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Lessons from a Blue Cast
Two weeks ago, I had a close encounter with the sidewalk. I caught my foot on a stump and found myself on the ground bleeding and in pain. Some stitches and a cast later, my routine has changed: no more going non-stop grabbing breakfast and dashing off to work. I function at turtle pace. Preparing my lunch takes planning. My limitations teach me lessons I’d prefer not to learn, at least not THIS way. Here are three of them: 1. Being a member of the body of Christ means receiving as well as giving. The body of Christ and my larger community of friends amaze and humble me. My capable…
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Hearing Well and Being Heard Well
Everyone wants to be heard well, but are we as willing to hear others well? In order to understand ourselves and others, different ways to categorize people have emerged over the years such as Myers & Briggs, DISC, and Enneagram. I recently read about another way to categorize people in a book dealing with how we communicate, 5 Voices: How to Communicate Effectively with Everyone You Lead.[1] The book describes 5 different voices with which people communicate—the Pioneer, Creative, Connector, Guardian, and Nurturer. Each voice (think communication style when I use the word voice) has positive inclinations and negative tendencies. In analyzing the book through a biblical worldview, I discovered…
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What is Christmas Without a Christ-child?
The future of our world depends on steady hearts and strong hands from the next generation. The next generation always comes to us first as a child. The children we teach today will be the future leaders of our homes, our churches, our country, and our world. They are valuable even when many times they don’t feel that value. Christmas is a perfect time to emphasize the importance that God has placed on children. “The potential possibilities of any child are the most intriguing and stimulating in all creation.” — Ray L. Wilbur, third president of Stanford University “Every child you encounter is a divine appointment.” — Wess Stafford, President…
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My One New Year Resolution
Unproductive. Sidelined. Missing the mark. Behind in my work. Self-critical thoughts assailed me during a period a few years ago when my husband and I were both sidelined by injuries in a couple of mishaps. I think of myself as someone who grants myself and others a lot of grace. But sometimes life ambushes me and I don’t accomplish my goals, invest effectively in the people around me or live up to my own or to what I perceive as others' expectations. At those times, I realize that while I grant grace to others, I tend to measure my value by what I do. However, in the Lord's economy, when…
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Lessons Learned in Narnia
Eustace “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” C.S. Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader pg. 1 Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Philippians 2:3 (Net Bible) If you, like me, have fallen in love with C. S. Lewis’ world of Narnia then you may be quite familiar with Eustace, one of the main characters inThe Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Though you may remember him well, you may not think quite so well of him. He does begin as most definitely “a…
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ASKING QUESTIONS THAT CHANGE LIVES
From the time we are old enough to form a question, we devote all our time and energy to finding the right answers. The devastation a child feels, from having the wrong answer when asked a question in front of their class, clarifies the importance of a right answer. Children ae pushed forward in a pursuit of knowledge as though finding the right answers guarantees success. Answers are necessary. Right answers are preferable. But the right answer is only as valuable as the question is good. How many times did Jesus answer a question with a new question? Answers are important. But nver underestimate the power of learning to ask…
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Marriage and Mother’s Day- What They Have in Common
Love and respect are fundamental for a solid marriage. We are told by all the experts that in a marriage relationship, men need to be respected and women need to be loved. The Bible supports this but also commands us to love and respect both men and women. Since these things are essential for a happy marriage and commanded by God then it is imperative that part of training up a child in the way he/she should go must include teaching them how to love and respect well. As we teach children to love and respect their parents we are giving them the basic tools for building a lasting marriage.…
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Women’s Wars and Personal Value
I felt worthless as a teacher. In my first semester of teaching English as a Second Language, I discovered one day that all my students had made D’s and F’s on their first lab assignment. My stomach tightened into a knot and I considered stepping down mid-semester to allow someone else to take over my class. Later that day, I discovered that I had misunderstood the grading chart and that every single one of my students had made either A’s or B’s on their lab assignment. Since most classes have a very small portion of A’s and B’s on their final grades, I felt that I had done a pretty…