[he has planted eternity into human hearts]

3.2:Yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of a dear friend, Lauren Lewis, passing away. I will go ahead and say that I am going to be pretty candid in this post. This whole week I have felt that there has been this looming sad cloud over the week. Not only was I preparing myself for that day, and thinking heavily about Lauren's family, there were 2 students in my class that lost their grandparents this week. On Tuesday, when one of the girls came back to school, I just greeted her with a really long hug. It was the precious moment between us, and she proceeded to cry. Just the sadness in her heart, broke mine as well.
       In my team meeting on Tuesday, I shared with my fellow members about these feelings. Our instructional coach, Sara, thought that this would be a great opportunity to talk about this in devotions one day this week. To talk about loss, sorrow, pain. And let me tell you I was not that excited about the idea because I just thought I could not hold it together while we talked about it.
      So Wednesday night, I prayed a lot about it, and searched through my Bible for some good verses to talk about. And MAN did God totally show up that morning! I started off by sharing with them that today was a special day, a hard day for me because I had a friend that died 3 years ago on this day. We read

Ecclesiastes 3:11 "Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end." 

       I asked them to think of a time when they had lost someone or had felt a lot of pain in their heart. Almost all of the kids raised their hands and shared about a time that either a grandparent had died, or a family member, or even a time when their parents told them about when their grandparents died. Many of them started to even tear up when they were sharing about it. I asked them why we get so sad when these things happen. Most of them said that its because "we want them around. We don't want them to leave." But one of my girls objected and said "No. I'm sad because my grandpa is sad that my grandma is gone." Wow. What a step in feeling empathy for someone. I was quite impressed with that statement. I skipped down to read verse 14...

"God's purpose is for us to revere Him."

       What does "revere" mean? To respect and to stand in awe of. As I was sharing this with them and explaining what it means to stand in awe of something, I myself was overwhelmed with the joy that will come when I get to "stand in awe" of God. In His majesty. I let them listen to the "Revelation Song" by Kari Jobe, which they all know and love. But I asked them to simply listen to the song, and think about when we will sing this song. Some of them just layed on the ground. Some bowed their heads. Some closed their eyes. But for once, not a word was spoken. During the whole song (which is kind of a long one) they did this. Their hearts and their minds were in this beautiful state of worship. For a few moments, I just looked around and watched them. And THAT is what brought tears to my eyes. 19 little 8 and 9 year olds worshipping our God together.
        We proceeded to talk about WHEN we will sing that song. In heaven. For eternity. Over and over we will sing

"Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty. 

Who was,

and is,

and is to come." 

We will be in this place where "he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever." 
        So yesterday I honored Lauren in different "earthly ways." I wore green. I listened to Dolly Parton's "You better get to livin.'" I watched Across the Universe. etc. But I'm sure all those things REALLY didn't matter to her. She's not concered with any of that any more. She is now surrounded by God's majesty worshipping him all day ever day. And THAT is what I want to long for. I want to long for that moment. I want to long to spend eternity singing his praises. 
        So to all those who knew Lauren, I hope that today was spent honoring her, but more importantly left you longing for eternity. 

[Lauren and I at Habitat for Humanity in the fall of 2007]

Thank youuu!!!!

2.11: Last week we got some AWESOME student dictionaries in the mail from a friend, Mr. Gabriel. If you are reading this, I can't tell you how grateful we are! The kids were really excited to use them. Today we wrote thank you letters and one of the kids wrote "...I will use the dictionary to write in english. Like the word intoxication. I am using it to write this letter." Oh man! I laughed pretty hard at that line! They are so cute! 

[Here we are with the dictionaries. Not entirely sure why Daniel (in the front) is eating it...]

Africa!

2.10: My kids completed their first group poster project this week about the regions of Africa. They turned out pretty good I think! 

