of the mouths of teenagers (smh). For those of you not well-versed in text language, “smh” stands for “shaking my head.”  It took me a while to catch on myself, but as a teacher of teens, I need to keep up.

Yes, I shake my head at what comes out of their mouths, but the truth is some of what they say gives me pause—like their responses to a recent assignment. Given a three-column chart, students were directed to identify and classify ten structures they pass on their way from home to school.  In the third column, they were supposed to describe the purpose of the structure.

While I expected that many would list a nearby church in the first column, I did not expect how they would fill in the remaining columns.  Some classified the church as a commercial building. And others described it this way:  “To worship your religion,” “To worship religions,” “To practice religion,” and “For people to feel holly [sic].”