Thursday, February 26, 2009

New Family Traditions

Having a new family, we both brought with us traditions from our own up-bringings.  But we also have needed to make our own.  Tonight is one we have started.  There is this great pizza place around the corner from our house and every Thursday night is Aviano's Night.  We love it, the pizza is good, and not having to make supper or clean up that mess is even better!  Here's to making new memories!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

So Blessed

So here I am sitting in my sweet little office at my amazing job thinking about my wonderful family. It is in this moment that I begin to contemplate how truly my life is so blessed. It is a wonderful thing to have a job in this economy, at this time. God forgive me if I ever complain about mine. There is so much in life to be happy for right now.

My students are even wonderful. Today is the day when I see all my classes. I teach in a block schedule (pros and cons considered, maybe not the best thing for music classes), and today is the day day when all my classes report. I worked hard with the first three, but when the fourth class came in everyone was all riled up about something. When I finally got them all to settle down, I came to understand that two of the girls in the class and one of the young men, were all up at arms because of something that another young man had done to another young lady (all in this class...not the guy who everyone was mad at). Anyway, after sending one crying student to the restroom to regain her composure, I was able to talk the students down from their anger. We had a nice conversation. I feel like everyday I have to remind students that they all have a choice NOT TO FIGHT. There is an overwhelming sense of pride in oneself and a clinging to "my rights" mentality of many of the students here. The concept is this, "don't cross me, I don't care who you are." "You should respect me, because I am who I am." Sounds like this last statement is very true for the ALMIGHTY GOD that I serve, but looses its punch when one is talking about a 15 year old punk with a potato on his shoulder (its not merely a chip, when it gets to a certain size it simply reverts back to its previous state.) Anyway, one finds it increasingly difficult to rationally communicate with some of these students. Enter love.

Love is a rather obscure and far-off concept to some of these students. Many think they have found it through promiscuity, a sad but true fact, but are sorely mistaken. Words like hope, prosperity, peace, kindness and mercy are not part of their vocabularies, let alone do they make up any of their character traits. But hopefully, that is where I come in. A person can only give away what they already possess. For instance, if I want to give you a new Mercedes, that is all well and good, but it is impossible, unless I have one to give. The same is true for a character trait. One can not be expected to, or will oneself to administer mercy or hope or any of the above mentions characteristics if he does not first possess them. One would not have to be a master at said qualities, but at least a working knowledge of them in order to demonstrate effectively in order to pass on to students. All that said to make the point that the students who I see are always surrounded by such chaos and disorder that when one tries to bring order into their lives it is bound to be a daunting task. BUT here is the great news! The person I answer to was the first to bring order out of disorder. He was the first to command something to happen and see it occur in front of His eyes. THIS is the even better part, HE HAS CALLED AND EQUIPPED ME TO DO THE SAME THING! The God I serve is so much bigger than the disorder and darkness that so desperately clings to my students. In fact, when He is revealed to them (hopefully through me) the darkness must disappear. Darkness is, by definition, the absence of light. It only stands to reason, then, that when light is introduced into the situation, there is no more darkness. Bless God.

Well, I suppose that is the end of my thoughts for now. But most definitely there shall be more. Onward and Upward, evermore, evermore!

Monday, February 9, 2009

I can roll!






Zadok has learned how to roll from his belly from his back and does it with great ease when he wants to! If he is fussy he gives up but he still knows how!