When Did I Become the Censor?

We took our girls' indoor soccer team to a Chicago Fire soccer game Saturday night. We had great seats, the Fire won, we got free hot dogs AND free t-shirts, and the girls got them signed by a few players (the shirts, not the hot dogs :) On the drive home, the girls started singing various songs that are popular on the radio. One of the girls in the front seat leaned forward and asked me if I liked the song they were singing. Then, she would holler back and pass the info. along to the rest of the girls. If I did like it, they would keep singing. If I didn't, they would stop and pick another song to sing. This seriously proceeded for the entire van ride home (about 1/2 hr.) Every song would be "checked"by me. It became quite humorous; I mean, when did I become the censor?

Last Minute Papers

One of our 8th grade girls has her "Big" paper due, guess when, TOMORROW. She's known about this for about 1 month now, and she even did her research, notecards, etc... Every time I've seen her I've asked her if she wants to work on it, and her continual response has been, "Not right now...I have to go." So, today, I ask her if it's done. And, of course, SHE HASN'T EVEN STARTED! She says she doesn't care; she's not going to do it and just take summer school. I, quite sarcastically, replied that "Yes, that's definitely the better decision here." So, before I know it, it's 6:15 and she marches into the office begging for help to get this thing done. I have to say, it took about every ounce of empathy in my body to say "yes". I wanted to tell her too bad! You've wasted all this time, and this is your responsibility! Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part! (right Marcie? :) But, when it came down to it, I know that this paper is a big part of her grade and she needs to turn it in. So I helped her. For 2 1/2 hrs. we worked on it. It's not the best paper ever. She didn't cite her information, she didn't proofread it, but it's done.
Was I right to help her? I don't know. It's true, she has to learn responsibility. But maybe the biggest paper of the year isn't the time to teach that lesson. Or maybe it is.

A Good Read

My friend Sarah has a knack for recommending good books for me to read. She loaned me the following book and I finished it in 2 days. It's fiction and easy to read, and has some really interesting underlying points. Check it out sometime!

The Continuing Story of VA Tech.

I turned on the news this morning at 7:30 a.m. and was greeted with video clips that Cho Seung Hui had recorded of himself. They were incredibly disturbing, and it made me upset that the news stations were even showing this! How does letting everyone see this video in ANY WAY make things better? It merely continues to exacerbate the situation. Sometimes it blows my mind to see the stupidity of our media.
I was pleased to see, a few minutes later, that as Dr. Michael Welmer (a psychiatrist) was being interviewed, he stated, "Stop showing this video now! This is a social catastrophe."
At least someone had some sense this morning.

Staff Meetings

I really like the people I work with. We had our monthly all-day staff meeting today, and for part of it we broke up into our "teams" (I'm part of the Youth and Family Team), shared prayer requests, and then went around the room and prayed for the other teams in our organization. For the last segment, I was at our table explaining the prayer requests my team had come up with to the Women's Team. We then took the next few minutes and their team lifted up all our requests. It was incredibly encouraging to sit with these women and hear them pour out their hearts on our behalf. At the end, one of the women stated that at her church, after a time of prayer, they all lift up praise to God in thanks for what they believe He will do. So we all started clapping. (I will admit it felt a little strange to me, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it :)
I learn a lot from the people I work with, and I appreciate them. Days like this are good reminders of that.

An EveryDay Funny Moment

I teach a Bible study for 5th-6th grade girls, and last night we were talking about "Emotions". We had different situations that could occur, and then we were supposed to write down what emotion we would feel in that situation, and what we'd want to do. One of the situations was the following: "I get a snail-mail letter from a long-distance friend." When sharing our responses, this is what one of the girls in our group said: "I would be confused, because I don't know how to read SNAIL." And she was serious :)

My own private worship service

The 5 1/2 hr. drive from Bellefontaine, OH to Chicago can seem pretty long and monotonous, seeing as there's pretty much nothing but mile after mile of flat farm (and sometimes not farm) land. So today, I decided to take advantage of all that uninterrupted time and use it to worship the God we just celebrated this weekend. I prayed, I sang at the top of my lungs, I cried, I shouted, I listened...you know, all the really important things :) And it was pretty cool, because about half-way through my trip (which up to that point had been shrouded in the darkness of an imminent storm), I saw on the horizon ahead a small glimmer of sunshine. I felt myself pushing harder on the gas pedal in order to "catch" it, and you know what? I did! About 20 minutes later I was surrounded by clear blue skies and the sun shining brightly all around me. It was beautiful...it brought a smile to my face, and a whole new perspective to my drive.

It made me think of the times in life where we feel surrounded by darkness, and all we can see is a tiny glimmer of light. Maybe, just maybe, if we chase that tiny glimmer, we'll find ourselves before long basking in the beauty and wonder of God.

Small Group

It takes a lot of time and effort to meet new people, neither of which I've had much of lately. A friend and I have been going to this new church, and we decided that we should join a small group in order to get to know some people (along with a few other reasons). And last night was the first night of this new group. I thought about NOT going approximately 32 times throughout the day, and I had what I thought were some pretty good reasons. But, when it came down to it, I decided to quit being a "lame" (as the girls would say) and just go! And really, it wasn't all that bad :) In fact, I might actually enjoy this new group. Maybe a little time and effort won't be so taxing after all.