"Happy teachers make..."

I was reading Psalm 119:71, 75 from the always-perfect Streams in the Desert... The gist was "I'm glad I was afflicted, because the Lord was able to show me His faithfulness." God is so good to remind me of how badly I need Him, in my classroom, in my home, in my grad classes, every hour.

Every hour in my classroom, my students get rowdy. It is during those times I remind them of how I've trained them to say two things. Whenever they get loud, I give them my quiet signal, wait for them to settle down and ask,  "What is the only thing I should be hearing right now?" To which they respond in unison: "The scribbling of our pencils!" The sounds of scribbling commence for about 3 minutes, then, as the hum of their voices continues, I again give them the quiet signal and wait for them to quiet down. I then say to them, "Students, I am not happy, and we all know that a happy teacher makes..." and they all say, "HAPPY STUDENTS!" Then I remind them that in order to make me happy they have to be quiet and do their work, or else some of them will be staying in for recess.

They are not the reason for the good timing of the opening Psalm. No, my students are not my affliction. But afflictions are sometimes better not broadcast to the "Dear Void." However, I still need prayers! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Before the Devil Knows You're Fed

Some call me reckless. Many call me silly. I say that once I've gotten an idea in my head, I simply must carry it out! Today's idea was grocery shopping. My sister had left me a list of all the items she would need for the next 40 days of her Eastern Orthodox, paleo-like, Lenten fast and I would not fail her! Since I would be sharing her food, I didn't mind doing some of the shopping. "Now, " you might say, "grocery shopping is not reckless or silly at all!" and you would be right. The only problem with grocery shopping is that it usually includes a number of bags of heavy cans, and produce that must not be squished. Grocery shopping is also usually completed with the aid of an automobile. My trusty steed Brad being in the shop, I decided to have a little adventure and take the closest bus. As soon as I stepped out of my apartment, it began to rain. Not to be deterred, I zipped up my hoodie, turned up my jams, and trotted the 6 blocks to the bus stop.
Read more

"The Natural Outgrowth of Memorizing Ephesians 4 at a Young Age"

Below is a copy of the email I sent to my parents to try to explain why I am becoming Orthodox. As I say in the email, it is not meant to be an apologetic work, it does not defend Orthodoxy against its Protestant detractors. There are many other, better things to read that will do that (that I enumerate at the end if you're looking for interesting reading material).  My purpose is to show you all my heart and to hopefully show you how the Holy Spirit has been alive and well in me. It's a very personal account that I labored over a year ago when I was finally ready to have this conversation with my parents. Please, please, please do not start a discussion or argument over any of these social media sites. If you would like to ask more questions or hear more of the story, I would be so honored to chat with you, in fact, there are so many of you that I've dearly been wanting to catch up with anyway, and this might be a good facilitator for that! Thank you all for bein
Read more

In two days...

I'm not sure if the cyber-world cares, but in two days, I will be entrusted with the education of 24 seventh graders. I remember reading Anne of Avonlea when I was young, knowing full well, that one day, I would be in Anne's position: inwardly quaking as she faced her pupils. Well, Anne, here it goes!
Read more