EDITOR’S NOTE: The following little stories were sent to me by my dear friend Sarah Slyman, who began her message with this:

“sorry! (sic) We are going non stop (sic) over here. Literally, (sic) non-stop!! now (sic) summer breaks is here already and maybe things will slow down for us! I haven’t been able to sit down and make this sound good, but here is my outline:…”

And she ended her message with this:

“OK….so those are the two stories I have. I just don’t have time to polish them or make them sound good…but that is what editor’s (sic) are for, right?”

As you can clearly see, Sarah is very sic (sic) – which is just editor-speak for “this is the way they wrote it, so don’t blame me.” My guess is that Sarah was being chased by bees as she frantically typed this with her thumbs. Such is the intense life of a pastor’s wife with two energetic children and a husband who is constantly smiling. The accompanying photo may help explain things a little: there is Sarah, a glowing beacon of calm serenity, standing among a throng of happy chaos.

By the way, her husband, Patrick (the third child in the photo above, click for larger version), happens to be my great friend and one truly gifted preacher! He is the lead pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, WA. Here is the church website, and you can watch past sermons here.

And now, onto the good stuf (sic)—which I’ve edited, BTW.

By Sarah Slyman

Patrick planned an elders’ retreat and was an integral part of the entire thing. Then we find out that the school pops concert is that same night. There was no around it—he was going to miss it. The girls were very disappointed, but understood. The night of the concert, Patrick hurried through his meeting, and as soon as it was over he jetted over to the school and slipped in next to me in the second row. Lexi saw him first and then Maddi and when they saw him their faces just lit up and you could see the love they had for their dad all over their faces. They didn’t think he was going to come, but he did, and it made their entire night.

I am not a morning person, but Patrick is. He has faithfully gotten up with our girls every morning since they started going to school, five years now. He has fed them breakfast and made sure their teeth were brushed. He has packed their lunches and even gives a morning weather report so they can dress accordingly. My job is to stay in bed and brush hair and advise on outfits. I love to lie in bed as I wake up, and I can hear my two girls and their dad rushing around the house. Then I hear…”Girls! Time for breakfast!” I hear them all sit down and everything goes quiet. I hear him pray and then begin a morning devotion with them. He will read the Bible to them, ask them questions and have a conversation about that day’s topic. It doesn’t take long, maybe five minutes or so. I just love this because I know that my girls have a dad that not only feeds them their breakfast every morning and gets them ready for the day, but he is also feeding them spiritually and preparing them for life.