Ponderings From A Poem

Shel Silverstein is a wonderful poet ... One of my favorites both to read, and to read to my kiddos! He is frequently considered a "nonsense poet" - and rightfully so! However, sometimes I am struck by the deeper learnings he hides inside the silly poems he writes.

Like this one:

"I asked the zebra,
Are you black with white stripes?
Or white with black stripes?
And the zebra asked me,
Are you good with bad habits?
Or are you bad with good habits?
Are you noisy with quiet times?
Or are you quiet with noisy times?
Are you happy with some sad days?
Or are you sad with some happy days?
Are you neat with some sloppy ways?
Or are you sloppy with some neat ways?
And on and on and on and on and on and on he went.
I'll never ask a zebra about stripes...again!"

Oh, what an intelligent zebra!

Am I good with bad habits? Or bad with good habits?

How simply can such a terrifying thought be stated! We strive daily to be good, and to do good. We want to be good parents. Good spouses. Good friends. Good children. Good employees. Good Christians. Good examples.

And though sometimes we aim to be good simply because it makes us feel, well, good ... Hopefully our motivation comes from God, a desire to be with Him, and a desire to bring others to Him (Mt. 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.")

Strive to be good though we may, we all succumb to bad habits now and then. Be it the fact that I bite my nails or something that puts my soul in far more immediate danger, we all can think of a thing or two we need to be working on. And that's okay ... As long as we are truly working!

To me, the second part of the zebras question is much scarier ... "or bad with good habits?" Sometimes we fall into thinking that "bad people" are all bad - and obviously bad at that! But oh, how Satan works. After all, bad people don't go to church...

Or do they?

What if. What if going to church is merely a good habit? Something we do out of tradition or because we are "expected" to be there?

What if taking the Lord's Supper is simply a good habit? The men pass, I partake, but my mind is far far away?

Do you see how dangerous good habits could be? Oh how easily they disguise the bad!

And that zebra isn't done asking questions!

Am I noisy with quiet times? Or quiet with noisy times?

I know the world is noisy ... And I aim daily to have my life be quiet in the peace of God. Do I always succeed at shutting out the world's noise? Of course not. But hopefully I inch closer and closer to being quiet with only noisy times.

Am I happy with sad days, or sad ewith happy days?

If I am not happy, I am in trouble .... For the joy of the Lord is weityh me always if only I will remember Him! When I find myself leaning towards being sad with only happy days ... Then I need seek Him all the more fervently!

Am I neat with some sloppy ways? Or sloppy with some neat ways?

I'm working on this one, too! Neatness - tidyness - cleanliness - organization - are increasingly important to me because the more in order I kerp my life and home, the more I have time to spend drawing closet the Lord, serve others, and draw closer to Him.

What about you? Can you answer the zebra the way you'd like - and be being honest with yourself?

Heres or more question for you ... Answer honestly.

Are you remembering the Lord and sinning occasionally? Or are you sinning and remembering the Lord occasionally?

Because you are only doing one or the other - and certainly not both.

Cleaning the Deck

You know what gets done to a deck when one is pregnant and tired through the fall and adjusting to being a working mom in the spring? ... A whole lot of nothing gets done.

But even though I've done nothing to the deck this past year, when I looked out the door, something had happened to it anyway. Without me doing a single thing, the deck was covered in leaves and sticks and acorns. Covered.

And you know what was under those leaves and sticks and acorns? More rotting leaves. And under them? Mold growing, and rot beginning. Ew.

I had excuses for not working on the deck ... Excuses so good, in fact, I believe you could even call them real reasons! ....but nature didn't care about my reasons, it simply took advantage of my doing nothing.

Isn't that how our spiritual selves are too? Sometimes we do nothing. Sometimes we even have really great excuses for doing nothing! ...but Satan doesn't care about our reasons. He simply takes advantage of our doing nothing.

Though I'm doing nothing wrong, if I'm not actively doing something right ... Leaves fall. What empty spaces we leave - however small - Satan quickly fills.

And suddenly we are growing mold. And rotting. Ew.

Good news is, just like I (with a while lot of help from my Hubby) can fix the deck, we (with a whole lot of help from our God and Christian family) can fix our spiritual selves.

1) Cleaning. Today I swept the deck, we used a chemical cleaner, and Rob power washed. Spiritually, sometimes we need to celan house!

2) Replacing. Some of the deck boards were rotted out and Rob had to cut out the rotted parts .... But he didnt just leave the holes! He placed in new boards. Sometimes, we need to mend things with others and within ourselves to get where we want to be spiritually. We can't leave holes when we clean the old/bad things out ... We need to fill our hearts and lives with new, Godly things.

3) Preventing. For us, this means staining the deck to help protect it ... And buying a canopy to place over part of it (yay!). Spiritually, it means studying Gods word, meditating on Him, and surrounding ourselves with good.

The thing about fixing decks is its quite doable, but it does take a little elbow grease and whole lot of consistency. When you live in the woods, leaves are a constant ... And if I want the deck to stay nice, I will have to constantly deal with them.

