Best Day Ever? Yes!

I must say, life since my last blog has been full of little surprises, some welcomed, some not so much. For starters, a few days after I last wrote, I got a wonderful surprise on my doorstep! It came in the form of my good friend, Rob, who I was fully expecting to have to go get him at the bus stop. However, he made the trip straight to my school and 2 hours before I was going to leave to pick him up, he's right in front of me in the flesh!!! It's a super weird/awesome feeling to have someone here in this country who already knows all about my life before ending up here. It's like all the work and stress of having to explain yourself to the people around you just goes away. What was even better was getting to show him around town, introduce him to all my favorite foods that he'll never get to experience in the States. I think the coolest part is that neither one of us really tried to meet up here. He was doing some mission work in Guatemala and was going to be in Honduras for part of it. You can read his blog about his time there here: http://crobarnett.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/zions-gate/ . I just mentioned he should come visit since he wouldn't be so far away. God works things out in really incredible, incomprehensible ways sometimes. I mean, we went hiking one day while he was here and as we were looking out at the absolutely breathtaking view of the mountains that are almost anywhere you go in Honduras, we just couldn't believe that we were experiencing that moment together! Rob and I used to be on the worship team at our campus ministry, Christian Student Fellowship, together. If you would have told us 3 years ago that we'd be hanging out at my home in Honduras now, clearly we would have thought that was crazy. Yet, there we were.

     Not only that, but Rob got to meet my kids, and we got to have some good, deep conversations about where our hearts are at with where we both feel like God is calling us to next. Like he told all of my students, it's actually exciting to not know what's next in our lives, but to just blindly follow Him and keep constant communion with Him. It was so good to have him here and see life from his perspective. So thankful to have that time with him, and excited to see how our paths may cross again in the future!

Since returning back to school, I've seen absolutely no improvement in the classroom some days, and then other days I am filled with so much hope because it actually went WELL. Today, I just need to share that I had my "BEST. DAY. EVERRRR!" (Quoting from Tangled, of course!) I'm not saying it was perfect, or even great. However, looking at it as a whole, I didn't have a single class where I thought, "ugh, this is never going to get any better". My students have started getting used to this new behavior chart we introduced in high school, mainly for my benefit because we need a better way of disciplining them. To my great surprise, it's working!!! That doesn't mean it'll work every day, but for the days it does, I am so thankful.

I had my 9th grade students do a comparison of old English (aka New King James) and new, modern English (aka The Message) while looking at 1 Corinthians 13. Many of them made the comment, "we never get in the Bible." Sadly, that's all too true, and a fact I really want to change. As we read through what all the things love looks like, I saw them genuinely responding. I asked them if anything stuck out to them, maybe something they felt like they could work on more, or something that encouraged them or they just enjoyed reading. I gave them 10 minutes in class to write a response, and one of my more "in-tune" students said, "why don't we replace the word love with our name?" So, I had them read the verses to themselves again and put their own name in place of 'love'. As I watched them read it again, I saw them take it seriously, and as they wrote their answers, the bell was getting ready to ring and they all still had so much more to say. They not only like being in the Word, but they crave it. Just like we all should. I let them take it home with them so they could take more time to think up real, genuine answers. I am really excited to see where this goes, and even more excited an encouraged to do this kind of thing with them more often! I've made it too easy to just let those lessons go undone because we have so much else to do, but the reality is, some of these kids may never go deeper in their relationships with Christ unless their teachers (at their Christian school) not only gives them the opportunity, but puts it in the lesson plan.

Here's to an exciting, Christ-filled rest of the school year! I can't wait to report back again with even more ways the Lord gives me to reach these students with His truth!

See, if we really have Christ inside of us, then we have love, because that's what He is. God is love. In light of that, our lives should mimic this. I've still got a long way to go, but it's never a bad idea to evaluate where we're at and just what exactly we're doing for the Kingdom. Just in case you're interested in reading those same verses and replacing YOUR name with the word 'love, here you go:

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Love doesn’t have a swelled head,
Love doesn’t force itself on others,
Love isn’t always “me first,”
Love doesn’t fly off the handle,
Love doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Love doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Love takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Love puts up with anything,
Love trusts God always,
Love always looks for the best,
Love never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.