October 17th

So I mentioned that I was reading the One Year Bible to get my daily Word and inspiration. I am enjoying it, but I have to say, I am not loving some of the Old Testament parts. I know it is an extremely important section of the Bible, and some times I really get into the stories, but sometimes, it is incredibly dry. I got caught today going between Jeremiah and 1 Thessalonians because I am reading about God bringing justice to Babylon and then all of a sudden I get a reference to Christ Jesus and I thought, wait a minute, I don't remember them mentioning Jesus specifically in the OT. Guess I wasn't being an "active reader" like I would say to my kids. All in all, I think this has been a good way for me to stay in touch with my reading and have really enjoyed this as a new resource for my growth as a Christian.

Bible Reading Oct. 15th

So I bought this book called the One Year Bible about a year ago and read periodically out of it and then put it on the shelf for a while in my classroom. It is a pretty cool book though, it picks a couple of chapters from the Old and New Testament with the goal that if you read out of the book everyday in the year you will read the whole Bible over the course of that year. Well today is my second back reading out of it and it had me reading out of Jeremiah 26:1 - 27:22, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18, Psalm 85:1-13 and Proverbs 25:16. It was interesting because Jeremiah was talking about people falsely using God's name to preach their own will and view on things. But, when Jeremiah preached under God's name they were willing to put him to death because he was "blasphemus". It makes me think of what kind of a person Jeremiah was like in his society? I think I always imagined the prophets when I was a little kid or even a new Christian as the popular people in the city. But, why would that be the case. I bet Jeremiah was probably that kid that everyone at school thought was weird, or who we see as "Too Christian" in our eyes. Jeremiah chose a relationship with God over being popular in other people's eyes. That is pretty cool. I also loved the verse out of Proverbs 25:16 when it says, "If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit". I think you can replace honey with anything that we desire these days. It could still be food, money, "things", relationships etc. I think what this verse is trying to tell us is that we can only use so much of anything and that we should share with those who may not be as fortunate as we are in our situation. I think wealth is relative to our situation and when we may not consider ourselves as wealthy in our society, we should look around the world and really see the true emensity of our wealth. People always joke about how much teachers make each year and how it isn't much at all. Well, it may not be a ton of money by society's standards, but if you place a new teachers salary against the average income of the rest of the world, it is amazing how high it stacks when looking country's where there people are making around $500 - $1000 a year. I think we all need to do our part to make sure that we don't become consumed by the things we think make us who we are and ask God to fill that place that our things took up in our lives. I think that is all he is asking from us.

The Shack

There are very few books that I have ever read when I thought, "Man, I now view the world in a completely different light", this is one of those books. I had heard from a couple of people at work that this book was fantastic and thought that I should check it out. They also said I was going to cry and being a man, thought, "Okay even if I do, I will read alone so no one sees me." So I picked it up about two weeks ago and sat down to read a couple of chapters while waiting for Whitney to get home. 3 hours later and more than enough tears to make my eyes red, I was hooked.

Without giving any of the book away, which is insanely hard because I want to tell everybody just how amazing this book is so they will buy it and experience it, I will just say, if the author is right on how God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are, then I am looking forward to meeting them more now than ever. In closing, GO BUY THIS BOOK, you will never think of religion, God, and life the same ever again. (Click the picture to the left to view the website)

Back to School

Well, we have officially almost been in school for 4 weeks already!! It is amazing how fast time flies when you are ranglin' 6th graders. I have a pretty good group of kids this year, with the expected yahoos, but it wouldn't be interseting without them. I am back to teaching just Language Arts this year like I did at Colbert. The best part about this time though, is that I get to teach reading and writing instead of just writing. Let me tell you, trying to think of 180 days of writing assignments, projects, and activities just about drained me completely dry.

We also kicked off the 08-09 Youth Group year a couple of weeks ago and it is nice to get back to hanging out with those kids again. It is a lot of fun because about 8 of the kids in our group, I actually had in my class when I taught 6th grade at Colbert. It is so great to be able to connect with them in this capacity and to be able to share my love for the Lord with them, which for osme reason they won't let us do at school. It is a shame because it would be so easy to teach character education if they just let us use the Bible as our main text! Although, I would settle for using it on myself a little more frequently as well.

If you get time, check out my brother's blog, he just started a job as an onboard Fishery Biologist on the fishing boats in Alaska (Yes, just like the ones on Deadliest Catch)!! It sounds like it is going well, but he can always use your prayers because it isn't the safest job or easiest group of people to work with, sometimes. Although, knowing my brother, I don't think it will be hard for him to get to know these people well enough to survive by the end of the 2nd day, he is talented like that.

Well, hopefully I will actually post more frequently as things come up. I have a ton of great teaching stories to tell, but I need to think of clever names for some of my kids (to protect their identities) so I can share the stories. Any good ideas where to take my names from (Old tv shows, athletes, brands of shampoo etc.)??

Yearbook Yourself

This is the coolest website that I have found in a long time. You get to upload any pictures you want and you can turn it into a yearbook picture from 1950-2000. It is a blast. The website is www.yearbookyourself.com

Updated PIcs of our girls

Here are some updated pics for the grandmas especially

Extreme Days

Pictures from Extreme Days, we had a blast!!