Today I would like to give you a penny for your thoughts.

I know it is still July, but in this part of the country we are beginning to think about the kids going back to school already. Somehow 90 degree weather and buying school supplies just seems wrong. In fact, it is such a contradiction I believe that it is shorting out my brain waves. Today I would like to declare that it is the schools fault that I can be so scatter brained. You believe me don't you? I think someone, somewhere could probably prove the fact that since summer is so short it causes things like forgetting to make dinner, not remembering the wet laundry in the washing machine and sleeping through the alarm. It really can't be my fault. Right?

Well, I guess I must accept the fact that summer is over and both of my kids, including my baby, will now be in school for the entire day. As I thought about that fact, I have also reflected on the things that happened to my daughter last year. As I mentioned before, my daughter was caught up in some girl drama and to be honest it was difficult to watch her go through that experience. After some prayer and reflection, I realized that I hope my daughter can turn the other cheek.

In the Christian community we have been taught to turn the other cheek for so long that I think the concept may have been skewed. When Jesus told us to turn the other cheek, He was talking about forgiving another person. Christ was not telling us to just sit around and allow other people to walk all over us. Christ was telling us to forgive other people and not spend our emotions and time worrying about something that is not important. That is what I want for my daughter. I want her to have wisdom to know what is important and what is not important, to easily forgive because she has the wisdom to see the offence from Christ's persective.

So I sat down with my daughter and a jar of pennies. I explained that in life we need to budget our time, money and yes, even our calories. I also told her that we need to budget our energy. We can gain emotional, spiritual, and physical energy from all sorts of things. I took the pennies in my hand and listed several things that we can do to earn energy pennies. As I listed things I slowly dropped pennies in her jar. Some things I listed were: depending on God to take care of problems, getting a good night's sleep, developing friendships, eating well, prayer, trying her hardest when practicing a difficult piano piece, exercising.... We talked about how it is hard to earn these pennies and we don't want to waste our energy on things that don't matter. We want to spend our pennies carefully and wisely. I told her that when other girls try to make her cry they are really trying to take her pennies; I told her that when she doesn't cry she will then take their pennies. Now when she begins to get upset about things that aren't really a big deal, I remind her to spend her pennies carefully. I hope that this idea of budgeting her energy will help her gain perspective on what types of things are worth her pennies. We talked about how you need to spend your pennies on friendships, trying your best at school even if it is difficult, time with God. She came to see that spending her pennies on the right things would give her more pennies in return.

Now the real question is "what are you spending your pennies on?". I think the time is coming for us as Christians to start spending our pennies on more important things. Maybe it will take a lot of your pennies to stand up to someone who is trying to take away your rights as a Christian; maybe we need to love someone and show them who Christ is; maybe we just need to get back into the habit of going to church. Wherever you choose to spend your pennies, please spend them wisely. I would love to hear from you. Please post any comments you have. In fact, I'll send you a penny for your thoughts. I know your thoughts are worth much more than a penny, but we are in a recession you know!