... of too much information.

The longer I teach, the more that I find I get involved and (sadly) interested in the high school drama that is constantly unfolding around me. I have a student who is more like a little sister than a student. I actually have never had her in a class. She has been a part of the extracurricular theatre program, so there's a little less of a boundary there than there is with my normal students. She supplies me with all of my information. She is wonderfully (and yet horribly) uninhibited and she will tell me anything.

So tonight I not only found out about the relationships that I suspected, but also found out that the children are drinking. And now I have a little inkling of what it's like to be a parent of a teenager. I mean, I did that stuff when I was 18. And I knew that it was wrong. I was a bit more restrained than most of these kids are, though, so I am a bit worried. And how do you say: "Don't do what I did." Especially when you are NOT a parent that they sometimes "hate", but you are teacher that they actually look up to? If I say, "I did this, don't do it", to them, that means "Shockley did it a she's fine...". How do you actually influence them in a positive way?

The things that I did when I was young didn't end up being extremely detrimental and I am actually glad that God put me through some experiences that made me able to identify with them, but you don't want to tell them that. You don't want to say: "I did that, but I'm fine. But don't do it". When you tell kids (people) that they can't do something, they want to do it all the more. That's why I don't like the pressure of being their teacher. If I am actually honest with them, then I could be implicating myself in high school activities that I am not proud of.

I just pray that Jesus will reach them someday like he reached me, and all of those experiences that scared their teachers will be the thing that God uses to bring them into right relationship with Him.

Praying. Constantly praying.

Comments

... of a patent

... or maybe, just maybe , I'm jumping the gun :) A good friend told me the other day that she and her husband have been leaving church after the worship because she can't sit for an extended time in the folding chairs. Our church did a great thing and bought inexpensive folding chairs for our sanctuary in order to 1)save money and 2)be able to use the empty room for community type events in the neighborhood during the week. This is awesome. I support their decision and so does my friend who is leaving after the worship (and watching the previous week's sermon from home). But she is pregnant. She already had back problems and now (of course!) they are worse. My back is just starting to bother me and I know that there are many pregnant women with back problems and normal people with back problems who whimper inside a little every time they enter a room and see folding chairs. Until now, I had just sort of reconciled myself to the fact that sitting in a folding chair was ...

... of the tipping point

I haven't blogged in so very long, I can't remember when and I'm not going to stop this thought train to go and check. Suffice it to say, it's been awhile. But I showed up here to share (and document) a major event in the life of our family. Before Moses came home, I would see adoptive families posting about their kiddos' "Tipping Point Days". I recently heard it called something else as well, but I'm too tired to think of it right now. Basically, it is the day when your adopted child has been with you for as long as they were not with you. For kids that were adopted at 1 or 2 or 3, that seems to come quickly and maybe feels eventful, but not monumental. Well, when we got custody of Moses he was about 4 years and 9 months old. I remember coming back to America and seeing someone in my adoption group post about their 2 or 3 year old's Tipping Point Day and thinking I should figure out when Moses's would be. So I did. I sat down and figured ou...

...of the same, but different

When we came back to Austin from the UAE and Quinn started back at his old job and we went right back to the same church and are even a few months away from moving back into our old house, we struggled with feeling like the previous two and half years just didn't happen. Sure, we had another child, but it all felt the same as it had. Except that our hearts were completely different. God had pulled us out of our former comfort zone and opened our hearts and eyes to a people who desperately needed His love. So when we came back, we were like different people in the same life. Even though those two years were less than we had planned and the memory of them gets further and further away, He still used them to shape and transform us in ways we never could have imagined. It was like we had entered some kind of time warp where everything was the same and different all at once. Then, just a few weeks ago, when we discovered that our fourth baby, Joanna Lynn, had Down syndrome, everyth...

On the Verge...

Search This Blog