The God of All Comfort

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. I Cor 1: 3,4

The vital question that a suffering person asks is, why am I going through this pain?

My family is not immune. We are suffering right now with my dad in the hospital for open-heart surgery. Many of us have been asking why.

Dad has strong faith. He believes God. He believes that God is sovereign, and that God keeps His promises. Even though he has strong faith, he questions God's will. God knows we can little afford a hospital bill, and it will be difficult with Dad unable to work.

I think we all realize that God does not always work the way we think He should. He does what is right and true, but in His own way. His purposes and ours do not always merge. For one example, look at the life of the apostle Paul.

Could anyone say that Paul was not a servant of God? Still, he suffered. Paul told the Corinthians that his suffering allowed him to accept God's comfort. After he had been comforted, he was then able to comfort others who were also suffering.

Some of us find it simple to show love and concern to others. On the other hand, we find it infinitely harder to accept the same. We also find it hard to truly sympathize with the pain of others. Through suffering, we become better able both to give and accept charity.

God is good, and through his teaching, I am learning to accept His comfort. I am grateful for His care, and also for the care shown by His people. Through the hands of frail humans the love of God is spread abroad. Though I do not understand perfectly, I trust Him.

Declaration of Independence

Do you ever feel that guilt runs your life?

I've realized that the guilt factor plays a big part in my daily activities. I feel guilty when I throw things away, let opportunities slide, or fail to do something that I've been asked to do (whether or not I agreed to do it).

This is my Declaration of Independence.

• I will no longer fill out surveys for you. No, not you, Wal-Mart, or you, Dollar General, or you, random web site. I won't do it.

• I will no longer return product registration cards. No, I will not, despite the threats of not knowing about product recalls.

• I will not read emails from politicians or their cronies. I don't need them. Anything they say could be read in the newspaper with less bias.

• I will not read forwards, whether text or email. If they're funny, I've probably seen them before. If they're gooey, I do not want to see them.

• I will not download "free" products. A synonym for "free" in this case should be "useless."

• I will not make my bed. At least, I won't feel guilty when I don't. (I haven't made my bed regularly since 2003, but I feel guilty about it at times. Especially when other people look at it.)

There's nothing wrong with doing any of these things. The problem occurs when these activities take up time that I would rather use doing something else, like spending time with my friends and family.

I refuse to be guilted into mindless, useless, tasks any longer.

Is there something you don't do that you feel guilty about?

My Valentine's Day Post

I love my students.

You probably wouldn't think so after I've spent a day with them. I tend to get frustrated and tired, and at the end of the day I am completely ready to go home. Still, there's a bond there that can't be denied.

I worry about my students. I worry about the ones who use drugs on a regular basis. I worry about the ones who can barely read and write. I worry about the ones who have young children or babies on the way. I worry about the ones who are used and abused.

I laugh inside when a student says, "You just don't like me." If they only knew that I pour my soul into my work day after day. If they only knew that I cannot allow myself to fail them. If they only knew how I agonize over them when they fail.

I have to remind myself often that it's not my job to always help them. That it's my job to show them how they can help themselves. That it's my job to guide them into being fully capable students. And maybe guide them into being better people.

Finally, I have to remember that I can't change them. They can choose to listen to my teaching, or they can choose to ignore me. It's not up to me, no matter how I feel.

That's a freeing thought. I love them, and let them go.

Stalkers, Take Note

I feel a rant coming on.

I am frustrated with women who continue to chase men who are not interested in them. The guy has made it totally clear he is not interested. And yet, these women keep thinking about the guy and talking about the guy to anyone who will listen.

Why, oh why would you want a guy who does not want you? What screwed-up kind of relationship would that be? Get a life and get over him!

Men can be just as guilty. It is fine for a guy to ask a girl out two or even three times. But, listen, if she keeps making up stupid excuses not to go out with you, she's probably not interested. You should leave her alone. There are other women out there.

The neediness becomes totally unattractive after a while. In my experience, I've really been annoyed with a guy when he chased me and chased me when I didn't want him. When he stopped trying so hard, then he became more interesting. I don't know why this is, but it is.

I'm not saying don't try to get the girl you want. I'm saying pay attention to her cues, and don't keep pursuing hot and heavy when she keeps turning you down.

And girls, if a guy is clearly not interested, don't hound him. Let him go. After all, men are like buses: if you don't get this one, there will be another one along in a few minutes. :)

There. That's the end of my rant.

Cabin Fever

It was a long weekend, a very long weekend. School was canceled Friday because of the icy roads. The roads also kept me from going ANYWHERE for the past three days. (Except church, but that's only a couple of blocks from my house.)

