Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Pour Your Heart Out


Are you weary from wrestling with problems and situations in your life that will not seem to go away? Do you struggle just to keep going and make it through your day? Do you wonder if there is any solace, any refuge, any, answer. Please consider this. Psalm 62 verses 7 and 8  In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God  Trust in him at all times; you people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. God is aware exactly where you are in your life and knows exactly what you are going through. But, God through the psalmists invites you to come to Him for strength and refuge. He invites you to pour your heart out before Him. Tell Him all of your troubles. Share with Him all of your hurts and fears. Unleash all of your anxieties, frustrations, discouragements and despair in sighs of prayer. Pour it all out before Him. He will listen, care and be your refuge and your strength. He will hold you close in His everlasting arms. You can trust Him at all times with everything that you are going through and feeling. Won't you pour out your heart before Him? 

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Choosing To Trust God

Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10a KJV). Be still and rest in the Lord, wait for Him and patiently lean yourself upon Him (Psalm 37:7 AMP). Recognizing who God is and trusting accordingly.

Even if I fear, I can make my choice to trust God. God then inhabits my choice and helps me apply it to my life. In fact, He even helps me make the choice (Philippians 2:13 KJV).

I am not saying that trusting God is easy. It can be a moment by moment struggle to renew your decision. Still you must learn to surrender, to believe that God in His power and authority can handle your situation. God's perspective is eternal. His purpose in our lives is not limited to time, space or circumstances. While we see just our little corner of life, God sees the whole.

Surrendering our situation to God doesn't mean you settle for mediocrity or cease doing your part. It means that you embrace the fact that you are not in charge.It is not necessary to expend so much energy trying to stay in control or trying to be everything to everyone. You don't have to do  that at all. God is sovereign and omnipotent, and He already knows what will happen.

In our powerlessness, we encounter God's power. He shows us more of Himself. That is His promise, His desire, in every circumstance we face. He longs to reveal more of Himself.

Ruth Graham

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

The One Reason I Quit Teaching by Elona Schreiner

September means apples, bulletin boards, foliage, name tags, a new class and everything else about going back-to-school! After over thirty years of starting the fall in a classroom, as a student or teacher, I decided to take a break this year. I taught for thirteen years all over Oregon, and it was not an easy decision to take a year off from teaching. We moved from Oregon to Texas and I knew that now was the time to step back. It’s now been two months since school started for the rest of my world, and I have had time reflect upon the decision to change careers. I can now articulate the many things I miss about teaching and the one thing that I do not.

Growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher. There were moments when I saw myself as a lawyer, a rodeo cowgirl, a photojournalist, a ballerina, a public speaker, and of course, a queen. I loved helping others, loved teaching others! I read books to younger kids, made my own neighborhood newspaper, created worksheets for my brother to complete and just knew I wanted to be a teacher!
Reading books with kids; discussing the literature, really listening to children’s connections to the story, are some of the best times one can have as a teacher. I learned so much about the power of great books, the right books and the deep connections to literature by what my students have said over the years.

A fifth grade student in my class was reading “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen as part of a book club in my classroom. We were sitting as a small group discussing the book one day in class. This child told the group that he really connected with the main character, Brian, and his anger. Brian had a lot of anger at his parents for divorcing. My student went on to tell the group that he was relieved at Brian’s anger, it made him feel like he wasn’t the only one who felt this way at his parents’ divorce. He said that he had felt like he was the only one with parents who were no longer together, until he read about Brian and his intense feelings. This was an incredibly important turning point for this student, he was able to talk to his parents about his feelings after reading just a few chapters of this book.

In another book club, one of the small groups was reading a collection of short stories about children who survived the Holocaust. At the end of the book, I gave the kids a choice of final projects. One sixth-grade student chose to write a letter to Hitler, and then read it aloud to the class. He read this letter, equating Hitler and several other infamous war criminals (Bin Laden, Hussein) as playground bullies. He informed these ‘bullies’ that the only reason they were allowed to rise in power was because there were too many bystanders. He reassured these terrible men in history that he never be a bystander, he would stand up. This sixth grade student delivered an amazing speech that not only took the power away from these historical figures, but made a call to action of his classmates. He told a class of twenty-six children that we would have another Holocaust, another war, another 9/11,unless we all stood up and stopped letting bullies get away with treating people poorly. He then looked right at me and thanked for introducing him to his favorite book. The room was silent, the children knew the gravity in which he had spoke. They didn’t clap. They thanked him.

Those are just two stories of the hundreds, thousands of life-changing moments that my students gave me. I have tears in my eyes just writing about these kids. Every child teaches you something, about the world, about yourself, about the future. Good teachers learn from this and continue to make positive changes in their little world, which then has ripple effects into the community and world at large.

