Little blessings

Okay, I really am so blessed with everything God has given me (read previous post). But I am also so lucky to be surrounded by people, whether a casual acquaintance or close friend, who care so much about othes.

Example: My NJHS kids went to an innercity head start preschool yesterday to help out, spend time with the kids, and give them some presents. Remember, these are eighth graders giving up their Christmas break to help out others. You never hear about the good stuff like this on the news. It was awesome to see my students playing with the toddlers. Then, to top it off, one of my former students organized a huge gift drive for these innercity kids. She got them their "wish list" presents with her own dough, wrapped them all and made them cards. All for kids she'll never see again, just because she knows they don't have much and had fun doing it last year when she was a member of this club. These kids faces were GLOWING when they opened up these gifts. There was so much excited shouting when they announced, "Look, teacher. It's my favorite" or "It's just what I always wanted." Priceless. It was so wonderful and really emphasized the true meaning of Christmas.

Example: Not to make his face get red or anything when he reads this, but Jon truly has such an amazing heart to give back to others. He really is passionate about the less fortunate and he loves helping them, whether it's giving money to a homeless guy on the street, trying to pass out water to the homeless when it's 110 out, or dropping in all the money in his wallet to the bell ringers in front of the stores. It definitely humbles me and makes me realize how much better I can be about giving to those less fortunate.

Afterall, Jesus talks about this countless times in the Bible. I was just reading in Mark yesterday about how a man kept all the commandments and wanted to know if that was enough to get into heaven. Jesus said, "Sell everything you have and give it to the poor." The Bible says the man went away very sad because he had so much. This is a hard commandment for me to keep, yet knowing how much God gave up for me, the death of his only Son, makes me ponder how little of a sacrifice it would be for me to give up just some of what I have been blessed with.

May we all be touched by the Spirit to do our part this season!

Woo Hoo!

Several things to be excited about..

1. CHRISTMAS BREAK. I don't have to go to work until 2006. How great is that? Two weeks off is awesome..and I still get paid!

2. Grad school....over! I officially am finished with graduate work to obtain my masters degree in educational leadership. Will I go back and tackle another degree (thinking library science or principal certificate)...probably. But for now I am happy to say that I have an advanced degree above my bachelor of arts.

3. Christmas will be here in a little over a week. I love being able to spend time with family and relax.

A little late...but better than never

I meant to do a Thanksgiving post and talk about the things I'm most thankful for, but time got away from me....again. So, here goes. I think Christmas time is still a great time to reflect on these things anyway.

1. Jesus Christ-He died for me so I could spend eternity with Him, then conquered death, and then God left me with an amazing book to learn all about it. Oh, that I could only do His name justice in my lifetime and be a witness for him!

2. My health-I just got a call today from Ericka telling me that a friend from church, Katie, has been diagnosed with having three additional tumors in her brain. They are performing emergency surgery today. Please pray for Katie and the doctors. Needless to say, I'm so thankful for my health!

3. My hubby- I am blessed to have Jon in my life and learning what it means to be a good wife.

4. My family-Jon, parents, Troy, Kelly, the whole lot of them. They are wonderfully supportive, caring people who are behind me no matter what.

5. Friends-Same deal. These guys are the best. I have been so blessed by the people God has put in my life.

6. My home- I live in a beautiful city in a lovely home that is in the perfect location and size for where I am in life.

7. My job- If you've asked me lately, you know how much stress there has been at work. However, my job is overall very rewarding and has some great perks at times. (Did I mention two weeks off soon?) Plus, it helps pay the bills to live in the home previously mentioned.

8. Weekends-Although I wish they were longer, (why the five:two ratio again? Someone in Congress should really look into this and get the odds a little better on this one) they are much valued. Sleeping in, hanging out, shopping, eating out, movies. Ahh...it's the life!

9. Technology- Wait a second, Jon. Let me explain. No, I don't love technology like you love technology. No, I don't love computers and gadgets in general. No, I don't love slashdot. But....I do love the convinence of e-mail, cell phones, etc. Come on, it counts, right?

10. Vacations-Although they don't happen nearly as much as they should, they are great times to make memories, relax, sightsee, explore, and just "get away from it all."

And that's all she wrote.

Comment change

In an effort to reduce spam on my blog, I have inserted a comment verification box. This keeps spammers from setting up computers to identify when a post has been made and sending bogus messages as a comment. You will now need to manually type in a word you see in a box in order for your post to be valued. Sorry for the extra work, but hopefully this will cut down on stupid comments.