Since I couldn't go anywhere, I had to keep myself entertained at home. I'm like a four-year-old when it comes to entertainment. I am easily bored.

On Friday I managed to grade most of my students' papers (I had a four-inch stack), do the laundry, burn off a cd, and watch two movies (House and Groundhog Day). Saturday I finished all my lesson plans for the week and the weekly agenda that I give to the students. I don't think I have ever before finished everything I had to do for school over a weekend, but the snow and ice drove me to it.

By 2 PM on Saturday I couldn't stand to be in the house much longer. Since I was warned against driving, I went for a walk instead, if you can call it a walk. I think I slid more than I took actual steps. I'm still sore. Almost falling dozens of times is better than crunches at working those abs.

Later on Saturday, I decided a project was in order. I have a book of sewing projects using old jeans, and I've been collecting them for a while in preparation for this. Finally I had time to work on it.

What I made was a balloon skirt. The instructions call for one pair of old jeans. The problem is, you are supposed to cut the legs in half for the bottom part of the skirt. Since they are folded under, however, that makes the skirt shorter than I think people would appreciate from me. Instead I used two pair of jeans and didn't cut the legs in half. Viola! A knee-length skirt. Much better on the eyes. I also patched up all the holes in the top part of the jeans with another pair of jeans. (Hey, these jeans were thrown away for a reason!) Oh, yeah, and another alteration was that I had to put a triangle of fabric in the hip area. These weren't my jeans to start with and weren't exactly my size. Picture follows.


I was so happy with my creation (despite being told it should only be worn on Halloween) that I wore it to church Sunday night. (It would have been much warmer if I had leggings to wear under it.)I I felt like a biker chick because ended up wearing a black dress shirt and black boots with it. I don't have a picture of that, unfortunately.

So tomorrow, back to work (assuming I can get there) and no more boredom for a while!

Having Fun at Work

The best part of teaching is playing games with the students. I love it when a class has a running joke with me, or even when a kid has a running joke with me. It makes the day more cheerful if we can have a little fun.

My 8th period class is one example. At some point, I told them that I thought David Archuleta was cute. Of course, they ran with this. Things have progressed so that now David and I have been dating, engaged, and through a break-up. They add to the story almost daily. I pretend to be annoyed, but I actually think it is rather funny.

Fifth period always tries to outsmart me with some kind of word play. This is my pre-AP class, and they are stretching their mental muscle. Since I've got a few years on them, it's hard for them to catch me, but occasionally one of them does. Then that student is happy for the rest of the period.

One of my favorite games to play is "pretend mad." This is what I do when they are not getting something that I've been teaching for days. I also pull this trick out when they are doing something that's slightly annoying, but not bad enough to get really mad. To be "pretend mad," I put on my actor's hat and get loud and over-dramatic with my hand and arm movements. Basically I gripe them out with a smile on my face. It's similar to how I act when I'm really mad, but they can always tell the difference.

Maybe I complain a lot about my job (and it is difficult), but I do have fun at work as much as I can!

I Was An Idiot... And I Still Am

Do you ever feel like a straight-up idiot? I do. A lot.

Yesterday I had one of those idiot days. I was taking teaching licensure tests (yes, the dreaded PRAXIS tests). For some reason I did not know all the new rules they have now. (It was probably on the web site in the fine print somewhere. Does anyone ever read all that stuff you have to agree to? I think it would use up 5 years of your life if you did.)

Because of my lack of attention, I failed to realize that cell phones were not allowed. Thus I had mine out while I was checking in. (Hey, I was trying to turn it off.) The proctor told me I would have to set it on another table during the test. Oh well, I thought, I guess it's not the worst thing that could happen.

Later, when I went to the second test of the day, I asked an official-looking woman sitting at a table if I was supposed to check in with her. She said, "No, go check the sign to see where you need to go." So I checked the sign to find the room. Then I tried to go in, but they were still testing in there. Double oops. So the woman jumps up and says, "You can't go in there." Well, I know now, lady, why didn't you tell me before? Then I feel like an idiot again.

So I finally get into the test, and I'm sitting there, waiting for the test to start. The proctor reads an extremely long list of rules. I'm feeling proud of myself because I didn't bring my cell phone to this test. Then she reads: "Mechanical pencils are not allowed."

What??? Why are mechanical pencils not allowed? Can a person cheat using a mechanical pencil? Can they roll up the answers into the barrel and pull them out during the test? Ugh. I place my two mechanical pencils (that I used on the first test) back into my purse. Thankfully, I had picked up a spare regular pencil just in case.

I managed to survive the day in spite of the fact that I was a complete idiot. Whether or not I passed the tests remains to be seen.