6×8=48, wahoo…I love math! February 28, 2008

I just wanted to let all of you know that I have math skills and the ability to teach 4th graders the fine art of multiplication tables!  Yes, you heard me right, 4th graders!  My son, Jonathan, is in the 4th grade this year and is yet to have his multiplication tables “beat into his head”.  I had an English teacher who used to tell us that she was going to “beat English into our heads” till be knew it, without having to think about it.  She was so right, cause I can’t write without knowing where punctuation should go, and heaven forbid if John asks me to proof something,  red marks galore.  Anyway, Jonathan has not had these crucial math problems beat into his head yet and I am up to his classroom 3 days a week now, doing just that. 

Now, I would way rather be teaching him at home, but when Jonathan gets home from school at the end of the day he is DONE!  I barely get the homework done, so the thought of practicing math that apparently isn’t as important as passing a “No Child Left Behind“, writing test.  He should have been taught the math last year but it wasn’t important then either.  I do believe that the public school here is not doing my child any justice.  Something is truly wrong with the need to study for the end of the year test.  Being taught to “pass the test” is more important then giving them the things that they will need everyday of their lives.  It is no wonder that the USA is behind almost every other country! 

Yeah, my panties are in a wad!  I am however enjoying the time with him and his classmates who are also in the same boat.  There is only 1 of the 20 kids that I work with that actually know them without having to use her fingers.  Sad huh?  To make it worse, if I hadn’t gone up to the school to talk about it and to volunteer, he would be a 5th grader with the same problem. 

Some of these kids are in tough situations.  Today I had 6 kids sitting at the table and only 1 lived with both his parents.  One of the girls in the group told him that he was lucky, and he said he knew.  I had another boy who says that his mom won’t help him at home with his work, won’t come to school when he wrote his book for writing class so that he could read it to her, and said that she wouldn’t buy him any flash cards if he asked.  He was depressed and very down on himself.  I wanted to find her and beat her.  Maybe Jonathan doesn’t know his math for a reason.  Might it be so that I can be an encouragement to each of these 20 kids.  Am I supposed to show them love that they aren’t getting anywhere else?  Am I just being Jesus with skin on to a hurting boy who doesn’t think that he can do anything?

 Want to hear something funny…the two boys who bully Jonathan on the bus, think I am the greatest thing ever.  One of them can’t read any better then my first grader and when I told the other one to “be nice on the bus” yesterday as I left him, told me first thing this morning that he WAS nice on the bus!  God really does have to sit back and chuckle as his plan for my life, the life of my child, and the life of the children he has surrounded both of us with.  You go Jesus!

Got Joy?! February 26, 2008

Got Joy?!  That is a question I have been asking myself since we got home from Texas.  The more I have thought about the trip the more that I have appreciated the sheer joy that we felt while there.  I haven’t laughed that much in such a long time!

I had to teach children’s church this past Sunday so I didn’t have the opportunity to hear my husband preach, but I asked him last night whether he talked about our trip during his sermon.  He told me that he had and he started to laugh.  I asked him what was so funny, to which he replied, “I kept repeating over and over that I hadn’t laughed so much in a long time and that we had so much fun.  I felt down right giddy talking about it and I had to just stop saying it over and over.”  I laughed at him because as he was talking about how “giddy” he was the “giddy” returned! 

Now those of you who know John really well, know that he is a really funny guy.  You have to spend time with him to see it but I promise that he is hysterical!  Most of the time though, he can be sitting watching a funny movie, that I am laughing out loud at, and he will have a smile on his face yet not be laughing out loud.  When I ask him if he thinks it is funny he says, “I am all tore up on the inside.”  I only wish he showed the inside on his outside.  So to watch my husband throw back his head and laugh about a trip where he spent the whole time throwing his head back and laughing does my heart good!

