Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Above all else...

So my dad posted a question on facebook today and it got quite a few comments and some of them started me thinking about different scriptures and God just laid this on my heart. I did not want to post it as a response to my dad's status because it began to veer off the topic. So I figured I would just post it on here. Here goes...

Above all else our call is to know God and this occurs as we daily spend time with Him. As we spend time with Him and come to know Him more, what is on His heart will be on our hearts. And His heart is for the nations. "Go therefore and Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..." Matt 28:19 This is something that we can do only as we daily lay ourselves down before Christ and surrender to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.." Romans 12:1 As we surrender to the guidance of the Holy Spirit He empowers us to share the love of Christ with those around us. "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth..." Acts 1:8 As witnesses to those around us we are called to share the hope that we have in Christ with gentleness and respect. Understanding that God is the one who brings about conviction and reveals Himself to those we share with. "But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame." 1Peter 3:15
I think that the problem is not necessarily ignorance of God's Word, but ignorance of the God of the word. There are many people who have a great knowledge of God's Word, but do not truly know God through and intimate personal relationship. As you grow in that relationship, through spending time with Him, you come to know Him more. The more you know Him, the more you love Him. The more you love Him the more you want to know Him. The more you want to know Him, the more you spend time with Him.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

My Funny First Graders!

Ok, so i haven't blogged in a while! First grade has kept me busy! But today one of them told me something that was so funny I realized I should share some of the funnier moments of first grade here on my blog in an effort to remember them myself and maybe share a little bit of the joy these precious kids bring into my room each morning!

So one of the first funny moments I had this school year was sitting in the gym for a talent show. The students were asked to bring in $1 for "admission" to the talent show as a fundraiser for the music department. We were about halfway through the talent show (having heard Miley Cyrus's Hoedown Throwdown about 5 times by this point!) and the little boy sitting beside me looks up at me and asks "Is this what I paid $1 for?" I just smiled and said "It sure is." :)

The other day I was sorting through some papers and came across a project we had worked on for the 100th day of school. the students were given a piece of paper that said "When I am 100 Years old I think I will look like..." and there was a space below where they could draw a picture. We had lots of projects going on that day and I had not had a chance to look at every student's drawing, so I was taking this chance to look through them. They were all really cute and were pretty much just pictures of people walking with canes. But then I saw it...one of my students had drawn a picture of a hill and colored it completely black and there were dark gray clouds in the sky with lightening bolts coming down from them and then I took a closer look and saw that he had written the word "cemetary" - well, his version of the word - across the top of the page! So when asked what he will look like when he is 10 years old, this first grader had drawn a graveyard! LOL!

We were having some issues with students being quiet in the bathroom so I decided we needed bathroom monitors. One of my students was so excited about us having bathroom monitors that he would ask me a question about them everytime we took a bathroom break. The only thing was he did not quite understand the name "bathroom monitors" he kept asking me questions about the "thermometers"! I tried to tell him "yes they are the bathroom monitors," but he still called them thermometers! :)

Today, one of the girls in my class was getting her backpack all packed up and she had a new purse that she was showing me and telling me about, then she said "and my mom got me a new video game yesterday!" and she pulled something halfway out of her bag to show me. I was looking through some papers so I only caught a glimpse of what she pulled out. It took me a second to register what it actually was that she had pulled out of her bag. When I realized, I asked her to show it to me again. She pulled it out and I almost dies laughing! It was a digital thermostat! She had it in her purse and she thought it was the neatest video game! She said she played it last night before bed! :)And that the screen lit up all green and you have to find the right numbers! :) So precious!

That's all I can think of right now! I hope you enjoyed those! :) I am sure I will have more later! :)