An Advent Prayer

Pray with longing for a better world and the arrival of the Kingdom of God.

In our secret yearnings
we wait for your coming,
and in our grinding despair
we doubt that you will.

And in this privileged place
we are surrounded by witnesses who yearn more than do we
and by those who despair more deeply than do we.

Look upon your church and its pastors
in this season of hope
which runs so quickly to fatigue
and in this season of yearning
which becomes so easily quarrelsome.

Give us the grace and the impatience
to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes,
to the edges of our fingertips.

We do not want our several worlds to end.

Come in your power
and come in your weakness
in any case
and make all things new.

Amen.

Walter Brueggeman
Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann

An Addition to the Family

We just wanted to let everyone know that we are expecting a new addition to the Daugherty family! I am 14 weeks pregnant, and Baby Daugherty (whom we affectionately call Dexter, and no, we don't know if the baby is a boy!)will arrive sometime in early June. We are all excited about the new addition to our family, particularly Ella who told us a few weeks before we let her know, "Mommy, I think I'm ready to be a big sister now!".

We'll keep you updated as the time draws closer!

Ella on Advent

Sometimes I like to write things down just for me, and perhaps that's what this post is :) Last night, Ella and I were in the car on the way back from church, and we were talking about Advent. Sometimes it's hard to convince a 4 year-old that we really do need to observe Advent before we get to Christmas and Baby Jesus. So, as we were talking about what Advent is, I was trying to prompt her to tell me that we're waiting for Jesus to come again. Instead, I said, "What are we waiting for in Advent, Ella?" Without missing a beat she answered, "We're waiting for the resurrection of the dead." I thought for a moment and said, "Yes, Ella, yes we are." It's amazing what comes from the mouths of little children!

Our Little "Mama"

For anyone who knows her, it is no secret that Ella loves babies. She loves playing with her dolls, is always within arm's reach of any baby in the same room as her, and talks a lot about having a baby brother or sister (well, really she just wants a sister, we tell her that you get what God gives you.).

On Sunday night, Ella's class at church talked about Abraham and Sarah and the special plan that God had for them. The class ate birthday cake and ice cream to celebrate Abraham and Sarah's 100th birthday. I came in right as cake was being served, and stayed for a few moments. The preschool director asked the children while they were eating to think about what God's special plan for their lives might be. Ella thought for a moment, then looked at my with big eyes and huge smile on her face. "Mommy," she said, "I think that God's special plan for me is to have a baby when I get big."

I've heard many women say that all they've wanted since childhood is to be a mom and raise their families, perhaps we're raising one in our house.

Learning Together

I like to listen to the radio in the car. As I have grown older, I have stopped listening to music as much (kind of funny for the Director of the Center for Worship Arts, huh?). I like to listen to talk radio. For a few years, I have been addicted to sports talk radio. When we were in Boston I loved to listen to Dale & Holly and the Big Show with the Big "O" on WEEI. Since we moved, I started listening to ESPN radio in Nashville, and fell in love with Mike & Mike, and could tolerate some of the others. About a month ago, 106.7 the fan unexplicably left, and I was suddenly listening to hip hop/top 40. Definitely not for me. So, I turned to trusty NPR, and listen as I drive to and from work (it's amazing how much more I know about what's happening in the world!).

In the evenings and in the middle of the day, they don't have talk programming but instead play classical music. I've never been much of a classical fan, but I have found it relaxing when I get into the car and listen to the sounds of soothing music. On our way home from church tonight, Ella hasked what kind of music that was and why there wasn't any words. I told her that sometimes Mommy liked to listen to this kind of music, and imagine what it is about. She began imagining with me: "This part is really scary, Mommy." "Now it's not scary, it's like a big, giant parade." "I can't hear the violins anymore, where did they go." And on it went for the 10 minute ride. I found that I, too, began to imagine what the music was describing, and it was wonderful. What a fun time to share together on an ordinary Wednesday night.

I LOVE my job!

So have I mentioned that I LOVE my job? Well, I loved it already, but adding the Worship Arts component has some good perks. Today, I got to sit in on a video shoot with Michael W. Smith while he talked about the Nashville Predators, and then did a spot about the Center for Worship Arts. After the shoot, he introduced himself to me, and we spent a few minutes talking about the center, and about how he would like to be involved with something that "has been needed for such a long time." Just in case you can't imagine it, here's what it looked like:



Tomorrow, I'm going to call Michael Card to talk with him about the event that he'll be doing with us in May. It's exciting!!

The Prayers of a Child

I haven't blogged in forever. Not because of a lack of things to blog about, only for the time to do it :) Over the last few days, we have begun to witness something in our household that I thought was definitely blog-worthy.

Last night, we were eating dinner quickly getting ready to go to the big 4th of July block party at our church when it began to rain. It wasn't a light rain, but it was pouring sheets of rain. Ella, obviously, was very interested in going to see the fireworks and was distraught because of the rain. Suddenly, she bowed her head and began to mumble. After a few moments she said, "I was just talking with God, and God told me that it wasn't going to rain anymore tonight." No matter what we said about the rain she was assured that God would stop the rain to allow her to watch fireworks. We had never seen her do this before, so we were quite surprised.

Then this morning, while getting ready for breakfast, the subject of a sibling came up (it often does as Ella really, really wants a sibling). Again, she bowed her head and mumbled for a few moments. She then looked up and announced, "I asked God for a sister, God will give me one."

So, it seems, we have entered into a new phase of Ella's communication with God. It is amazing to watch her internalize what we, and the church, have been seeking to teach her for 3 1/2 years. She is sincere and earnest in her faith, and I can only pray that this will be a pattern that will continue as she grows older.

A Pastor in the Making?

I'm never really quite sure what to do when I arrive to pick Ella up from school and her teacher immediately gets up to come over to see me. My heart leaps up into my throat as I wait to hear whether she is sharing good news about Ella's day or bad.

Today, I arrived at Vanderbilt to get Ella, and Ms. Allison jumps up from her place with the kids on the floor and comes over to see me. "You'll never believe what Ella did today," she exclaims. It seems that before their afternoon group time, the children had a little free time. Ms. Allison turned around to see Ella and a friend, Jerry talking with one another. Jerry was lying on the floor completely straight and Ella was saying to him, "That's how you get baptized Jerry, you're a Christian now." It seems that Ella was baptizing her classmates! I asked her later if Jerry wanted to be baptized, and she said, "No, I just baptized him."

For a while now, Ella has had a slight obsession with baptism. She often baptizes herself and her dolls during bathtime and sometimes even asks me to baptize her (I'm not sure what to do with that request since I am ordained, and she has already been baptized). This coupled with a strong tendency that she has for making up songs about God, church and Jesus, her love for reciting the Apostles Creed, and her recent practice of preaching from any one of daddy's many "Jesus Books" found in his office makes me wonder if we are seeing Ella's vocation in action.

And, did I mention that she told us today that our neighbors weren't Christians because they weren't keeping the same Lenten fast that we are? What are we going to do with this girl??