Yesterday my friend Sarah told me that I was the happiest person that she knew at church.  What she meant was that I “looked” the happiest.  Now don’t everybody get your panties in a wad, I know there are lots of happy people at our church.  What we were talking about was the look on the faces, of the people at church.  How many of you are the kind of person who is “all tore up on the inside” yet never show it on the outside while you are at church?    We ought to have joy that bubbles over all the time but especially at church, where we are there to worship the one who offered us life eternal, through the death of his own son!  Come on people, where’s the joy?!  How come it looks like you are in sheer misery?  I know that right after church is over the joy is evident, so why aren’t we showing the joy when we are singing, talking to Jesus, or listening to the pastor preach.  Maybe we should hang a huge mirror up front so that you can see yourself as we move through a Sunday service.  I shouldn’t be the only visibly happy person. 

 Now if you are feeling offended and thinking that I am fussing at you, then maybe you are one of the “chosen frozen”.  Truth is never easy to hear and we never like to see those things about ourselves.  What we need to do is to step up to the challenge of showing a little joy, in the place that should bring us joy.  Get on the happy wagon and show us all a smile.  I promise that a good belly laugh does the heart good.  God created us to laugh and I sure know that He has a sense of humor, just look at the Hippopotamus or the Rhinoceros…hysterical!  Not a lot of difference between the two, just a horn, funny nonetheless.

A Special Thank You! February 22, 2008

Do you ever get the opportunity to spend time with people who you thoroughly enjoy and can be your real self with;  people who you laugh out loud at the craziest things with?  Well, that was our trip to San Antonio, Texas to do a youth retreat with Robbie and Annie Bridges.  We had an incredible time.  Robbie and Annie treated us like “royalty”.  We ate at some of the best restaurants in the area, went to  a professional rodeo, took a riverboat ride on the river that runs through the middle of downtown San Antonio, had confetti eggs broken over our heads, and went to the Mexican market place.  It truly is a wonderful place to visit.  But hands down the best part of the trip was spending time with Robbie and Annie.

 Robbie is a guy that John and I had as a camper at CBU camp.  He started as a tall, skinny, self described “stud” of a camper and then became a Counselor In Training (CIT) working along side older more mature counselors, and helping with kids.  We have several crazy “Robbie stories” that would shock many people, but we wouldn’t trade any of those for anything.  He grew so much from year to year and finally he found himself at ORU going to school to be a youth pastor.  During his time there he met the most awesome girl and fortunately, had sense enough to marry her.  Her only flaw, that I can find, is that she is from Texas.  Which nothing against the state of Texas but it is entirely too far from North Carolina!  Annie and I have an awful lot in common. We are both a little crazy, fun, and loud; although she is louder then I am!  I know that there are some of you who don’t believe that anyone could be louder then me, but I promise she can out shout me.  I know cause she and I tried it at the top of an echo mountain lookout, hers carried further! 

John and I are so very proud of Robbie and all that he is doing in ministry, and humbled that we have had the opportunity to share in helping mold him into the man of God he has become.  It is amazing to me how creative he is and how much is like John in the way that he thinks.  Annie told us numerous times that Robbie really credits us both with being a big reason that he has taken the ministry path that he is on.  We can’t take full credit for Robbie but we get to share in his life with about 4 other people who are equally special to him.  We watched him really step up this past weekend and deal with some really tough things, like a champ.  It was like watching our baby bird fly for the first time. Proud doesn’t begin to touch how we felt watching him in action.

The neatest part in this week was being able to move from mentoring Robbie, to being his friend and enjoying him outside of the camp experience.  We knew we loved Robbie but this was entering a new part of our 15 year relationship.  There was a mutual respect and love. 

 In the midst of this week, all I could think about was how you may never know who’s life you will impact.  Who will you touch in a way that helps them choose the ministry direction that they may go.  How will something you say to a person, affect them in ways that you won’t understand until much later.  Maybe this past week was about the Lord affirming John and I in what we have been doing for so long.  Maybe without knowing it, the Lord used Robbie to say thank you to both of us.  Sometimes it is good to know the lives that you have touched. 

Let me encourage you to tell the person in your life, that has been a part of molding you into who you are, thank you.  You will never know how much it will bless them to know, that what they do is important.  Send them a card or take them to dinner.  Give them a hug and say thanks for helping me become a better person.  Do what you think it takes to affirm them, they will be so appreciative. 

So…thanks Robbie and Annie, we love you both!