So why did I leave? Clearly, it means a lot to me to be a teacher. People assume that maybe the kids were too much, or the parents were a lot, or the pay was too low, or any number of reasons that have been trivialized on memes and complained about on Facebook. Taking a hiatus from teaching didn’t have anything to do with any of those reasons.

Children are the best part of teaching; they are hilarious, spirited, adventuresome, silly, loving and grateful! Teaching a child something and when you see them put it all together to take ownership of the learning, is incredible. It’s more than just seeing they understand how to add fractions, it’s witnessing the confidence they gain from knowing they CAN do it. They learn something about themselves, that is what’s important.

The parents in my classes have been very supportive. In my experience, I have seen that all parents love their children. They demonstrate this in different ways, and giving them the room to be able to do that is important as a teacher. Parents need to know that you care about their child as an individual, a learner and the little person that they are becoming. At one of my schools, I would get a lot of new students into class because the population at my school was quite transient. One day, I was told that I was getting a new student about ten minutes before he arrived. His mom and baby brother walked him to my class, which was already in session. He was very shy and clearly didn’t want his mom to leave. I made a spot for her and the baby at one of my tables in the back of the room. She seemed as unwilling to leave as her son was to have her leave. When it was snack time, I was chatting with my new student and his mother. I reassured her what our schedule was and what time she could pick up her son. At the end of the school day, she told me that two weeks ago, her newborn baby had died and that they had had to move to over 500 miles away for her husband’s job. I was blown away. I thought she was a helicopter parent who just needed to be around her child too much. I told her that she could stay as long as she wanted, and for two weeks, she did stay at school all day every day. But after two months, her son was coming to school by himself and happily running around with new friends at recess. Working with caring parents like her make teaching wonderful.
The solitary reason that I chose to leave teaching has to do with the politicized environment of education. People may wonder what politics have to do with teaching, and the answer is everything. When policies are made, the impacts come into our lives and change them drastically. Over the past few years, there has been widespread “educational reform.”  These reforms have increased the importance of spreadsheets, columns of data, evaluations by inexperienced observers, and the accounting of data in every teacher’s life. The focus has gone away from people; students, parents, teachers, staff, volunteers, and onto data. The most important elements of teaching cannot be quantified onto a spreadsheet and put into a power point. When data is given importance above all else, time and resources are directed as such.

It has been years, YEARS, since I was in a building in-service that was about connecting with kids, communicating with parents, designing meaningful anti-bullying lessons, incorporating literature into math lessons or any topic other than data collection, data presentation, data comparison, state testing and teacher evaluations.

About five years ago I gave a presentation at a staff meeting dealing with recognizing childhood hunger in the classroom. Oregon leads the nation in childhood hunger, with about 30% of children living with food instability; they don’t know when, if or what they will eat. I was teaching in a county with 25% of our children living with childhood hunger. I worked with our principal at the time and specialists to design and present this information so teachers and staff could recognize the symptoms and help our students. I have offered to give this presentation every year since then (with different principals and different schools), and I have consistently been told no, there is not enough time. Not enough time. For one-third of our children. There is not a place in my heart in which this is acceptable.

We are in a people business, not a numbers business. It is not that teachers do not value data and information systems. We absolutely do, so that we can know where each child is in their mastery of the concepts that we have taught. Record keeping, evaluation of scores, and calibration of lessons based on the data are important parts of being a teacher. Data is just not the entirety of what it means to be a teacher. Teaching and learning are about more than test scores. There are so many more verbs that describe good teachers other than data collection. However, this piece of our profession is now emphasized above all other traits and qualities. It is more important to value the child, work with the family and teach at a pace that makes sense for the learners than it is for teachers to know yet another way to compare data on spreadsheets. Current teachers are doing all of this and it is too much, and too unnecessary. The only educational reform that should be considered should be designed by experts; our experienced teachers, parents, community leaders and students.

Now, as I wind down here, I just want to share another story. I had a student who came new to my classroom. He was quite shy, hardly made eye contact, had a heavy speech issue, and wore ill-fitting clothes. He was new to our district as well, and his records had not yet arrived from his previous school so I didn’t know anything about his background.

