This Sabbath morning I affirm that Jesus is the center, the goal, the point, the everything of life.
I affirm that living my life for Him is all that truly satisfies.
I affirm that living my life for myself is the path to destruction.
I affirm that loving others is worth it, even when it's hard.
I affirm that God has led me to where I am, and that He has a purpose for me here.
I affirm that God has a purpose for every human being, and that He is drawing individuals to Himself.
I affirm that the lies of the world about being "the captain of your fate" are just that - lies. It is impossible to control your life, and trying will lead to desperation and destruction.
I affirm that God is GOOD, and He is a completely trustworthy Captain of my fate. I would want no other.
I affirm that my heart is His, all over again, today.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
First Week of Teaching!
My first week of teaching is now behind me (well, first week #6!), and it was a wonderful one. Here are some moments that stand out:
*Seeing the smile on the face of my new student - it's always a joy to win someone over.
*Seeing my freshmen and sophomores really take hold of the discussion based on Louis Markos' "From Achilles to Christ," and having one say "I feel like I'm being brainwashed!" Hahahaha - ohhhhh my dear, you have no idea...
*That same class, leading my kids through questioning to get at the root of the worldview problem of one of the books they read over the summer, and reaching that conclusion just as Mr. Bailey walked through the door. "THERE IS NO GOD!" exclaimed my student. "EXACTLY!" I enthusiastically affirmed.
*Introducing this year's play to my high school students, and having one of the seniors enthusiastically say "this is awesome," thereby setting the tone for the whole group.
*On the same occasion, hearing people totally adopting characters, from hand gestures to Brooklyn accents on the initial read-through.
*Having a student call for help on a Lit assignment, only to express fears about the new Algebra teacher, stating, "it seems like he's not really sure what he's doing. Is this true?!" and being able to assure him that the contrary was the case:)
*Confiding to my seniors that they were doing WAY better than my last class in their discussion of the Winthrop/Franklin dichotomy, and having them be very pleased.
*After having shown my students that I'd written "Classical Lit (best ever)" on my notebook, having them ask if I'd written the same thing for all the other classes, and being able to show them (to their GREAT glee) that I'd written "American Lit" and "7/8 Lit."
*Knowing that Classical Lit class will be able to live up to my expectations.
*Coming up with an inventive and enjoyable way to teach TYPING of all things...
*Loving, loving, loving my students.
*HAVING KIMBERLY WALKING THE HALLS WITH ME!!!!!!!
*And most of all (except for the Kimberly part... or maybe partly because of it), suddenly feeling, after over a year of not having felt it, that I couldn't WAIT for the next day of teaching.
Praise the Lord for His innumerable blessings!
*Seeing the smile on the face of my new student - it's always a joy to win someone over.
*Seeing my freshmen and sophomores really take hold of the discussion based on Louis Markos' "From Achilles to Christ," and having one say "I feel like I'm being brainwashed!" Hahahaha - ohhhhh my dear, you have no idea...
*That same class, leading my kids through questioning to get at the root of the worldview problem of one of the books they read over the summer, and reaching that conclusion just as Mr. Bailey walked through the door. "THERE IS NO GOD!" exclaimed my student. "EXACTLY!" I enthusiastically affirmed.
*Introducing this year's play to my high school students, and having one of the seniors enthusiastically say "this is awesome," thereby setting the tone for the whole group.
*On the same occasion, hearing people totally adopting characters, from hand gestures to Brooklyn accents on the initial read-through.
*Having a student call for help on a Lit assignment, only to express fears about the new Algebra teacher, stating, "it seems like he's not really sure what he's doing. Is this true?!" and being able to assure him that the contrary was the case:)
*Confiding to my seniors that they were doing WAY better than my last class in their discussion of the Winthrop/Franklin dichotomy, and having them be very pleased.
*After having shown my students that I'd written "Classical Lit (best ever)" on my notebook, having them ask if I'd written the same thing for all the other classes, and being able to show them (to their GREAT glee) that I'd written "American Lit" and "7/8 Lit."
*Knowing that Classical Lit class will be able to live up to my expectations.
*Coming up with an inventive and enjoyable way to teach TYPING of all things...
*Loving, loving, loving my students.
*HAVING KIMBERLY WALKING THE HALLS WITH ME!!!!!!!
*And most of all (except for the Kimberly part... or maybe partly because of it), suddenly feeling, after over a year of not having felt it, that I couldn't WAIT for the next day of teaching.
Praise the Lord for His innumerable blessings!
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Our New House!
Kimberly and I have now moved in to our delightful cottage on Aquidneck Island. Hurrah!
Well perhaps I should rephrase that to say that pretty much all of our stuff is somewhere in our house. Whether it's out of its box or not is another matter...
