Thursday, April 14, 2011

Randomness

It's a sad, sad day!  My bottle of footloose & fancy fizz is empty!  Vide!  Finnito!  Gone!  This stuff comes from Bath & Body Works and let me tell you, if you are coming to Niger it is worth every cent  you spend on it because your feet feel SO GOOD when you soak them in this at the end of a hot & dirty day!
Speaking of things that are gone, yesterday one of my first graders started to cry when she got distracted and forgot the word that she wanted to write on the board.  I told her it was okay not to worry and then I tried to make her laugh by telling her that if I cried every time I forgot something, I'd be crying all day.  It didn't make her laugh.  I guess you have to be old to understand that one!

And while I'm on the subject of children, let me tell you about some very entertaining ways that first graders like to pass the time while taking a standardized test.  I caught one of my boys admiring his muscles while he waited for his classmates to finish.  Sleeve up...flexing...hmm, that looks pretty good!  Then a little later in the test they were using a ruler to measure an eraser.  So when he gets done with his test, he was back to muscle admiring and he decided to pull out his ruler and measure up the height of that bulge.  When I caught his eye, we both had a good chuckle over his "muscle love."  He really should get some bonus points for knowing how to use his ruler in a pratical way, don't you think?

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

A Victory that Brings Hope

I watched this video this morning about an eight year old who was pepper sprayed during a violent outburst.  This was the third time that the police were called to deal with him.  Eight years old and that is your reality.  How crushingly sad!  This is a child who at the age of eight is losing hope that life will be different.  In his own words he said, "I kind of deserved it, but -- when I also behave like that I'm thinking my future is going to turn around into the homeless, bad thing way."

The sad reality that this child is living makes the words that I read from Reclaiming the Future of Christian Education by Albert E. Greene all the more pertinent.  "The need for hope is perhaps more apparent today than ever before.  The promise of the Enlightenment has proved false.  Physical convenience in lifestyle has grown immeasurably, but human relations have rarely been as demonic as those we have experienced in the twentieth century.  As a result, many modern people have fallen into hopelessness.  But hope is a prominent element in the gospel.  Christ died in weakness, and His disciples thought their hopes had been completely dashed.  Then He rose from the dead, and in the hope of that victory the gospel spread throughout the Western world...The basis of Christian hope has not changed, and hope must be a prominent characteristic of the Christian teacher."

Tonight I'm thankful for Christ's victory over death and sin that gives me hope that I, too, can find victory over the sin that enslaves me.  I'm thankful that this hope filled message is intended for every heart that is losing hope.  I pray that as a teacher I communicate that hope to my students and that somehow this little boy will also come to know this very same hope.

Isaiah 9:2
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.
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