Live Out Loud - Adventures of a mom

Do you know what VBS stands for? If you grew up in the church, any church, you would know.  Or at least you would know the concept.  I grew up in South America, so I knew VBS as EBDV (Escuela Biblica de Vacaciones) During VBS, kids go to church for one straight full week.  They either spend an entire day there every day or half a day every day.  They have fun, they learn about Jesus, they make crafts, they play and run around, they make new friends and they sing lots of fun songs. And before you know it, it is all over. And for parents, let's be honest, is 3 to 6 hours a day not needing to hear siblings fighting, or the ever dreaded "I'm so bored" comments. For the volunteers at these churches, it means pumping yourself up and getting ready to be completely exhausted after 5 days. Last year I was amongst many who started wondering if all the energy, resources and people required to run a VBS was worth it.  Would it be more worthwhile devoting the t...

The hashtag #firstworldproblems is quite popular.  I see it in posts from friends across social media; and I have used it myself.  Usually we tag this to comments or posts that relate to complaints or pet peeves we face, but that we are aware are not commonplace issues for the rest of world. That prompted me to think about what I have learned while growing up in Peru, a third world country, during a time when terrorism was a very real and daily threat.  Inflation was rampant.  Political stability rare.  Kidnappings so common people they wouldn't make it to the news. Even in my third world experience I acknowledge I had it much better than many other people.  But, that is the experience I can look back to  when I look around and ahead, here, in my current #firstworldlife. A very wise professor of mine once said, "  everything in life is based on comparisons" .   "You look lovely today" - is based on your comparison of how I look to...