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Why I’m Not Leaving Education to Become a Blogger
I see it all the time. Ad after ad advertising blogging as an escape from the chain of the 9 to 5 job. It is amazing to me how many of these ads refer to teaching as the job they wanted to flee. How could they teach when they really didn’t enjoy it? It is hard for me to imagine. Now, I have been writing since I was a young girl. Stacks of journals holding my deepest secrets are proof it is truly a passion of mine, but one thing I have never wanted to escape is teaching. The days spent learning with teenagers is not a hindrance but an…
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My Recent Post on Weakness by Connect PCA
When I consider my own temperament, I often question why God chooses to use seemingly difficult dispositions to accomplish his plan. Well, we may never have the answer to that question this side of heaven, but there is good news! The fathers and mothers of the faith were human too—personality flaws and all.
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How can #God redeem my excessive nostalgia?
I don’t know about you, but we had an extraordinarily quiet Christmas this year. For the past several years, Christmas vacation was filled with cousins playing, skiing, endless noise and activity. For us, and many others, this year was different. Not only do we have less family around but less activities in general. Now, quiet isn’t all bad. I’ll admit, it is nice to breathe and actually have a vacation, but as I looked into my son’s longing eyes, not sure what to do with all of this free time after Christmas, I revisited the true grief I sometimes feel when I recall my own childhood Christmases. Now, I realize…
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Do They Know It’s Christmas?
We hear it every year. That song reminding us of those in third world countries, Africa, to be specific, who don’t have any of the material reminders of Christmas that we have. Recorded by singer Bono, with a focus on a particular famine in Ethiopia in 1984 and recorded in 2004 and 2014 for other causes, it has lines like “Where the only water flowing/Is the bitter sting of tears” and “And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time/The greatest gift they’ll get this year is life”. While highly criticized for several reasons, the song does propose a good question: In the midst of the busy consumerism of…
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Hugging: An Act of Love or Hate?
I didn’t mean to; it was a reflex. I just hadn’t seen her in a while, and before I knew it, I hugged her-in a grocery store! I felt so bad. What if I am sick and don’t know it? What if she somehow gets COVID from that one thoughtless act? A few months ago, I saw two ladies greet each other in Walmart. They instinctively went in for a hug and stopped short, looking around to see if anyone was watching. They didn’t hug. We are not supposed to. Hugging has gone from a kind greeting, a comforting act to a hateful one. Just like that. Now, I’ll admit,…
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5 Ways Your #Special Needs Child has Bolstered My Faith
When we find out we’re going to be a parent, planning immediately ensues. Is it a boy or girl? Will she like sports, or music, or both? Who will she look like? And we begin to dream about what we will buy her, the activities she will do, what her first day of kindergarten will look like. Yes, we might have a concern here or there based on challenges others have had, but, more often than not, we will brush them aside and choose a Pollyanna-type optimism instead. All parents find out in one defining moment or another, however, that our Utopian vision of parenting was just that, a vision,…
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Practicing Perseverance
As a public school teacher, I have had the privilege of meeting some remarkable individuals. It never ceases to amaze me, the determination some of my students show as they face disabilities, neglect, abuse, mental illness, death, etc. . . . At such a young age, they just keep moving forward, fighting for their futures when most of us would have thrown in the towel. In March of this year, I fully believed the yard signs posted saying, “This Too Shall Pass”. I honestly posted comments to my struggling students saying, “This won’t last forever”. But it seems “this” is going to last a while. And we are tired. There…
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There is Only One True Savior, Even in #Election Years
It happens every four years. And no matter what we told ourselves after the last election, we all fall for the lie again and add at least one “Savior” to our list-at least until the election. They say history repeats itself, and elections are a vivid example of this. We all saw it four years ago, conservatives and liberals alike, the absurd way we let the election run our lives, strain (or ruin) our relationships, overrun us spiritually. We worshipped an idol-some politician who God definitely wanted, maybe even had “ordained”. And many of us vowed, to ourselves or others, that we wouldn’t do it again. “Next time I won’t…
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For Such a Time as This
It took me a while to notice. I mean, the first week back at work was such a whirlwind with new protocols, last minute schedule changes and the typical business of a new school year, and I’ll admit, I was fairly inward-focused, drowning in all I needed to get done. In the midst of this, one of my former students came to drop off a book, and stayed. He honestly didn’t like my class much last year, but he wanted to talk to me, tell me about his new schedule. He was happy to be back. And it kept happening, students stopping by just to say “Hi” and catch up…
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A #2020 Confession
Lord, Forgive me. During this time of shutdowns, COVID, and unrest I have despaired Feeling overwhelmed and isolated from others I have failed to trust in your sovereign will and promises I have feared You continually say, “Do not be afraid” But I have feared disease, death, discomfort and change I have hated In my pain and discomfort Those who disagree with me and those in power over me Instead of trusting that “ . . . nor anything . . . in all creation can separate me from your love” I have spouted off In person and online Impatiently voicing my frustration for all to hear Instead of being…