Heart Soul and Might

For the last couple weeks, I’ve been showing my five-year-old Josiah a few basics on the piano. Basically using three fingers starting on middle C… I still think he’s too young for formal lessons, but it’s been fun to see him picking up some things at such a young age.

This morning we had an interaction that reminded me a lot about life.

A few weeks back, I decided to resurrect some Scott Joplin material, so I’ve been practicing “The Maple Leaf Rag” here and there when I have a few moments. I’ve gotten it to where it sounds great, and it’s a lot of fun to play. It’s one of those classics that most people would recognize if they heard it. Not the easiest song, but of course practice delivers results, right?

Well, this morning I sat down with Josiah to have him play his 3-note scale and he did so well that I added fingers 4 and 5 as well, so now he can play a 5-note scale up and back down. He picked it up quick! I asked him to practice three times - and I welled up with excitement as I saw him negotiating his fingers on each key. He did it perfectly the first time! So, I said to him “Ok, two more times, Jo-Jo.” His next comment floored me, and I knew we were moving into a teachable moment.

Sitting on the piano bench, he turned around to me and said, “Now I wanna do some hard stuff, dad.”

I said, “What hard stuff?” and he said “The song you were just playing. Show me what to play, and I’ll play it.”

I got down on my knees and looked him in the eye and said “Josiah, you have to learn the easy stuff first and keep working on it before you can learn to play the hard stuff.” His eyes deflated, and he leaned his head down on the piano keys and said “But Dad, I really want to play the hard stuff.” So we spent the next couple minutes talking about how Daddy needed to work hard for years on the “easy stuff” before he could ever start to play the “hard stuff.” He wasn’t too excited about that prospect in that moment, so he jumped off the piano bench and went back to playing with his rubber crocodile.

It reminded me of life and growing to maturity in Christ… I’ll let you make the connection as it relates to you personally…

Our family prayer times are some of the funnest and most fulfilling times we have as a family. And just before our meals, our prayer can get pretty interesting. We’ve adopted a pretty familiar prayer that we sing - you may be familiar with it. It goes like this:

God our Father, God our Father
Once again, once again
We bow our heads and thank you, bow our heads and thank you
Amen, Amen.
Thank you, Jesus!

It’s the “Thank you, Jesus!” that usually shocks people around us at restaurants, because every one of us throw our hands up in the air and with much vim and vigor, shout those words… Sometimes I wonder about our ritual because a red-headed three year old can have some serious volume on that part.

Well, every now and then, we spontaneously break out into at least a 3-part harmony - sometimes its 5-part harmony - as we sing our prayer. And, I have to admit that I’m usually the one to start it, often choosing either the tenor part, or even getting up into my falsetto alto range. At that point, any reverence in our prayer-song goes out the window, and we all break into our wide-ranging operatic vibratos. Sometimes, I must admit that I’m a little convicted that I’m the one influencing our three boys to be irreverent during our family pre-meal prayer. But it’s so fun watching the faces of Josiah (our 5 yr old) and Jonathan (our red-headed 3 yr old) as they express themselves to the Lord. (or at least to each other!)

Well, in the last few weeks, Jonathan has gotten a kick out of watching me try to hit either the really high notes, or the really low notes (that I never actually get to) and he imitates my face. His face is so contorted I’d actually like to think I don’t really look like that, but he’s looking right at me when he does it, so he’s probably right on.

And following our “Thank you, Jesus!” he turns to me with eyes full of anticipation, and asks, “Daddy, did I look like you?” I can’t help but get a kick out of his enthusiasm, and he’ll only be happy with ONE answer. So of course I say “Jon-Jon, you looked JUST like me! You looked just like your daddy!” And then, satisfied that he accomplished his goal, he rips into his food…

But, it got me thinking. My little boy wants to look just like his daddy. He wants to try to sound like his daddy. He looks up to me, and tries to imitate me - even in something as silly as our operatic family prayer… And he’s teaching me a lesson when he asks me this… Because this is the question I need to be asking MY Father. My heavenly Father. “Daddy, do I look like You? Do I sound like You? Do I act like You? When people look at me, can they tell that I’m YOUR child?”

I love the lessons I learn from my kids. And, I don’t think I’m going to stop our 5-part harmony prayer anytime soon - because I have to admit: now I actually look forward to hearing that question from my son. And I have to believe our Father likes hearing that kind of question from us, too.

Clocking in at one year and eight days, Joshua is officially the earliest walker of the three Petak boys. This morning, caught on video by his mommy, our little smiley one-yr old took his first official steps on his own. There were at least three 2-step combinations and one that was really close to three steps on his own! Congrats Joshua!

Long ago, I gave up on the traditional “New Years Resolutions” since it was usually the third week in January that I gave up on my New Years Resolutions. So, a few years ago I started doing something different: I began asking the Lord in December what word He’d want me to focus on in the following year. This would be a word that would focus my thoughts, shape my goals and give me something to think about during the entire year. No longer did I have a set number of pounds to lose or a fixed number of times per week I would work out - these always led to failure. My word for the year would give me something to meditate on, to think about, to live by - it would bring me to certain books to read, messages to listen to, websites to check out… No failure. Only victory!

This word always inevitably comes from something that is already a theme in my life in some way - but maybe something I want to challenge myself with over the course of the next year. In 2004, I knew I needed to get beyond my self-focus, so my word was “others”. In 2005, He actually gave me three words: purity, humility and dependence. In 2006, it was church history.

A few weeks ago when I began to think about my “word for 2008″, I was thinking about my boys. I thought about the fact that they get jazzed at just about everything they see, no matter how common or simple. Jonathan still looks up at the moon sometimes and says “Daddy! The moon, the moon!” Unfortunately, I’ve looked at the moon so many times I hardly see it anymore and have gotten bored with it. It just blends in to the night sky now. I’ve forgotten that it’s an amazing orb 240,000 miles away from earth whose lunar pull actually affects ocean tides here on the earth! And it struck me that somewhere between the age of five and me, humans tend to lose the childlike wonder and awe that my boys have. Many people trudge along just trying to get through life, unaware of the incredible things in, around and above us that can inspire that same childlike wonder. I don’t want to be one of those people.

A few years ago, I read my favorite book of all time The Pleasures of God by John Piper, and he introduced me to a fascinating man - his mentor, Clyde Kilby. Kilby lived every day by his “Eleven Resolutions for Staying Alive to God’s Glory.” His seventh resolution said this:

I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their “divine, magical, terrifying, and ecstatic” existence.

I love where these resolutions take me. They make me open my eyes and my heart - and they take me to the glory of God - to His mystery and wonder. I too seldom live according to these resolutions that I adopted as my own a few years ago, and I know God wants me to recapture His glory by opening my eyes to His wonder. The wonder of all that He has made, the wonder of how He’s redeemed me, the wonder of the relationships He’s blessed me with…

So, it is with great expectation that I live 2008 with my word for the year: Wonder.

I looked up “wonder” on dictionary.com and here’s what it says:

One that arouses awe, astonishment, surprise, or admiration; a marvel:

I look forward to seeing what God brings my way that will arouse awe, astonishment and surprise - as I open my eyes to the wonder of all that He is and all that He has made - staying alive to His glory. And I invite you as well, to keep your eyes and ears open to experience the wonder God has in store for you.