Warehouse 13

I love it when God uses the simple things in life to speak to us. How He can use anything to teach us a lesson or to show us something in our lives that we need to work on. 
As I stated in my last post I recently got internet at my house, which means Netflix! I have been watching Warehouse 13 lately and God hit me with a message during one of the episodes. So for those of you who have never seen the show, let me just give you a quick back story so that my post makes sense. In the show their is a group of people who search the world for artifacts, an object that has some kind of power. These artifacts can be used for good or bad but the power they have is given to them from an event or a person. This is where my message from God comes in. Myka, one of the agents whose job it is to keep the artifacts out of the hands of people, told her partner Pete that it is us who give the artifacts their power. This is true in life as well. We give objects power over our lives. We create idols out of the things that we value most or spend our time obsessing over. God has really been convicting me lately about how my time is spent. I can not serve two masters, I have to choose. Trip Lee sings a song called iLove, which I think is actually the point that I am trying to make. He talks about the control his iPhone has over his life, how it is the first thing that he runs to in the morning and how it consumes his time. Toward the end of the song he basically says that if his phone is going to continue to stand in the way of his time with God then for his sake they have to separate. He chose to serve God and not his phone. So I guess my question for all of us is what object have we instilled with power over our lives and is it truly more important than spending time with the Father? I know what my answer is, what is yours?

Back in Business

I know that I have been gone from this blog for a really long time, but recently I installed Internet at my home so I will have a chance to post again. I am excited about sharing with you again how God is working in my life right now and the ways that I see Him "passionately pursuing" me. I am going to keep this post short but I will be filling you all in very soon. It's good to be back!!

Hello

Hello again. I know that my post continue to be few and far between, but I am kind of home for the summer and will have some extra time on my hands so maybe there will be more post than normal.

So get excited!!! I just finished my third year as a high school math teacher!! yay! It has been a really tough year for me in more ways than one but God has reassured me that I am where I need to be right now. 

Well for those of you who have not heard about my year I will give you a quick recap... This year the state of Texas put a new test into the system called the End of Course Exam (STAAR). I teach the students who were unsuccessful last year on TAKS and all we have heard this year is that the EOC was going to be harder than the TAKS and require the students to use their brains more than they had previously with the TAKS. Needless to say it has been a challenging year for me trying to get my students where they need to be so they can be successful this year. I still have not received my scores so I can not tell you yet if it was a successful school year by the states opinion but in my own opinion it was a huge success. I was able to build relationships with students and to listen to tragedies that no one their age should ever have to go through and to try my best to be there for them when they needed me. I had several students to the best they have ever done in math this year. These are all things that the EOC can not tell the state of Texas about my kids.

Also this year my mom and I found out we had something in common... GALLSTONES!! Yes we both had gallstones and both had to have our gallbladders removed with in Months of each other. Mom also had a tumor on her kidney that had to be removed but she was able to keep half of the kidney. God has really had his hand on our family this semester. Mom's outlook on the whole thing has been an inspiration. She saw the whole thing, from the start, as a chance to share Christ with each person she came in contact with. Each time I will call to see how a doctor's appointment went she always had a story to tell me about some nurse or doctor that they had talked to and where the conversation always ended up was the same. By the way she is doing great and staying as busy as ever.

I have had a couple of jobs open up closer to home this year and actually put in an application. (I even had an interview) But God has really been showing me lately that I am where he needs me to be right now. I have found a church family who is so passionate about living for Christ and share his love with the world around them where ever that might be. I have also built relationships with teachers and students that I continue to have the chance to share my beliefs and hopefully live the life that reflects what comes out my mouth. I am growing and I know God will continue to mold me into the women that he wants me to be, I just pray that I will stay flexible and follow his will. 

Well that is enough for now. I hope you had a great year and by year I mean school year. Enjoy the summer and take some time to reflect on the things that God has taught you lately. 

Long time...

Wow, so it has been a really long time since I have posted, I apologize. I do not have Internet at my apartment and the school blocked the website that I blog on. However, just because I have not been posting does not mean that God has not been working.

It is actually quiet the opposite. God has been doing some great things in my family, my church, and in my life. I will try and recap a couple for you so that you can see His hand in my life.

