Monday, October 31, 2011
God,
If you truly answer prayers, if you care about my small life of me and my friends, do something big. I am desperate, I have no idea what to ask but I know only you can do something in these circumstances. I know you are big and that you are God and beyond that I'm not sure. Regardless, will you accept my small words and weak offerings and show me and my friends who you are? You know my heart and how I desperately want you, but don't know where to go or what to ask. Please teach me how to love you and restore to me the joy of my salvation.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
If our hearts condemn us...
"This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. "
1 John 3:19-22
1 John 3:19-22
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Teachers and Bon Iver...
I've decided to start blogging more.
I've said that at least 3 times. I used to journal a lot, and I blogged a lot more than I do now. I have a lot of thoughts and questions that I never write down, and if only for myself, I think I should.
I've been in a Bon Iver/ Iron & Wine/ Sufjan Stevens kind of mood lately, it's the Fall weather I think. Fall is my favorite season.
Sometimes (okay, a lot of times) it baffles me how much I'm paying for my education. In the age we live in, I can go on the internet and learn a lot more about what I need to learn than what I'm taught in classes. If I have the discipline, I can definitely get my gen eds done at least online.
We have no excuse as to why we can't study, really study, the Bible if we want to. The Bible is more accessible than any time period, ever. Most information is. I can Google the context of a passage, questions I have about the time period in which a particular passage was written, The Greek/ Hebrew meanings of words, it's all at my fingertips. Yet, despite technology, we still don't. The only thing stopping us is our laziness, and/or our desire to do so.
And, despite technology, teachers still have jobs. We need to be forced to do it or we won't oftentimes. I pay to get my butt chewed, basically.
I guess that gives me hope to be a teacher because I'll still have a job.
But I figure any worksheet I give them, any test they'll take or paper they will have to write, the information is ready, available, and better than what I could teach within a mouse click.
I conclude, then, that information is not what teachers need to teach.
Students need examples of a godly man/woman who demonstrates their character through their actions.
Students need to know someone cares and believes in his/her success.
Students need to see an authority figure who is professional and passionate about the subjects they teach.
-It is so obvious when teachers aren't passionate about teaching, and they are bored with it.
There needs to be more teachers who love his/her job.
Students need to be engaged in the subject, to be encouraged that if they don't do well on a test/ homework it does not define his/her character.
Teachers need to know students gifts and talents, especially if they're not particularly "gifted" in that subject.
Grades aren't everything and a student can be successful without college if they're driven enough.
Teachers need to encourage and find the thing that drives them, and guide them into it.
Teachers need to bring life into schools and encourage kids to live his/her life.
I think we're all teachers in some way. To a brother/sister, to a friend, we all teach something. We're demonstrating to someone a way of living, and they are watching and learning from us. From you.
So please, I challenge you:
Teach well.
I've said that at least 3 times. I used to journal a lot, and I blogged a lot more than I do now. I have a lot of thoughts and questions that I never write down, and if only for myself, I think I should.
I've been in a Bon Iver/ Iron & Wine/ Sufjan Stevens kind of mood lately, it's the Fall weather I think. Fall is my favorite season.
Sometimes (okay, a lot of times) it baffles me how much I'm paying for my education. In the age we live in, I can go on the internet and learn a lot more about what I need to learn than what I'm taught in classes. If I have the discipline, I can definitely get my gen eds done at least online.
We have no excuse as to why we can't study, really study, the Bible if we want to. The Bible is more accessible than any time period, ever. Most information is. I can Google the context of a passage, questions I have about the time period in which a particular passage was written, The Greek/ Hebrew meanings of words, it's all at my fingertips. Yet, despite technology, we still don't. The only thing stopping us is our laziness, and/or our desire to do so.
And, despite technology, teachers still have jobs. We need to be forced to do it or we won't oftentimes. I pay to get my butt chewed, basically.
I guess that gives me hope to be a teacher because I'll still have a job.
But I figure any worksheet I give them, any test they'll take or paper they will have to write, the information is ready, available, and better than what I could teach within a mouse click.
I conclude, then, that information is not what teachers need to teach.
Students need examples of a godly man/woman who demonstrates their character through their actions.
Students need to know someone cares and believes in his/her success.
Students need to see an authority figure who is professional and passionate about the subjects they teach.
-It is so obvious when teachers aren't passionate about teaching, and they are bored with it.
There needs to be more teachers who love his/her job.
Students need to be engaged in the subject, to be encouraged that if they don't do well on a test/ homework it does not define his/her character.
Teachers need to know students gifts and talents, especially if they're not particularly "gifted" in that subject.
Grades aren't everything and a student can be successful without college if they're driven enough.
Teachers need to encourage and find the thing that drives them, and guide them into it.
Teachers need to bring life into schools and encourage kids to live his/her life.
I think we're all teachers in some way. To a brother/sister, to a friend, we all teach something. We're demonstrating to someone a way of living, and they are watching and learning from us. From you.
So please, I challenge you:
Teach well.
St. Augustine
"Let us have greater fear that the purity of faith be destroyed by corruption of the inner senses than that women be violently raped in the flesh, for chastity is not destroyed by this violence if it is preserved in the heart, nor is it even violated in the flesh when the will of the victim does not desecrate its own body, but submits without consent to what is done by others."
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