School Starts Today

When I taught middle school I came across a poem that I taped to my desk. It runs through my mind every year at the first of school.

School starts tomorrow, Lord, and I'm nervous.
Ease my anxiety.
Give me confidence,
and let my confidence give the children security.

School starts tomorrow, Lord; make me ready.
You have given me a job to do
and the ability to do it well.
You have given me your promise that you will never leave me.
And you have guided me in all my preparation.
So now let me face tomorrow
eagerly and unafraid
for ultimately my confidence rests in this:
"I am raedy for anything
through the strength of the one who lives in me" Phil. 4:13

While I don't teach children anymore, I still feel some of the same anxiety. Since I have been on sabbatical, I haven't taught in 8 months. I so want this year to be different.

Dear Great Teacher,
Teach me to teach like you, to love like you, to care like you. Let me walk only in your wisdom and knowledge. Give me your strength and wisdom as I face this new day of teaching.

The Knowledge of God

I found these word in the book of Puritan prayers (The Valley of Vision) that my son gave me several years ago. As I have spent much time in preparing for school these words about the knowledge of God were just beautiful to me and reminded me of the most important thing that I teach, the thing that I teach with everything that I do, the knowledge of God.

I am guilty, but pardoned,
lost, but saved,
wandering, but found
sinning, but cleansed.
Give me perpetual broken-heartedness,
Keep me always clinking to thy cross,
Flood me every morning with descending grace,
Open to me the springs of divine knowledge,
sparkling like crystal,
flowing clear and unsullied
through the wilderness of life.

Siesta Memory Challenge - August 15

As school begins I thought that this would make a very good verse to remind me how much I need to listen to him in order to be the kind of teacher that he created me to be.

Isaiah 50: 4
The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue,
to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

Since my verse list is getting long now and I have posted the full text in previous posts, I will just put links to the verses that I am memorizing this year.
Titus 2:7-8
Romans 11: 33-36
Hebrews13:20-21, TNIV
Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12, TNIV
Isaiah 30:20-21, TNIV
John 17: 25-26, TNIV
Jeremiah 24:7, TNIV
Psalm 16:11
2 Peter 1: 5-8
2 Timothy 2:24
1 Corinthians 10:31
Ephesians 5: 19-20
James 4: 7-8
Isaiah 43: 18-19
Philippians 3:12-14

Sunny Skies and Dark Clouds - At the Same Time

The weather has been so strange this summer. Usually in July the temperature is in the high 80's and 90's with the only rain be late afternoon heat thunderstorms. You can usually go 2 weeks without mowing and you have to water your flowers every other day. Well, the rain hasn't seem to stop this summer. We have had to mow every week and I haven't watered the garden but once or twice the entire summer. The skies have been so strange this past week. Bright sun shine with a single dark cloud in one place. so if you are not looking at that part of the sky you think it is a regular sunny summer day - then you feel a drop of rain and see the dark cloud. It just seems to come from nowhere.

Bright, sunny skies and dark clouds - at the same time. My life seems to be like that now. Bright happy times, good relationships, but then there are these dark clouds - worries about family, friends, and work responsibilities. When skies grow dark may I always look to the light that Jesus brings to our lives. Whether rain or shine - bright skies or dark clouds - Jesus always walks with us through our days. He knows where we have been and where we are going. He has gone ahead to prepare a place for us and now He is walking us home - through sunny skies and dark clouds.

Siesta Memory Challenge - August 1

I found a reference to my new verse in a Bible study that I am doing. As this month will be the beginning of a new school year, I chose this verse to help me remember the way I should act as a teacher. While this verse was written to a young man who was to serve as a teacher of the gospel of Christ, I think it provides wisdom for all of us that are teachers of any kind.

Titus 2:7-8
In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

Since my verse list is getting long now and I have posted the full text in previous posts, I will just put links to the verses that I am memorizing this year.
Romans 11: 33-36
Hebrews13:20-21, TNIV
Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12, TNIV
Isaiah 30:20-21, TNIV
John 17: 25-26, TNIV
Jeremiah 24:7, TNIV
Psalm 16:11
2 Peter 1: 5-8
2 Timothy 2:24
1 Corinthians 10:31
Ephesians 5: 19-20
James 4: 7-8
Isaiah 43: 18-19
Philippians 3:12-14

Crosses In My Office

Our building is going through a much needed renovation. As a part of that renovation I moved to a new office. It is the biggest one that I have ever had and I had a whole blank wall to fill. I wanted to find something special to put there. I have never been one to use crosses to decorate. In some ways it seems wrong to use so holy an object as a decoration. But when I was looking for something to hang I found all these beautiful metal crosses. I was just drawn to each one.


So there are now 9 crosses on my wall. The one in the frame is made of nails and the verse beside it is Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord. Even though this was something very different for me I think that I was drawn to each one. I want my office to be a place that is powered by the love of Christ and the cross is the strongest symbol for that love. As I walk in each day and come back to my office after going to class I want to see this wall and be reminded in a powerful way of Christ' love. I think about how Jesus can take something so horrible, like a cross, and make it something beautiful, like these crosses. I want every student and friend that walks in that office to know that they are loved.

This morning during my prayer time I found this prayer from the Puritan Prayer book that my son gave me.

At the cross that relieves my conscience
let me learn lessons of self-denial, forgiveness, and submission
feel motives to obedience
find resources for all the needs of divine life.

Then let me be what I profess
do as well as teach
live as well as hear religion.

It is amazing how these words written 200 years ago so perfectly express what I feel now. Oh Lord may I always be drawn to your love that was shown through the cross.

Siesta Memory Challenge - July 15

Here is my new verse. I chose this one because it is a familiar one, a beautiful poetic scripture, that I decided that I should be able to quote. It is also about the wisdom of God and as I get ready to start another school year this verse will remind me the source of any knowledge I might try to share.

Romans 11: 33-36
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who had been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay them? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Since my verse list is getting long now and I have posted the full text in previous posts, I will just put links to the verses that I am memorizing this year.
Hebrews13:20-21, TNIV
Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12, TNIV
Isaiah 30:20-21, TNIV
John 17: 25-26, TNIV
Jeremiah 24:7, TNIV
Psalm 16:11
2 Peter 1: 5-8
2 Timothy 2:24
1 Corinthians 10:31
Ephesians 5: 19-20
James 4: 7-8
Isaiah 43: 18-19
Philippians 3:12-14