Above all else

This is the story of how God used a chicken suit to teach and humble my family.  The story begins a few years ago, when my daughter came back from her PSLE examination, and shared with us that the picture for composition was a guy in a chicken suit - you know, those furry, humid-looking mascot costumes.  My son, who was then in primary four, remarked that he would have have been stumped by how to write a "chicken suit" composition and would certainly have flopped that examination.  So over the next couple of years, "chicken suit" became a inside reference for "examination question that is impossible to answer" i.e. "that's just a chicken suit question"! The years passed, and this year, it was time for my boy's PSLE examinations.  We knew he was good at English, Science and especially Maths.  But despite all his hard work, his Chinese was still really, Really, REALLY staggeringly poor - so we knew that PSLE results would be a chall...

With the end of primary school, Sunday school also comes to an end, and now both kids attend their own teens' service. So yesterday, I brought the younger one around and told him where to meet the sister after service and their respective cell groups to take the bus home. Along the way, the older one asked me how conflicts with schoolfriends should be handled, and what to do in a situation where you don't know anyone (she was heading to a prayer meeting but both her leaders were not around).  After sharing my views, she turned to her brother, without a hint of sarcasm, and said, "Daddy's always so inspirational".  Ah, the words that a father of a 14/15 year old longs to hear :D With the kids settled down at service, I went back home for my afternoon nap!  After a good zzz, I hopped over for a quick dinner at my mum's place, then walked to church for evening service. From a distance of about 50m, I saw, in the twilight, two figures walking towards me ...

In a week's time, the primary school journey will be over!  Well, it's really felt like that since the PSLE ended more than a month ago, but it's only today that I thought to write about it... It's a healthy practice to give thanks after every journey.  Gratefulness is an under-appreciated virtue, and the pilgrims got it right when they celebrated the first Thanksgiving after arriving on American shores in 1621.  According to wikipedia, there were just 53 pilgrims in attendance that first Thanksgiving, along with 90 native guests.  Small beginnings for what is now a huge American national holiday, but perhaps the gratefulness was more genuine then! I am thankful for both my kids coming through primary school healthy in body.  Some weird accidents along the way - strangely, it was my older, more careful daughter who (a) tripped and scraped her face (what a frightening scab that was when we picked her up from the general office!); (b) tripped and literally...