::I will not boast::

2.9: Wednesday nights are always Bible Study nights. I have come to really really love these nights with the women in my group. Especially this semester the 8 of us have grown to know, challenge and love each other. Tonight all the girl's Bible studies got together just to have a worship night. I have to say that these nights are by far my favorite thing about living here. Whether its staff worship, or worship at someone's house, or all girl's worship. I don't care. I love it all. And every time I am still amazed at how Great God is. I always get this overwhelming feeling of "wow! I could just do this all night long!" Then I remember...oh wait...I DO get to do this forever. In eternity. In his presence. So tonight we sang a lot of songs, but this one in particular, I really just wanted to impress deep on my heart. It tells the story of what we believe. Why we believe. The last chorus is what really hits home for me. I don't really feel the need to comment on it much more because the words speak for themselves. So take a moment. Read them. Listen to them. Believe them.  

How deep the Father's love for us,

How vast beyond all measure

That He should give His only Son

To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,

The Father turns His face away

As wounds which mar the chosen One,

Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,

My sin upon His shoulders

Ashamed I hear my mocing voice,

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that helf Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I knoww that it is finished

I will not boast in anything

No gifts, no power, no wisdom

But I will boast in Jesus Christ

His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?

I cannot give an answer

But this I know with all my heart

His wounds have paid my ransom

superbowl sunday.

2.6: So this Sunday felt very odd not watching the Superbowl. I realize that it's not that I actually care about either of the teams, or even that I will remember this game a week from now, but it just felt like I was doing something wrong not watching it. Who knows why. Perhaps it was my dad always talking about football and getting so excited about it, or my mom getting excited about it because it's the last football game until next season. Either way, we still celebrated in our own way here. I was able to make yummy Superbowl snacks: lemon cupcakes with strawberries on top...which I realize is not actually that Superbowl-ish..really more girly. O well. And my roomie made some homemade mac and cheese. We headed over to a friend's house who had made some good ol' tailgating games. It was a good way to celebrate. And then today (2.7) I got to watch all the commercials, national anthem, and halftime performance on youtube because let's be honest that's really the only reason why I watch the Superbowl. I have to admit that this commercial made me miss Texas [and HEB] the most. A tad cheesy, but I'll take it.  

[This is me winning Mexican horseshoes...or whatever you call it]

OLD WINDOW!

2.5: So last semester when I was taking photos for my friends Tim and Whit I found this old window (I posted a pic of it on an earlier post...go take a look). So my and my roommate have been needing to clean it up and chop of the ends. So we finally got around to it this weekend. And let me tell you! It may be my new favorite piece in our house! I mean let's think about it...$0 for the window because I found it in front of some ladies house and she gave it to us. Our friend cut off the ends for us. And the only thing we needed were 2 little screws to screw it on in. I wish that Pottery Barn would let me on their website so I could post one of their pics and say...you don't need to spend $800 on a piece of junk wood. Instead..actually use junk wood! What a novel idea. So as if we were resourceful enough, one of our friends came over and was looking at the pieces we cut off, and being envious over our fabulous window and had the great idea of using one of the pieces as a little shelf! Oh man...I wish you could have seen our excitement. So we painted the bottom a little bit to make it look a little better and voila! 2 for the "price" of one! So take a look....

[my roommate is holding a plant because we plan on putting a plant on that side, but don't actually have one yet. And yes the plant is dead...so we haven't exactly perfected our gardening skills yet. Also we plan on putting other things around it, but just don't know what yet, so if you have any creative suggestions, let me know!]

[check out THAT authentic shabbiness]

[here is our cute little shelf! and my roommate went to Thailand this Christmas to visit her family and brought back these mugs from a pottery factory. MAN I'm really coming to love our house!]

So there you are. DIY and cheap decorating at it's finest. 

100th day of school

2.4: Friday was the 100th day of school. I must admit that I hadn't been counting with my students like some teachers do, but let's be honest, I jumped on that opportunity to dress in theme for a day! I did regret my decision a little when I walked into staff devotions that morning and I was the only one decked out, but it made it totally worth it when I saw my kids and they saw me. Many of them just died in laughter, which I didn't mind. Anything to make their year memorable. Perhaps they will remember me as their crazy 3rd grade teacher who dressed like she was 100 years old. All of the teachers were asking me where I got all these old clothes...my response: unfortunately these are all things I wear. Embarrassing? Naw. My mom did always say that I'm gonna turn old before she does. This is one of these times that she's right. 

[my girls dressed up like little old ladies. it was pretty funny]

[one of the VERY few other teachers that dressed up. middle school math teacher, Robyn, wearing 100 math related materials]