Thursday, April 18, 2013

Hearing His voice when I least expect it

 
Shattered.  Broken.  That is what became of my glass patio table.  We had left the big umbrella up and weren't expecting the wind.  All I heard was a whoosh of the wind, a thud from the umbrella hitting the ground and the crash of the table top shattering.  I didn't want to believe it really happened.  I went outside to look and saw the pieces all over the ground.  What a mess! 
 
I began the tedious and careful process of sweeping, scooping and throwing away the pieces.  All I kept think about was "How am I ever going to pick up all of the pieces?" 
 
That is when I heard Him.  "You can't.  You can only pick up one at a time."  I no longer saw glass, but I saw broken hearts, broken lives, and lost souls.  I saw the brokenness of the world. 
 
It was overwhelming.  Compassion flooded me and I began to pray.  It was all I could do.  I knew God made that table break for a reason.  He wanted me to see, with my own eyes, what He sees when He gazes upon us.
 
As I started to vacuum up pieces embedded in the grass, I knew it would be impossible for me to get all the pieces.  So many pieces had fallen down, lost in the thick grass.  I would have to trust with faith.  Blind faith that my children won't cut their feet playing in the backyard.  Blind faith that He will protect us and pick us up when we need Him.


 
 
 
I can only go so far on my own. 
 
But with Christ, I can do anything.  I can start with one person.  Show one person the love of Christ.  No judgment.  No hatred.  Just love.  That's how I can begin to mend the brokenness.
 
And you can too.
 
Blessings,
 


 
 

Friday, April 12, 2013

Our Classroom has a New Member!

Now before you go getting any crazy ideas, let me just say that our "newest member" has been needed for a long time and was store bought.  (That should curb any wild imaginations running away!)

We have been plugging away this year at kindergarten and preschool.  It has been going really well.  Don't get me wrong, we usually fight over who is going to go first (seriously, it hasn't changed since we started), for many months I heard "I don't want to do reading!", and my kids have so many wiggles, it's a miracle the chairs haven't broken yet.  Despite these normal occurances, we have fun and I can see improvements in my boys that keep me encouraged.  Well, we had been conducting our business on a little table from IKEA, about 18" x 24".  In reality, we had school time on the floor.  It was not very convenient, but we made it work.

School used to be all over the place and you can see the little table in this picture.
So now can you guess who our new member is?  Yep, a table!  (It's the little things in life.)  I just set it up this past week, and it is SO much better.  I can honestly say that the boys are able to concentrate better and can see and complete workbook pages much easier.  There is less fighting over who is taking up too much room on the table and cleaning up is a lot easier.  The crayons, markers and paper are mostly on the table, rather than sprawled all over the carpet.  If I would have known a table would make the day go this much smoother, it would have been a necessity from day 1! 

 
Doesn't it look awesome?!?  I'm super excited!!  (It is only a 6' plastic folding table we bought at Walmart, but still.)  No more fighting over who gets to use the table.  Now it's fighting over who gets to sit in which seat...there is always something.

 
Also, I have rearranged and reorganized my school shelves.  I tried to put as much in fabric bins and plastic totes as I could.  I needed things to look and be organized or I wouldn't be able to function.  (I'll just say that this day of rearranging and organizing was amazing.  My type A side was on cloud 9!) 
 
What does your classroom look like?  Have any must-haves you want to share??
 
Blessings,