But we're loving it so far! And now that the friendly Cox guy has come and gone, and the other friendly Cox guy has come and gone (yes, we were a two Cox guy home), we have internet and can inform the world of our joy!
We've had some wonderful moments already, first thisses and first thats, and it has inspired us to keep a little notebook of our favorite moments in our home.
The first entry will have to be that first time we toured the house, where we were awestruck from the beginning, and then erupted into squeals and shrieks upon seeing the spiral-ish stairs leading up to Kimberly's room.
The second entry will doubtless be our zucchini dinner last week. I remember it that way because that was the day I snatched from the fridge what I thought was a cucumber, peeled it, sliced it, and served it as our cold vegetable, only to figure out later that the reason it was the strangest, most tasteless cucumber in the world is that it was a zucchini. But that, while humorous, is not what will get this dinner into our little record.
Due (so I hear) to a water main break, the water on our island tastes distinctly earthy. I purchased a Brita filter to make sure we didn't die, but some of the earthiness makes it through the filter at times.
Kimberly and I sat down to dinner, and I took a nice, cool drink of... dirt-water. Ew. "This water tastes like dirt!" I exclaimed. "Hm," said Kimberly, unphased.
I ate some food and took another drink. "This water tastes like dirt!" I exclaimed. Original, I know. "Yeah, that's weird," Kimberly patiently responded.
Chomp chomp slurrrrp gulp. "This water tastes like dirt!" I exclaimed. "Andrea, if you say that water tastes like dirt one more time, I'm going to throw this water at you," Kimberly responded adamantly, pointing to her oversized blue plastic cup.
Sip. "This water... That's all I'm going to say," I smirked. We sat there at the table in a profound silence, both casually pretending that we weren't thinking of any next step. I toyed with the "cucumbers" while Kimberly quietly casually glanced out at the birds in the rhododendron bush and tightened her grip on her cup.
"TASTES LIKE DIRT!" I shrieked, while simultaneously leaping from the table. SPLOOSH! The water hit me before the word dirt was out of my mouth. She'd been anticipating my action before I'd even decided to take it.
Ahhhh the laughter that ensued.
There was a Kodak commercial that used to play while I was in college, which showed a series of snapshots or something and sang the song, "Life is good when you've got your friends." (It might have said "when you got your friends," but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt...) I agree with Kodak, but I'd add a verse two:
Life is good when you've got your sister!
Well perhaps I should rephrase that to say that pretty much all of our stuff is somewhere in our house. Whether it's out of its box or not is another matter...
But we're loving it so far! And now that the friendly Cox guy has come and gone, and the other friendly Cox guy has come and gone (yes, we were a two Cox guy home), we have internet and can inform the world of our joy!
We've had some wonderful moments already, first thisses and first thats, and it has inspired us to keep a little notebook of our favorite moments in our home.
The first entry will have to be that first time we toured the house, where we were awestruck from the beginning, and then erupted into squeals and shrieks upon seeing the spiral-ish stairs leading up to Kimberly's room.
The second entry will doubtless be our zucchini dinner last week. I remember it that way because that was the day I snatched from the fridge what I thought was a cucumber, peeled it, sliced it, and served it as our cold vegetable, only to figure out later that the reason it was the strangest, most tasteless cucumber in the world is that it was a zucchini. But that, while humorous, is not what will get this dinner into our little record.
Due (so I hear) to a water main break, the water on our island tastes distinctly earthy. I purchased a Brita filter to make sure we didn't die, but some of the earthiness makes it through the filter at times.
Kimberly and I sat down to dinner, and I took a nice, cool drink of... dirt-water. Ew. "This water tastes like dirt!" I exclaimed. "Hm," said Kimberly, unphased.
I ate some food and took another drink. "This water tastes like dirt!" I exclaimed. Original, I know. "Yeah, that's weird," Kimberly patiently responded.
Chomp chomp slurrrrp gulp. "This water tastes like dirt!" I exclaimed. "Andrea, if you say that water tastes like dirt one more time, I'm going to throw this water at you," Kimberly responded adamantly, pointing to her oversized blue plastic cup.
Sip. "This water... That's all I'm going to say," I smirked. We sat there at the table in a profound silence, both casually pretending that we weren't thinking of any next step. I toyed with the "cucumbers" while Kimberly quietly casually glanced out at the birds in the rhododendron bush and tightened her grip on her cup.
"TASTES LIKE DIRT!" I shrieked, while simultaneously leaping from the table. SPLOOSH! The water hit me before the word dirt was out of my mouth. She'd been anticipating my action before I'd even decided to take it.
Ahhhh the laughter that ensued.
There was a Kodak commercial that used to play while I was in college, which showed a series of snapshots or something and sang the song, "Life is good when you've got your friends." (It might have said "when you got your friends," but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt...) I agree with Kodak, but I'd add a verse two:
Life is good when you've got your sister!
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