We will start with family. Jeremy, Sara, and Thad will be moving this summer to Lebanon, to work in an orphanage. They are so excited to be going back into that part of the world. Jeremy will finally be using his degree to teach math and English to the students at the school there in Lebanon, while Sara gets to use her great people skills to work with publicity for the children. It is always cool to see how God uses the talents that He has given us. The big thing that God has done for us lately has to do with my mom. Back story :) When mom was nine years old she had this pain in her lower abdomen and so they took her to the doctor to get it checked out. They discovered that her tube had wrapped around her ovary but also that she had ovarian cancer. They removed her ovary and that was the end of that. Well a couple of weeks ago mom was having lots of pain in her back and right side, so she went to the doctor, which for her is a big deal. It turns out that she had a lot of gallstones in her gallbladder but when they did the sonogram they found a spot on her kidney. It turned out to be tumor but it is only 3 cm so they think there is a chance they will only have to remove part of the kidney. This is twice that God has used something else to lead them to a tumor or cancer. God has been looking out for her and I know that He will continue to do so through all the things ahead.

Church!! Things have been going so great at my church in Sundown. God has led me to a place where I can dive deep into the word and learn new things about Him each week. I have also been very fortunate to make some friends and a family has adopted me in for Sunday lunch each week.

Then there is my life. God is showing me that each day He is enough, that even if I did not have anything else that it would be okay because He is everything that I need. My gave me a book called "Radical" I just started reading it and there are already things that have really been tugging on my heart. I know that there is always room for improvement and I have been asking God to show me the places that I need to improve in. He has also been giving me opportunities to build some great relationships with my students and to be able to talk to them about their lives and ways for me to pray for them. Even though this year had a rough start God has really helped me through and has continued to show me that the classroom is a great mission field.

I will try and do better about keeping you posted on what happens with my family, my church and with me. God is doing amazing things and I am glad that He is allowing me to be apart of them. I hope everything is going good with all of you.

The End in Sight

So the end of Summer is in sight. I have not decided yet if I am ready for it to be over or not. I love spending time with my family and just enoying the break, but part of me is ready to be back with kids and my teacher friends. This year looks like it might be a bit of a challenge so that has kept me in prayer these last couple of weeks. I know that God will provide the strength that I need to not only make it through this year but also provide me with a chance to be that witness to my students. I will have two students this year that I had last year so that will be a great chance for me to continue to build a relationship with them and hopefully help them to be successful this year.
Today was a great day. I got to eat lunch with Chris Warner, who is one of my best friends. We have actually not seen each other in a while so it was great to get to hang out together again and to talk about all the things that are going on in our lives. Also later this week I will be eating with another one of my high school friends and my mom. I love getting to spend time with people and to hear about how God is blessing them in their lives. This week will be full of those opportunities as tomorrow I get to go with Joshua out to the ranch where Dad works and catch up with his bosses. We will also be bring Dad lunch, I am a little anxious to see what it looks like out there since it has not rained in so long. Dad says that the Mesquite trees have just flourished.
I will be heading back to Levelland on Sunday. I am excited about getting back to my church and actually attending on a regular basis. I have to start back to work on Monday and like I said I am excited to see my fellow teachers. I am also anxious to meet the other new math teacher.
God has blessed me with a wonderful summer, the only thing missing was the rain. I hope that you were also blessed this summer and would love to hear about how God blessed you.

