Sunday night update

It's 10:15 p.m. on Sunday night, and Robyn and I are exhausted as usual at this time. We just got Meredith off to bed, and before calling it a day ourselves, I thought I would write with a quick update on the Johnson family since it has been a while since I blogged.

This picture is of Moriah in "BOB", a jogging stroller I received as a birthday present last year but never unpacked until about a month ago. It is a great piece of equipment. I can exercise and take one of the kids (Maggie, Sander, or Moriah) off of Robyn's hands at the same time. Now that summer is around the corner, I hope to be taking "BOB" out more often.

This morning I preached on Jesus' command to his disciples to "love your enemies." As I prepared for it, I remembered reading a fascinating obituary a few weeks ago about a man named Jacob DeShazer. He was a member of the Doolittle raid on Japan in the first months of WWII, and was captured by Japanese soldiers in China after bailing out of his bomber. He spent the duration of the war as a prisoner of war, suffering solitary confinement, torture, and beatings. After reading a Bible that was given to him during that time, he gave his life to Christ and vowed to return to Japan as a missionary should he live to the end of the war. And he did just that, going on to serve in Japan as a missionary for 30 years.

What a testimony of the transforming power of the gospel. A man is treated brutally by others, and by the grace of God, loves his enemies in return by giving his life to proclaim to them the love of Christ. It makes my grudges against others seem extremely petty in comparison.

I learned something interesting at the doctor's office on Friday. Sander and spent a few hours at the local urgent care to have the doctor look at his ears, which turned out to be infected. According to this doctor, new studies have shown that prescribing antibiotics for ear infections is almost pointless. They only help one in seven kids recover more quickly, and they actually have some negative side-effect in one in seven kids. He said if Sander was his son, he wouldn't bother with antibiotics. That was good enough for me. Instead, he prescribed some ear drops for the pain and the little guy has been just fine ever since.

Here's a picture from today. Moriah managed to spill a package of oyster crackers on the kitchen floor. Moriah and her partner-in-crime Brinkley gobbled up as many as they possibly could before Mom ruined the party by cleaning up the mess.