Life reflection

I have had this one part of a song stuck in my head for 3 days. It's from Brandon Heath's "I'm not who I was". I keep singing these lyrics in my head.

"I wish you could see me now
I wish I could show you how
I'm not who I was."

Last night at Vision of Hope I had a really open talk with two of the girls about all that I've been through in my life and the healing that I've found in God. I think I really surprised them with some of the stuff I've done, and where I'm at now. It's had me thinking about all of the people from Cincinnati, or from my first 2 years at Purdue who I wish could see me now. I'm so glad that God heals and we don't have to be defined by our past mistakes.

Happy Salvation Birthday Me!

It's my salvation birthday! I think my family might be the only ones on the planet who celebrate such a thing. But without fail, every year on March 4, we celebrate the day that little Mindy asked Jesus to live in her heart. When I was little we even got cake, it was a very exciting day. I love that my family celebrates these days, it's something that deserves a celebration.

RVCkids and patience?

Teaching patience to 5 and 6 yr olds is always funny. Today's lesson was on God promising Abraham and Sarah a baby, and then the birth of Isaac. Ann and I both found it a difficult lesson, as there wasn't an abundance of great material on the story. In the interest of not wanting to explain reproduction or polygamy to little kids, I had to skim some of the story and chose to focus on Sarah and Abraham's patience, and how nothing is impossible with God. However, because of the events of the past week, I didn't prep my lesson well and had to come up with an activity to teach patience on the spot. My brilliant idea: play connect four with all 6 people, but turns were taken one at a time going around the circle, and no one but the teacher could talk. I spent so much time saying "It's not your turn right now so please take your chip back, isn't it hard to be patient!" Teaching five year olds patience is just funny, as they don't seem to posses that fruit of the spirit yet. I found myself getting frustrated because they weren't being patient and waiting their turn. Of course, I then realized I wasn't being patient either! I was expecting 5 yr olds to learn patience instantly. It seems that I'm always learning some kind of personal lesson while teaching the little ones, and it almost always involves patience. Maybe I should play some more connect four with 5 yr old kids.