Today's Thoughts

From prayer group...

1 Corinthians 13:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.8 Love never ends. ..."

And 1 John 4:8:

"Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."

So any time we see the word "love" in 1 Corinthians 13, we could replace it with "God." "God is patient and kind; He does not envy or boast; He is not arrogant or rude. God does not insist on His own way; He is not irritable or resentful; He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

"God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

All things, for our sakes. That some of us might turn and be with Him forever.

Lord, thank You for Your incredible love. Teach me to love as You do!

Thanksgiving

• For a long technology break...
• Long hikes in the Smokies...
• Snow on the mountains...
• Safe trip home...
• Two weeks left before finals!...
• Music with family...
• A new hobby...
• Warm sun through window...
• Seeing my animals again :) ...
• Wonderful friends...
• Family...

Father, we I thank thee!

[Pre-] Teacher Diaries: Approaching the End!

This week at work the schedule for Winter semester is up.

We always fill out any time we can work and then someone puts all the options together, sort of like a giant jigsaw puzzle, so all of us office assistants get times we can work and a total number of hours that works for us.

But this time, my name's not on that paper. I'm going to be student teaching, and since I can afford not to work during student teaching (due to lots of saving and lots of scholarships--a big blessing!), I won't be working next semester.

Going to feel weird. I've worked every semester, even methods block. The past couple years, I've been working 15-16 hours a week. I wrote down that I will be back in May, just to make myself feel better. ;)

We have to apply for admission to student teaching, too. I've turned in everything and my interview is this evening. I'm still waiting impatiently for a grade on my portfolio (it should have been graded last Sunday!), but at least they haven't sent it back to me for revisions, so I'm assuming it passed in some way or other. :)

A week and a half and Thanksgiving, then two weeks and finals, and then Christmas break. And then student teaching. And resumes, job interviews, and hopefully, finally, a job.

Scared, and excited, and can't wait!

Thoughts on Teaching

...For some reason the video won't move to the bottom, where I want it. So anyways. It's a good song, listen to it. ;)

This week have been thinking about teaching. And teachers. Especially those of us who are young Christian teachers just getting out of school--but also older teachers. . .

We have a great Christian educational system here in the States. Trained teachers, (generally) supportive parents, good kids, good resources--we update our resources and textbooks and everything and it's just great. Kids can go to Pre-K through college in Christian education; it costs a LOT but you can do it. And of course then there is our favorite homeschooling, which I still entirely consider Christian education!

And just FYI please, please do NOT consider the following to be down-playing those who are SM's or career missionaries teaching without a teaching licensure or training. I admire you all like you cannot know and I pray for you all. I can't imagine doing what you're doing. God bless you!!

But, for teachers: Why are we not taking our training and what we know, and stretching it a little, and taking it outside our familiar comfort zone? Why do children in Christian schools in another country not get our long-term skills and our practice and even our resources? Think about it. If our students here had to deal with half the things students in other countries do--and I'm not even talking about physically or environmentally--we'd have parents at our throats 24/7. Just something to consider. Consider and pray about.

All of which is just to say that if you find me in Zimbabwe next year, you'll know why. . .

Really Live

Alaska's a good place to really live. ;) 

--Random thoughts inspired by my tutoring session yesterday--

I'm continually amazed (and shocked) by how infrequently kids are really living their lives richly and joyfully. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since I guess it's rather infrequent that adults live life richly . . . but really. Why is it any sort of funny/pleasant/positive thing for you to tell me that you sleep all day on the weekend, because your mom's watching TV and you don't want to watch the shows she does? Why?

I have a professor (we will call her Dr. B; any of my Ed. major friends will know who it is ;) ) who teaches most of our reading/literacy classes. She is always emphasizing that we as teachers need to live as readers and writers if we ever expect our students to become enthusiastic and good readers and writers.

I think she's right. But not to just live as readers, or as writers--we need to live as whole people. As writers, and readers, and mathematicians, and scientists. As musicians and artists and athletes. As hikers, runners, ornithologists, mountain climbers . . . whatever you are, do it. Do it wholeheartedly and with love and passion.

"Live to the hilt every situation you know to be the will of God."

It's contagious, a life like that. Even if your friends and students and family don't understand why you choose that vocation or hobby or . . . calling of God . . . there's something irresistible about a life that's "all there."