End of Summer

The end of Summer is very near. I have about a week and a half before I am back to work and getting ready for kids. I feel like I have not done a very good job on keeping you posted on what has been happening with me this summer. So today we will play a little catch up.
I got to spend so great quality time with my dad this summer because he put me to work. Mom and Dad decided they wanted to get rid of all the carpet in the house and replace it with lament flooring. Since I was home, that meant that I got to help rip up carpet and then lay the new floor. Wow, it made the house look so much better. But the best part was that it gave me some time to just hang out with my dad.
I also had the chance to get to hang out with Sara, Jeremy's wife. Jeremy was out of the country for two weeks so I went down for four days to hang out with Sara and Thad and it help out a little. It was a blast. Sara and I had some great talks, which I really needed to get some of that stuff off my chest and it helps that she has been through some of the same experiences so she kind of understands what I am going through. If that is what it is really like to have a sister then I am back to my original desires of having one, unlike when I was in college and shared a single, tiny bathroom with three other girls and said that I was SO glad I did not have a sister. We also cooked supper Monday night for Caleb, one of my friends from high school. It was great to catch up with him and to hear what is happening in his life and what his plans are for the future.
Then here recently one of the people I served with during my time with Infinity Sports is driving from Georgia to California and back again. She needed a place to stay between two days of 12 hours of driving so I told her she could stay with me. Jess and I had a lot of fun just hanging out and going to bookstores!! ( I did great I bought three books for less than $8) She will also be staying with me one night on her return trip.
Finally what we have all been waiting for... BUMBBAABAAAAAA! Joshua has returned from Oregon! I have miss hanging out with him so much. We went and picked him up on Thursday and Jeremy and his family met us for supper and we all came home together. It was kind of strange to have almost the whole family together and it not be a holiday or a baby being born. That night they gave us our souvenirs and we talked a little about their trips. On Friday we looked at pictures from both places and they were gorgeous. Joshua then shared in Sunday School about his trip and he talked about how we are suppose to live intentional lives. I know that is something I can work on. That in my life I should be looking for ways to build new relationships or to take a conversation in the direction of my Savior. That instead of going through each day like I am promised the next, I will live each day as if it is my last and that I will not be afraid of what others might think of me but that I will boldly stand up for my faith. That Christ will be such a part of my life that I can't keep him from flowing over out of my cup and into every part of my life. That I will be a shinning city on a hill for all to see not a faint light that can only be seen if you are close enough. I want to be part of God's all consuming fire that whatever I come in contact with catches fire as well. This is something I am going to try and do as this next school year comes around. That I might not only be a witness to my students but to the teachers and parents who I come in contact with, as well.
As you can see God has blessed me with a great summer. I feel like it has been the rest that I have needed. It has also helped me to see that the church I am going to now is the one for me. Being away this summer has really shown me how much I long to be there. I feel like it is a place where I can grow as a Christian and that there are people there that I can build friendships with that will last.
So I hope that you have all had a great summer and that if you are a teacher that you do not dread the upcoming first day of school but that you are ready for it and that God opens your eyes to ways that you can be that Christian witness to your students.

Loving Others

A couple of weeks again my mom and I went to Levelland for one of my students birthdays. Mom had the chance to go to Sunday school with me on Sunday before our mad dash back to Dublin to help Gran decorate for her upcoming VBS and a movie night at our church. In Sunday School we are going through James. We have been diving into what it looks like in it raw form and talking about how it still applies to us today. We came across the part where James tells us that we need to take care of the orphans and the widows. Well in the car mom started talking about it again because it was a lot to chew on. She said that we need to not only look at from a physical sense but also in the spiritual sense. There are tons of people out there who are orphans spiritual, and they need someone to be that example for them. Yes the kids have parents at home but their parents are the Christian example that they are looking for. One example comes to my mind. When I was in youth group we had two girls who would come to church on their own. Neither one of their parents came but it was a decision that they made that they wanted to be in church even if they did not have they example set for them by their parents. These girls are what my mom would say are spiritual orphans.
All of this also led us to the discussion of how we as the church treat people. I love to people watch and so when I go to church or are around people I enjoy watching how they interact with other people. I have noticed in church (and this is not all churches or all people just some I have been to) that if a person does not fit the model that we think should be set for you to be there then they get ignored or worse made fun of. Casting Crowns wrote a song called "If We are the Body," that talks about this exact thing. In VBS this week we talked about how God made us in his image and that he saw it was good. So if God says these people are made in his image what gives us the right to think we can turn them away or make them feel like we are judging them or to make them feel like they have no right to be there because they have every right. Christ says that he did not come for the healthy but for the sick. The model we set is all wrong. The people that get made fun of or ignored those are the people we are called to love and to bring into the family of Christ but we are too busy calling them crazy or judging them for how they are different then us. Brandon Heath sings a song called "Give Me Your Eyes" that is a pray I think we should all pray, "Give me your eyes for just one second, give me your eyes so I can see everything that I keep missing. Give me your love for humanity." If we had the eyes of God these people would never feel the way they do when they walk through the doors of the church, instead they would feel the awesome power of Christ love. So maybe that should be our prayer as a church, that God would give us his eyes so that we could see people for who they are and not what they look like or how much they annoy us.