And aren't our spiritual selves the same way? We need to put the effort in - and stay consistent - because Satan will always come around again ... And we need to consistently resist him.

Dear Daughter

Sunday is Miss Lydia's due date. She could come at any time (though as of yet we have no signs of anything except the fact that she must be quite comfortable exactly where she is...). We have bags packed. Car seats installed. And now, we hurry up ... And wait.

I am no good at waiting.

I like to plan. I like to schedule. I like to know when things are going to happen.

I guess this won't be the last time Miss Lydia rocks my world.

Unfortunately, waiting gives me lots of time to think ... And. Since its apparently a bit late to back out of this whole labor and delivery thing, I'm trying to focus my thinking in positive directions ... Like thinking about who I want to help my daughter become. I know I'll spend the rest of my life giving her all that I can - and I know there is so much more than I've thought of at this point ... But here is what I've got so far:

Dear daughter,

We want to give you the world. We being your Daddy and I ... But also your grandparents, and great grandparents, and a whole host of aunts and uncles, great aunts and uncles, cousins, honarary family members, and a whole community of friends. The "we" that will surround you from the moment you enter this world. The "we" that has loved you ever since your Daddy and I announced your existence.

I can't wait to show you how awesome this group of people - our family - is. I can't wait to share you with them, and them with you. I can't wait to help you learn what family means. I hope I can help you see how blessed you are!

And there are lots of other things I hope for you, too.

I hope you get your Daddy's sense of humor and quick wit ... And I hope you learn to temper it with a woman's grace.

I hope you find your Daddy's understanding of numbers and math and finances ... but I hope you find a love of words and literature from me.

I hope you are able to always see the good in people and help them see it too.

I hope you love music and acting and art and all things beautiful.

I hope you enjoy sports and games regardless of whether you win or lose.

I hope you learn to love to help people and learn to understand the importance of simply 'being there'.

I hope we can show you the greatness of God and help you find a deep love for him.

I hope you grow to understand the importance of serving Him always.

I hope we can help you learn to prioritize God - family - passions - self ... And learn to balance the many things you will do.

I hope you question everything ... And then dig deep to find the answers for yourself.

I hope we help you explore and discover and try new things.

I hope you - and we - work together to discover and then embrace who you are.

I hope that you have the drive to chase your dreams.

I hope you always remember that you are amazing and wonderfuul exsctly the way you are and don't need to change for any one else.

I hope you always work hard and give your best in all you do.

And, I hope you always know that we - both your Daddy and me, and a much larger we - are here for you and loving you. No matter what. That we will back you and support you. That we are here for you whenever you need us and ready to help in any way we can. That we will always do our best for you. And that we love you more than we'll ever be able to express.

Love,
Mom

Time To Panic

One of the hardest things in my ELA classroom is helping kids transition from picture book readers to chapterbook readers. They need confidence and guidance to pick books they can be successful with. If they pick a huge book for their first try, they often find themselves floundering and running back to their picture book comfort zone.

Because we do a program called AR, the kids have a point goal they must reach by the end of the quarter. I break the 100% into weekly goals for them so that we can all try to stay 'on track'. This works great most of the time ... But when I'm starting a kid on chapter books they sometimes become concerned. "What if I can't test on it this week and I'm not at _____ % by Friday?!". Try as I may to explain how chapter books are worth more points than picture books and will therefore jump their percent up higher when they do test on it, that can be a tricky concept for them to understand. If they get behind on their %, they panic and want to cram in all short books again.

So, my standard phrase of comfort has become this: "Give it a try. Dont worry. I promise I'll tell you when its time to panic."

I tell them daily "don't worry, we still have time. Its not time to panic yet."

And then as we near the end of the quarter I begin telling some that have gotten behind "okay, time to kick it in to high gear! The quarter's end is coming soon."

And rarely, oh so rarely I have to say "hey kiddo ... Its time to panic."

I only have to say that rarely because we know exactly send the end of our time is coming. We know when we must have our goal reached. We've broken our progress into tanagable chunks because we had a timeline to base it on. Planning = no need to panic.

But (ready for real world application?) Guess what. We don't know when Christ is coming. We weren't given a set date by which our goal of being ready for his return must be met. We don't have a definite end time - and therefore no set 'chunks' we can break our progress in to.

So, for all intensive purposes ... Its time to panic.

If you aren't saved ... If your life isn't right with God ... If you aren't SURE of your salvation, its time to panic! Because the end of our time could be any time. Later today? Tonight? Tomorrow? We don't know. So the only safe way is to be ready already - and stay ready every day!

Even my 4th graders know its better to reach your goal early so you don't have to be stressed. They also know that once they reach their goal, they need to keep reading to work on becoming a better reader.

And so it is with us. We need to be ready for the end of our time now. Because even if our time isn't up quite yet, it is a much better feeling to be sure of our salvation than to be in panic mode. But, just like my kiddos, we don't get to quit working once we are saved ... We keep working and studying to become better Christians. If we stop and Gert stangnat, well, we may find ourselves needing to be back in panic mode again.