And if it's contagious in things of hobbies, so much more so in things of God. I believe a lot of kids brought up in Christian families and Christian schools leave because they see adults who "have" to teach or live a certain way. Not those who are really living it. How can we--how can I--live wholeheartedly and completely for God?

[Pre-] Teacher Diaries: Last Classroom Semester

So wow, this semester has been full.

Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau, Dewey. Education. Papers. Huge tests that praise God, I did a lot better on than I expected!

Research projects, in the classroom. Fifth-grade classroom. So. much. paperwork. All my placements this semester, except P.E., are in fifth grade--ha!

Reading assessments. So. Many. reading assessments! Classroom observations, anecdotal notes, now two kids to tutor. One is probably the lowest reading level in her class; the other is probably the most disengaged. This is going to be fun!

P.E. classes, fitness activities, games, teaching kids how to hop. Do we really have to teach kids how to hop these days?! What has the world come to?!

Twelve-page World Religions papers, studying all kinds of religions. Grateful for a Christian perspective. Wondering where God's call will lead, later on. . .

Flying paper planes with little boys at work (no it's not part of my "normal" work, but hey, you do what you gotta do!). Chats with wise friends about student missions and what-after-college and all those things good seniors talk about. ;)

Now a very full weekend with GYC-SE meetings and Sunday convocation and school Apple Festival. The race never ends. . . on the other hand, I tell myself it is good preparation for working in a small school later on. :)

How Much?

Something I've been thinking about lately...

A strained, forced recitation of truth because "I ought to" rarely does much to convince anyone.

Neither does an argumentative, sarcastic debate. And really, even being given something out of pity can be offensive to many.

And few of those methodologies produce much action or growth on the part of the initiator. But . . . even I (infamously private about the things I'm passionate about) will tell someone about the things I can't imagine living without, how they make my life 200% better. And telling someone about how good those things are, well, it makes me want to go spend more time doing them, too.

How long before I will let myself love Jesus enough that I can't imagine life without Him?

And love Him enough that He's something I can't imagine anyone else living life without?

[Pre-]Teacher Diaries: Last Year

Well it is the last semester of regular classes.

Next semester is student teaching.

Coming up so fast!

This semester for some reason is being super hard. I think a combination of senioritis and hard classes and still trying to make friends in a new group.

But you know what, He is still there. And every day He finds some way to remind me: This is not where you are to stay. This is only a step in the road.

And even if I have no earthly clue what is going to happen after this year? That's okay. 'Cause He's got it.

So, one day at a time! I am off to read more classical education theory, write P.E. lesson plans, and get ready for Remediating Reading Difficulties!

Missed

It's dinnertime, and everyone gathers together to eat. Around the old, well-used table they sit, happy to be done with another day, perhaps laughing over an inside family joke, perhaps sighing in relief to be home. Home where each belongs, where each is valued more deeply than anything else. Home--in its truest sense--is one strong word.

Chairs fill as they gather and everyone is here. But...not everyone is here. A chair is empty. Barren. A hole in the circle 'round the table. And the mood saddens a little as each realizes that the circle is incomplete.

The family's incomplete when one is missing. Even if it's just for a day, just for a meal.

But when they're missing for years? For decades? That's years and decades worse.

Could it be--I think it is--that every day there are empty spaces around a big well-used table where we belong? And that every day the rest of the family's mood saddens a little because the circle's incomplete?

"And the Spirit and the bride say 'Come!'...He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely I am coming quickly.'" (Rev. 22:16, 20)

You are missed. I am missed.

Every day we're here, and not there. There, where we belong. There, where everyone was meant to belong.

It's almost time to go home. May we each want to go home, to our real home, forever!

Welcome

Perhaps you know the feeling too...

We walk into one home--a simple, tiny, rented house of three college-age roommates--and we all plop down on the old couch, or crowd into the kitchen to provide an overabundance of cooks and fruit-and-veggie-choppers, and everyone chats with everyone else, and even I (a bit shy in new groups) feel like I've found my second family. Welcome.

We walk into another home--a bigger, family-owned house, with redone kitchen and furnishings new and sparkly--and people hover around the edges, eventually sit down in a friend-group here, a friend-group there, and "family" is a thing reserved for those already in, not extended to the new ones. Not so welcome.

The point of these little stories?

It's the people that make the welcome.

And people with His heart give the best welcomes.

Father, please give me Your heart for all your children--old and young--to love them and welcome them into Your kingdom!