We were just beginning a writing unit when this child arrived. He put his head down on his desk and refused to even pick up his pencil. He was pretty withdrawn in general and wasn’t making any social or educational progress. Writing was the hardest time for him. I had hardly seen his handwriting because he refused to participate. One day I saw he was playing with something in his pocket. I walked over and sat on the floor near him. After a few minutes, he asked me what I was doing, so I said that his desk looked like a creative spot so I wanted to work there, if it was alright with him. He didn’t say anything, so I stayed there and corrected papers while the rest of the class was free writing for about ten minutes. I did this each day for about a week. He kept playing with something in his pocket. One day, he asked if I wanted to see it. It was a small Lego structure. We had a sweet little conversation about it and he told me how he built it. I told him that sounded like a neat story, and asked if I could write it down in his journal. Later that day, we were at the library and he was looking at a Lego book. I was so excited that I found an “in” with this student! After school, I procured a couple boxes of Legos and brought them to school the next day. At writing time, I asked him if he could build me something. He built a duck pond with a school and children playing. I wrote down his whole story as he dictated it to me. As we progressed, he opened up to me and then to the other kids. Legos became a very cool thing in our classroom. It became something that the kids could play with during lunch and I put the new student in charge of the Legos. He started writing in his journal every day during writing time, he would build his story first and then write it down. He began writing all the time, he carried his journal with him so he could jot down his building ideas. Other kids started asking him about his stories, he became being known as a writer and kids from other classes would go up to him at recess and ask to hear his creative stories. It was incredible, so amazing to see the change in the child over the time of a few weeks. He was happy, smiling, the opposite of the child who had arrived in my room just a short time ago.

I eventually received his records, this child had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after witnessing extreme violence committed against a family member. Drugs, jail, domestic violence; this child had seen it all by the age of ten.

Our school helped this child; we worked together, we bought him Legos, we brought more Lego books into our library, said good morning, got him a warm coat and cared about him. Every single adult at that school knew who he was and the growth he made. Our school secretary brought in another box of Legos that her sons had outgrown. A male teachers’ aid at the school dropped by and would show this student ways to build with Legos. The school resource officer arranged additional resources for his family. The school community came together and advocated for this little guy and it worked.

And not one spreadsheet was made. This was not included on one formal evaluation. No one got paid more. It wasn’t reflected on a state test.
Helping a child, all children, should be the overriding goal of education. Sadly, that is not what is happening right now. Teachers like me and many others are leaving the profession. I’m not a unique teacher or a special teacher. Every school I have taught in has been filled with teachers taking extra efforts to advocate and support their students. We cannot endorse something we don’t agree with by participating in it. Teachers shouldn’t be leaving the profession because they care too much about children.

What can be done? Speak up. Find an audience that will listen. Have a conversation with a friend. Talk to the principal of your school. Volunteer.  Write a letter to your local legislator. Post your opinion as your next status update. Speak up at a staff meeting. Email someone.  Tweet it. Stand up, keep standing up.

Quieted With His Love

*  
> As I worked my way through some devotional readings, I came across this passage: "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in  you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over  you with singing." (Zephaniah 3:17)
> I thought of my life. I thought of what the passage says about God and how He feels about me. He is mighty to save.
> He will take great delight in me. He will quiet me with his love. He will rejoice over me. I confess that although I do not know if I fully understand what it means to be quieted
> by His love, I do know that there is something inside me that says, "I need that, Lord!" As I pondered more, I prayed, "Lord, please quiet me with Your love."

> "Lord, I get loud sometimes. Not so much verbally loud, but my spirit gets loud. My heart gets loud, my mind gets loud. The world around me gets loud and the loudness overwhelms me to the point that everything within me and around me seems to be loud.
*       So, Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

> In these times of unrest and confusion in our nation and world, I need to be quieted by your love, dear Lord.
> Decisions are being made that may well change the way we live and function as a people. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

> As the years pass more rapidly than my mind can comprehend,
> I need to be quieted with Your love.
> I cannot keep up. I try, but I seem to fall farther and farther behind.
*      Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

> In times when I fear for my very life and for the lives of  my family and friends, I need to be quieted by Your love.
 In times when my spirit in under attack by the Enemy to such  an extent that I begin to wonder if You are still there, I need to be quieted by Your love. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

> In times of discouragement when I have failed to live like You have asked me to live, I need to be quieted by Your love. 
*      In times of disappointment over dreams that have faded and when other people have failed to live up to my expectations, I need to be quieted by Your love.  Lord, please quiet me with Your love.
*     
> In times of loss and my heart has been broken, I need to be quieted by your love. In times of sadness when a joyful spirit seems too much to consider, I need to be quieted by
> Your love. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

> In times of suffering and pain as the result of another's actions or my own, I need to be quieted by Your love. In times when others are suffering because of my actions and I am helpless to undo what I have done, I need to be quieted by Your love. And they need to be quieted by Your love. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

> In times of distress and anxiety over all that I must do, or feel that I must do, I need to be quieted by Your love. In times when life is so loud that I cannot hear my own thoughts, I need to be quieted by Your love. Lord, please quiet me with Your love.