I'd love to tell you "Don't worry, give it a chance, we have plenty of time" ... But I won't because I can't promise you that we do.

I'd love to tell you "its time to kick it into high gear! The end is coming up soon" ... But I won't, because I can't measure for you how soon it will be.

So instead, I'm telling you this ... If you arent ready to face Him in judgment. If you aren't SURE of your salvation. If you've never been saved. If you need to make some adjustments. If, if, if .... Then its time to panic. Not panic like flail around and cry - panic like fix the problem NOW.

Its amazing what a 9 year old can do when you tell them its time to panic with AR - they are suddenly a super reader who reads in every free moment at school and takes books home to read, too, all to reach their goal and get themselves ready. They panic - make the necessary changes to their effort level - and they get it done.

How much more important is your soul than a simple reading goal? How much more worth being ready for is our spiritual end of time than the end of a schoool quarter?

So panic. Make the necessary changes. And get yourself ready today.

3 Types of People

My class watched a video about Jim Lovell, the pilot of the Odyssey in the Apollo 123 space mission, today. At the end of the video, while talking about the importance of his Mission Control team, Jim said this:

"There are 3 types of people in this world. There are people who make things happen. There are people who watch things happen. And there are people who simply wonder what happened."

Quotes like that beg the questions 'which type of person am I?' And 'Which type do I want to be?'

Those questions are easy for me to answer ... I *hate* having to wonder what happened. And I rarely enjoy just watching. So that only leaves one option.

It makes me think of James 1:22 "be ye doers of the word and not hearers only". Spiritually, we need to *do*. Do talk to people. Do get involved. Do live correctly. Do good.

We simply can't afford to just sit back and watch!

And, if at the end of our lives we are simply left wondering what on earth happened? .... Well, that is certainly not a position I want to find myself - or anyone else - in. 

So that leaves one option. Get up. Get going. Be a doer. And be the type of person that makes things happen. Pronto.

Blessings

I absolutely love listening to other people pray. Often I think what a person prays for and the way they say things give me a glimpse into their heart of hearts. I am constantly humbled by the innocense of a child's prayer and the wisdom of an old man's words. Sometimes I am blown away by the simplicity of a phrase spoken to God ... Sometimes I am left pondering a complicated thought shared. Prayers are just awesome.

Yesterday I heard my mom pray (at lunch with some of my aunts). Among other things she prayed "Lord, help us with our struggles and with our blessings."

....and with our blessings?

My first thought was a chuckled 'I usually need more help with my struggles than with my blessings!' But, the more I thought about it,  the more  I realized that isn't quite true.

I have a lot of blessings ... and when I really think about it, I need a whole lot of help with all of them!

*I'm getting ready to have a baby. That's a huge blessing ... And I am going to need oh so much help from God. For patience. For wisdom. For strength. For calmness.  For 5 billion things I haven't thought of yet that I know I will be pleading for help with. To raise our daughter in such a way that she chooses to follow God. To make the right decisions fo r her. Oh yes, I'm going to need help with that blessing.

*I have a wonderful husband who has taken the best care of pre-pregnant and pregnant me. And I know he'll be a great daddy, too. Our marriage - my best friend - is a huge blessing. But I often pray about it ... To be calm when we don't see eye to eye. To be more patient, more understanding. To be a better wife. And I've seen enough to know that raising children doesn't always make marriage easier .... So you can bet I need help with that blessing.

*My job is a wonderful blessing that I love. Yet it can be both trying and tiring. It requires patience that I often pray for. It requires dedication and hard work and pulling myself out of bed each morning even when I'm exhausted ... And so often it is a blessing I need help with.

*Our friends and family are my favorite people around. They are there for me whenever I need them. They make me who I am. They are a blessing. Yet how often do I pray for the right words to say in a discussion? The right way to help in a situation? Patience? To be a better friend? A better sister/daughter/granddaughter etc? They are a blessing that I need help with. 

*Our material things are a blessing ... Our cars, our house and all that it holds, our paychecks. And so often I pray for wisdom in how to use our things. So often I pray for help not taking what I have been blessed with for granted. Things are a blessing I need help with.

I think one crazy thing about this world is that it works to turn the very blessings we are given into the every day struggles we have. Satan works against our attitude, our patience, our better judgment ... And soon what we once saw as blessings are being viewed as simply one more thing to deal with.

Do I view my marriage as the blessing it is, or as the struggle Satan tries to turn it into at times? What about my relastionships with other people? And my children? Can I look at my job and still feel blessed? Am I using my posessions in such a way that they are a blessing or letting them become a struggle in the way of my spiritual walk?

God blesses us. Satan fights to make us overlook those blessings.

So, as we enter a new year, a wonderful blessing from God, I'll be asking (frequently) for His help with my blessings - seeing them, appreciating them, and using them for Him - because sometimes, we all need help with our blessings.