Patience

Patience...it never has been my strong point.  I often find myself getting so frustrated when I'm stuck driving behind a slow driver.  When I go grocery shopping I pace up and down looking for the line that has the fewest amount of people with the fewest things in their cart.  Why?  I don't want to wait.

The past several weeks I have been going through the fruits of the spirit with my junior church class.  We began with love, joy and peace.  Today we reached long suffering.  Now, for five and six year olds long suffering is quite a big word. I shortened it down to patience for them.  Over and over again we repeated the simple definition: "Being able to wait a LONG time without becoming angry.

I began to teach on Abraham and Sarah.  God promised Abraham that he would make him the Father of the Many Nations. His generations would be more in number than the stars in the sky..What a promise!  How excited Abraham and his wife must have been.  No doubt they expected that the promise would come to past quite soon.  However year year after and still no fulfilling of the promise.  As I was relating the story I couldn't help but think of how they must have felt.  Had God forgotten about them?  Do you realize it was a full 25 years until God finally gave them Issac?

My eager students told me how much they also hated waiting!  Whether it be waiting in the line at the water fountain, or for the bathroom, the line at the fair, or at a restaurant...it was concluded that none of the children liked to wait. None of us do! We want it now!

However, the older I get the more I realize that that isn't how God works.  I often remind myself "patience" when dealing with a child in the school classroom.  Or "patience Brooke" when I'm beginning to get annoyed with the person in front of me who has a coupon for every item in her cart.  However, there are so much bigger things in my life that God is trying to teach me patience with.  I want to to know His will for my life in every detail right NOW!  I want to know where I will be 5 years from now.  Will I still be in Ohio?  Will I be back home?  So many questions are constantly running through my mind.  Questions that I want to know the answer to.  But God tells me to wait.
Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years until the fulfilling of their promise.  Never for a moment did God forget about them, He was working out every detail in His precise and perfect timing.  Never for a moment has God forgotten about me! I want everything done now..but the best things in life often take a while.  Fast food never taste the best...it's the steak that marinates for hours that truly is the most satisfying.  God sees the big picture.  He looks at my life as a whole.  I simply see today.  The future is a mystery; I know not what it holds.  Honestly, the future scares me; I have s real fear of the unknown.  However, through a simple lesson I was trying to teach to a room of 17 five to six years old kids, God spoke to me.  How patient am I?  Am I going to wait or am I going to jump the gun.  God promises me to give me my every desire if I simply trust and wait on His perfect timing.

Spirit Week 2014

I know it has been way too long since my last post.  So long in fact that I don't know where to pick up.  So, today I will simply include some pictures from the last week at school. 

Lazy Day

Guess Who Day

For Guess Who Day Shauna and I exchanged and clothes and classrooms. 

Wacky Wednesday

Class Character Day

My class went with a western theme!

Neon Day

PS: Have I mentioned how very thankful I am for this lady.  I thank God daily that my coworker has become my dearest friend. 

At the close of the week, the top four students were able to pie a teacher of their choice. 

I like to think I was chosen because I am so very loved :) 

School Christmas Activities

Once again this school year seems to be flying by.  This past month was filled with many activities for the Christmas season.

The students spent several hours making scores of little gifts for our elderly friends in the nursing home. How fun it was to distribute our gifts among the elderly people...

Christmas Party Fun

On the last day of school we preformed, "The Gift."  The students did an incredible job! 

Added Pressure

In science class this week, we have been studying rocks, minerals, and gemstones.  Honestly, not my favorite thing to teach.  I would much rather teach my students oceanology, astronomy, or biology.  However, the book demands I teach rocks for a chapter.  I was dreading teaching about rocks...how could I possibly make rocks interesting?  I am totally, without a doubt, uninterested if a rock is metamorphic, igneous, or sedimentary...

However, my students, on the other hand, absolutely are loving it.  They have been bringing in rocks of their own to show to their fellow classmates.  They have been drilling me with questions!  Because of their enthusiasm for the study it caused me to look a little closer and study my lesson a little more carefully. 

Today I taught about gemstones.  I was teaching my students that many gemstones were regular "rocks" that had much pressure placed upon them.  The pressure was hard upon them; the heat was unbearable.  But the pressure eventually ended and in the place of an ugly worthless rock was a gemstone...a "rock" of great value and worth.

As those words came out of my  mouth I could help but think of the spiritual aspect.  I stood there for a moment just think about my life. I began to think about the pressure God seemed to put on me often in my life. I thought about the times, when I looked at other people who seemed to float through life without a problem in the world.  I wondered why God seemed to place so much pressure on me?  Did He love me less?  What was God doing in my life?  Why did I have these added difficulties? After a moment of silence, I remembered.   I was standing in front of eager students wondering why their teacher was silently standing in front of them. 

"Class...Sometimes, God brings hard times in our lives.  Sometimes, someone we love very much becomes ill.  Sometimes the things we want more than anything in the world, God tell us, No.  Sometimes, it might feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.  We call that pressure...."

"But listen, those who handle those difficulties, that God has placed in their life, in the right way..do you know what will become of that individual? ..that's right..they will become diamonds...diamonds for the Savior."

"Class, remember when hard times comes in your life...when pressures push down upon you just like pressures pushes down on that rock, you have two choices.  You can crack, you can break, you can quit.  The rock that does, is never anything but a worthless rock.  But, the rock that handles pressure correctly..that rock becomes the diamond.  Life isn't always going to be easy...but kids, God wants you to be emeralds, rubies, and sapphires...therefore He WILL bring pressure in your life..When He does..don't get bitter, remember He loves you and He wants you  to become a gem of great beauty."

"But the choice is up to you..how will you handle the pressures life brings your way?"

First Quarter Down...

I can't believe the first quarter of the school year is already completed.  As always, times seems to simply fly by.  

This first quarter has definitely had its ups and downs.  I have felt completely stressed out and overwhelmed like never before.  Sometimes I get so frustrated, yet I love each and every one of my students.  Not a day goes by that I don't silently thank God for my kids... They make me laugh out loud at times and make me want to scream at other times..yet each of the these students are very special to me...

Here are a few highlights from our first quarter

Officer Friendly's visit to OCCA

We took a field trip to a historic village. What fun we had visiting and participating in an one room school house.

 

Thank you God...for blessing me beyond words... 

Sometimes I miss home so much it take everything within me to simply suck it up and hold my chin high.  But, every day in the classroom and every Wednesday in my Children ministry, and every weekend in my Jr. Church I feel so much a part of Ohio.  Although I miss my parents, church, and sisters...I don't think I would be happy in Indiana..God wants me here for now..and I can't imagine my life any other way.