No Power in First Grade

Once upon a time there was a sweet teacher and a class of students sitting down to watch a Magic School Bus video about plants and seeds, because the class had been learning about the parts of a plant. The children lined up their seats near the TV just like they were at a movie theatre. The teacher turned off the lights and told the class when the video was over they'd have a test over the parts of a plant. Just then, as the video was starting, all the lights went black, the computers shut down, the TV stopped, and the kindergarten class next door screamed. The power had gone out! And our excited first grade class could not watch the science video or take the science test (as the sweet teacher had not yet printed it off the computer). The teacher, being a master of improv, quickly asked the class what they thought a group of people should do if the power suddenly goes out. A bright young boy put up his hand and said, "Read a story!" Which, was exactly the answer the sweet teacher was looking for. So the teacher grabbed a chapter book all about first grader, and read the antsy class a chapter of the story. It was a good story. It was all about a first grader who had a loose top tooth. When the chapter was over, the lights were still off, and the sweet teacher was secretly hoping the principal would send everyone home. Since the lights were still off, the teacher asked the students to make a picture of their favorite part of the first chapter. Soon children were creating pictures of peculiar colors because its hard to see what color you're using in the dark. Pictures finished, children got out toys to have some inside recess and some snack. Our sweet teacher thinks that this power outage must come to an end soon, but as the timer goes off for children to clean up, the power still has not come back on, and now its time for reading centers. What is a teacher to do for reading centers when there is no power? How are the children suppose to listen to the stories on CD? How are the children suppose to use the computer? How are the children suppose to see the words on the pages? How is our sweet teacher going to sharpen pencils in the electric sharpener? Alas, the sweet tired teacher can not let the children play all day, so onto reading centers they go, playing puzzles instead of listening to a story on CD, and writing sight words on dry erase boards instead of using computers, and doing their best to use broken, dull, barely there pencils or in the worst case, a crayon. It was not the best solution, but it was going to have to do. Right about the time when our sweet teacher's eyes seemed too tired to strain to see any more words and just in time to go to lunch (all sandwhiches, because the cafeteria can't cook steak and gravy or chicken chunks without power), the computers flicker to life, the lights buzz on, and the kindergarteners next door squeal with delight. All the children's learning was done in the dark, but fortunately they get to eat in the light! And our sweet, tired teacher wonders why, at the end of the day, she is sometimes exhausted.

Traffic at Church

I was surprised today when I witnessed the human condition, and was actually a little disappointed where I saw it too. Its no big secret that we have a traffic problem at Buckhead Church. If I didn't attend church there, I would avoid going to that area of town on Sundays. But, I do go to church there, and love it, but today I was surprised by my fellow members! Let me tell the story:
I was turning off of GA 400 onto Lenox Rd., making a left hand turn. Traffic was backed up to that intersection and all the way to the next light, which is not unusual. I had to make a left at the next light where there are 2 left turning lanes. I lined up to wait my turn, which I thought everyone else would do also, but as I naively sat there in my car, people started pulling out around the line of traffic and cutting off the people who were patiently waiting for their turns to make the left at the light. At first I just thought it was one rude person, but then I saw car after car do it, and I amazed; couldn't believe it! What is this? Here we are going to church to learn how to live lives that reflect the heart of Jesus, and we are cutting each other off so we can get there first? Is this so we can get a better parking spot? Or better seats? And if so, doesn't that also show that we are failing at reflecting the heart of Jesus who wouldn't fight for the best parking spot or the best chair? I was truly shocked that even at the place we go to learn how to live better we treat each other with very little courtesy. Would it really hurt for us to wait maybe 5 extra minutes?
Now, I know that I am not a perfect driver, that I am guilty of taking control of intersections when it's only maybe my turn, or squeezing through on a yellow light. But for the most part, I think that I am at least aware of the other drivers around me, and I try for the most part not to take someone else's turn, cut people off, or just be plain rude. And maybe this morning God was trying to get me to think about my driving habits and really evaluate how they show my opinion of other people. If I really respected other people, I probably wouldn't tailgate them or get all frustrated when they aren't driving exactly how I want them to drive. Hmm, this is not an easy city to practice courtesy when driving, but you know, I think I really am trying, especially on Sunday morning! And that doesn't mean I am driving super-slow, it just means I am looking for you out on the roads, and respecting the fact that you have the right to drive there too!

It's a book store, they SELL the books...

I love Book stores. They are my personal favorite stay-cation all over town. I love them. Today I happened to be in a big one, when I overheard a guy being down right nasty to one of the customer services guys. His problem? They didn't have the book he wanted. Luckily another one of the stores at a different location had the book, but this mean old man didn't care that he could drive 10 minutes down the street to get a copy, he wanted that book in that store at that moment! When another customer service guy came over to join the conversation, he made the mistake of trying to explain why they didn't have the book (someone else bought it), and this somehow made the man ever more angry. He went to the lengths of saying to the gentlemen, "Look at me. I am a customer, and you should treat me like one." Whoa! Someone is pretty self important. It makes me wonder how people get so self-centered. What exactly has happened in his life, or hasn't happened, that has him under the impression that the whole world is set up to revolve around him? Sure he is the customer, but wow! What about a little common courtesy! It's not like the book store sold the book just to spite you. I found myself wanting to go over and tell the man what a jerk he was being, but alas, I did not. So, here I am telling you Mr. Mean Old man, you can't treat people like that. That's mean and nasty, and even my first graders know better. Be nice, mean people are not cool.

New Day, New Blog

Life changes fast doesn't it? Sometimes everything changes at the same time, and sometimes just one thing changes. But it's constantly something different from day to day. Life for me has been full of changes for the past 6 months. The summer was particularly full of changes, culminating in August, when everything was changing at the same time: New school year, new grade to teach, new colleagues, new lease at a new apartment, new friends, and even a new leader at Waumba land (which means a lot of new also). To be honest, its been hard to deal with all this newness all at the same time. I commented that the only thing that seemed to be the same was that I was driving the same car and my hair is still long. And then my mom added that my family is still the same. But, they are changing too! My little brother is getting married, someone new is being added to my family, and my family is spending its first Christmas in Atlanta this year! But all these new things are good things, and God is using them to produce good things in my life too. And I am not the only one with newness in their lives! I know a couple of people with exciting newness in their lives, and it reminds me that anything new can happen at any time, and it could be amazing newness! So, with all this newness, I've decided that the lessons of Living 101 have drawn to a close. I have learned living 101, it's now time to tackle living 202, where I am sure I will tackle bigger issues and more difficult lessons that God has planned. So, with a new chapter, a new blog.