> Unless You quiet me with Your love, dear Lord, my life will surely be filled with noises that may drown Your voice from my ears. Lord, I need to be quieted by Your love.
*     
> When I remind myself that You are with me, when I contemplate Your power, when I consider that You take great delight in me and when I think of You rejoicing over me with singing because of Your love for me, I am quieted. My heart is quieted. My spirit rests. "Lord, You have quieted me with Your love."

> The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)
                       A Norvell Note (c) Copyright 2007. Tom Norvell All Rights Reserved.


Tuesday, September 1, 2015

The Providence of God

In our day and time, we look for miracles. We want the spectacular, the extraordinary. However, God mostly works through the ordinary. In the book of Esther, we are reminded that God is constantly at work in the details of our lives and usually we are unaware. Our lives are to be a showcase for God to be seen through us. When pressure-filled circumstances arise, we are simply to trust Him. Our circumstances s are simply an opportunity for us to trust God to show Himself mighty and thoroughly trustworthy.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

When God's Plans Interrupt Your Plans

  You have made plans for your day, your week, your summer or your life. Suddenly, unforeseen circumstances take over. Your plans are postponed or worse yet changed completely, irreversible changed. You are in a turmoil. A whirlwind of emotions take over. You must adjust and adapt, but you don't exactly know how. What do you do when you don't know what to do? How do you respond when your plans have been shattered? You trust God.
   Perspective changes everything. Isaiah 55:9 reminds us that God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways and His thoughts are much higher than ours. He sees the end from the beginning. He is sovereign. He is in control. We are not. We can trust Him. Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us that He has good plans for us. Our perception of events are limited.
   David Jeremiah reminds us in Turning Point Magazine. "Life is not always as it appears. Instead of trusting ourselves and our perception of events, we need to trust the God who sees everything as it really is. We often look at life's circumstances differently than He does. We see obstacles where He sees opportunities. We see predicaments where He sees providence. God, as Sovereign Creator, is free to intervene in the normal patters of our life at any time to accomplish His good purposes. What we see as puzzling, God sees as His perfect plan for our lives."
   "What we see as puzzling, God sees as His perfect plan for our lives.We often trust what we see, know or feel, and that can be dangerous. We are not to lean on our own understanding. In John 13:7 Jesus spoke clearly to His disciples, "what I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will know after this."
  How do we live with puzzling events? Focus on God, His character and His Word. "Move from you confusion to His conclusions, There is no chaos when we're in His keeping, for life's unexpected problems are no match for God's limitless power. His promises and His presence will reassure you that He is still in control."
  Trust Him when life is upside down, when the news is not just bad, but devastating, when you can't make sense of anything, when you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Trust Him when you don't have the strength to go on, when you feel like giving up or giving in. Trust Him no matter what.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

How Do They See the Father?

  I recently heard two stories that I would like to share. They gave me food for thought. Maybe, they will do the same for you.
  A Christian speaker boarded a plane and found himself seated by a man who was very uncomfortable around Christians. Upon discovering that his seat-mate was a Christian, the man stated, "I have had lots of problems with Christians." The Christian speaker replied, "me too."  The man laughed and they spent the rest of the flight discussing the gospel and salvation.
  Another story that was related to me is as follows. A man named Tom worked as front door security at a prestigious corporation owned by a man he had never personally met. While the boss was away he left his daughter  to represent him in the corporation.
 One day the boss's daughter came strutting in the front door and demanded that Tom go to the shop down the street and get her a muffin.
He protested, "But, it's my responsibility to guard the front door and see that no unauthorized person enters the elevators."
"I don't care," the boss's daughter replied. "I want a muffin and you will get it for me."
Tom weighed his options. She's the boss's daughter. How can I say no? He reluctantly walked to the shop to retrieve the muffin. During his muffin mission, he contemplated a question, If the daughter acts this way, what must the father be like?
   After accosting Tom, the boss's daughter entered the elevator and went to the top floor. As the elevator opened, she bumped into a secretary who was carrying a large stack of papers. The papers felling in many different directions to the floor. As the secretary stooped to pick up the papers, the boss's daughter demanded, "Bring me a cup of coffee to my office immediately!"
  "But, I was on my way to the copy room to prepare these for a presentation."
  "You heard what I said. I want my coffee now!" The secretary complied. However, the entire time she was retrieving the coffee, she pondered a question. If the daughter acts this way, what must the father be like?
   What if that day the boss's daughter had stopped to speak to Tom, she had brought him a muffin and said, "Thank you for all that you do to keep this building safe." What if she had offered to help the secretary pick up the papers that she had caused her to drop? What would Tom and the secretary have thought about her father then?
   Everyday you and I meet people who judge our Heavenly Father by how we treat them? Therefore, how do they see the Father?