Dance in Your Undies

And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!" Mark 7:9

A little context here: The scribes and Pharisees were looking for dirt on Jesus, and they thought they literally found it on His disciples' hands.  See, the disciples hadn't washed their hands exactly the right [ceremonial] way before eating. The Pharisees had added TONS of laws to God's Law, oral tradition passed down (supposedly from Moses), which was given the same weight as the actual Word of God.

Does that sound at all familiar?

"If you were a real Christian, you wouldn't watch that TV show."

"If you were really godly, you would serve in xyz capacity."

"You aren't a wife of noble character because you work outside the home."

"It's a sin to play cards."

"Dancing is of the devil."

Oooh, let's tackle that last one, shall we?

2 Samuel 6:

12Now it was told King David, saying, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, on account of the ark of God.” David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David with gladness. 13 And so it was, that when the bearers of the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. 14 And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, and David was [h]wearing a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouting and the sound of the trumpet.

16 Then it happened as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.

17 So they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent which David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. 18 When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offering, he blessed the people in the name of theLord of hosts. 19 Further, he distributed to all the people, to all the multitude of Israel, both to men and women, a cake of bread and one of dates and one of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed each to his house.

²⁰ But when David returned to bless his household, Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel distinguished himself today! He uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants’ maids as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovers himself!” ²¹ So David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel; therefore I will celebrate before the Lord.²² I will be more lightly esteemed than this and will be humble in my own eyes, but with the maids of whom you have spoken, with them I will be distinguished.” ²³ Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.

What if all those other "ought tos" and "not good enoughs" had just as little biblical basis?

Now, sometimes we are sinning, and our siblings in Christ need to call us on it.  But often, the "rules" we impose upon each other either have nothing to do with Scripture, or are someone's interpretation/extrapolation of Scripture.  

Maybe they are being hypocrites like the Pharisees.  Or maybe they've just found something that works for them in their relationship with God, and they want to share.

So next time someone tells you what you should or shouldn't be doing as a Christian, don't get mad and defensive...and don't start beating yourself up.  Simply say, "Thank you for your concern."  Then, weigh their "advice" against the Scriptures.  If the Bible says the same thing, then it's time to start living it.  But if the Bible says something different, or is silent...well, just dance to the tune God is playing for you.

Because Girls Aren't the Only Nurturing Ones...

My little boy is a nurturer.  He's *usually* gentle with the younger babies at church (although once in a while we think he is in danger of hugging and kissing them to death).  He likes to take care of Mommy when she is sick.  He's been praying for a baby sister for over a year (about the time he was articulate enough to pray on his own...looks like God will be answering that prayer in the affirmative come July, yay!).  He *gasp* likes to play with baby dolls.

Don't get me wrong, he is a man's man when it comes to building blocks, cars, trains, tools, more cars, running, balls, being loud, more cars, superheroes, and more cars.  But he has a baby doll that he loves.

If you've been reading my sporadic blog over here, you probably know I crochet...and that I like to crochet baby clothes as gifts.  Well, I have some of my old baby dolls in the attic, hoping to pass them on to Bitty Bear when she, you know, is born and grows big enough to play with them.  Sometimes I bring them down to model the clothes I'm crocheting, to make sure I got them right, you know.  Well, about a year ago, the Bear found one of my baby dolls and claimed it for his own.  It is a beautiful, big doll that looks like a real newborn (I used it for my Baby Boot Camp and breastfeeding classes when I was pregnant with the Bear, too).  When the Bear found the doll, we were trying to grant his wish for a baby sister, and we wanted him to know how to act around babies, so we let him keep it.  I found a doll bottle, and we dressed it in some of his old clothes with ducks (because he also loves ducks).  He named it Kit (came up with that on his own; we don't know anyone named Kit, and I've never read him any American Girl books...we might have watched an episode or two of TailSpin...).  Anyway, Kit changed genders a few times, but I think it's finally been established that Kit is a boy, and the Bear is Kit's Daddy, and I am Kit's Gannyma.

For a while, Kit alternated between sleeping in the Bear's old infant car seat and in the Bear's Lightning McQueen bed.  But we're going to need the car seat for Bitty Bear, so Kit needed a new bed.  Mommy searched Walmart and Toy's R Us, and guess what?  All doll beds are pink.

We've never told the Bear he can't like pink because he's a boy, but he came up with that idea on his own (he really likes purple, though, after blue and yellow).  Plus, pink would totally clash with the Bear's red race car bed.  So Mommy and Daddy painted it.

Now it looks like this!

We just used some primary colored acrylics on the pink part (ok, they chip quite a bit, even after applying a spray-on sealer).  Then we glued leftover McQueen and Mater fabric from the Bear's valances to the cardboard mattress. Yay for a boy doll cradle!

I post this, not because I'm proud of what a great job we did, because I'm seriously disappointed with the paint flaking off onto the carpet and Kit's poor little head...and the bed is slightly too small for the doll, so sometimes it falls apart if we're not careful.  I post this because I hope someone in the toy manufacturing biz will see it and think to make at the very least, some gender neutral doll beds.  I mean, even if my boy is the only one who is Daddy to a life-size newborn doll, I know there are little girls out there who pretend to have doll sons as well as doll daughters.  Or maybe not anymore, but there were boy baby dolls when I was growing up.  And some girls just don't like pink as much as others.

There's going to be some pink in Bitty Bear's room.  We painted her closet pink tonight.  But I've never, not even as a kid, liked the mindset that everything for girls had to be pink.  And as the mom of a very well-rounded little boy, I don't like the mindset that every toy that is about nurturing or parenting has to be marketed to girls and be pink. Please tell me I'm not alone?  Someone, please make some toys for future big brothers and future daddies, too!