WiW: They Don’t Learn…

The Week in Words

I’m a teacher, less than two weeks away from ending my career as a graduate teaching assistant.

I love teaching.

I love explaining things to students, helping people understand something better than they did before.

I love showing students how to do something, seeing them glow with a sense of accomplishment.

I’ve been teaching about food. And I love teaching about food.

Because I love food.

I get excited about cooking, about food, about how food fits into people’s lives.

My students can’t help but feel my excitement for food.

Which is why Don Carson’s quote sobers me.

“If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again…”
~Don Carson (via Justin Taylor)

What are the things I get excited about?

What are the things I emphasize again and again and again and again?

Are they the things I want to be emphasizing over and over and over again?

Carson says what should be emphasized over and over again:

“…What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again. That had better be the gospel.
~Don Carson (via Justin Taylor)

I am challenged as I read these words. What is the refrain of my life’s work? If someone were to interview a dozen of my students and ask them what they learned from me, what my life message is, what would they say?

Would they say that I lived for food?

Or would they say that I lived for God, glorying in the gospel and savoring the sweetness of Christ?

I fear too often they would say the former–but my heart’s desire and my prayer is that the latter would be true.

Collect more quotes from throughout the week with Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”.


Snapshot(s): Just one room

For the longest of times, my cry was to have just one room in the House of Dreams done.

Just one room.

That’s all I asked.

And now, one month after moving in, one room is almost done.

My bathroom.

Bathroom in House of Dreams

A view from the door

Bathroom in House of Dreams

Over the towel rack, reproduction Red Cross posters from a calendar.

Bathroom in House of Dreams

Over the toilet, a thrifted shelf with my blueware collection (And, oops, I forgot to take that little blue lamp down after I finished cleaning the countertop–it kinda messes up the arrangement, doesn’t it?)

Bathroom in House of Dreams

The sink, along with miscellaneous doo-dads including my jewelry tree.

All I need for it to be done for good is to mud in and paint over the holes in the wall from the previously poorly-installed towel bars, to clean the floor really well, to replace the lightbulb that just burned out, and to organize the linen closet (and I’ve got a few little “someday I’d like to” tasks: making a couple more bath mats, getting a basket for books for the back of the toilet, adding a Scripture verse or something over the little shelf with my blueware, receiving navy blue bath linens for Christmas :-P, etc.)


Someone has too much time on her hands…

It’s not me, by the way.

But one of my friends (Amber) has been going crazy with Facebook memes of late–keeping me well supplied for my Saturday meme posts–assuming I’ll ever get back to regularly posting!

This meme was completed in the wee hours of this morning and set to post later. So some of the information is already outdated. My apologies, but I really do have to [groan] work today and can’t be online filling out such things (Probably shouldn’t be doing it now, for that matter.)

What does your third text in your inbox say?

Ruth is *Insert Phone Number Here*

Are you online?

Dur.

What are you wearing right now?

Red sweater accidentally put on backwards after trying on clothing at the used store (Oops), Gray pin-striped slacks. Black crew style socks. Red and Gray and Black striped ankle socks over top black crew style socks.

What are you most looking forward to today?

My papa visiting me (giving me a reason to ONLY work the four to five hours I absolutely NEED to work tomorrow–I mean–today.)

Do you THINK you like anyone?

I was reminded even today (that is, yesterday) of how much I like my coworkers.

Have you ever been awake for 48 hours?

Is the sky blue? I’m one thesis away from a master’s degree. Of course I’ve been awake for 48 hours before.

What are you listening to?

The hum of my computer, the air from my heat pump, my fingers clacking on the keyboard.

Baseball or football?

Baseball

Favorite kind of blanket?

Odd question. Warm kinds. Preferably made by Grandma Cook. Although I am partial to my own quilts.

How do you feel about chocolate-covered strawberries?

Excited when I see them, delighted when I eat them, and disappointed when they’re gone.

Europe or the Caribbean?

Europe, hands down

Who is the sexiest person alive?

Me in my sexy jeans. (JK!)

Do you like the color gray?

I like to WEAR the color grey (note British spelling–I learned to spell grey from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and have the hardest time spelling it with an a)

Is there anyone you really can’t stop thinking about?

There’s someone I’d like to not stop thinking about–but unfortunately my mind is wandering and all too often becomes focused on anything but Christ.

Look outside, how’s the weather?

It’s cold. I can see the moon dancing as it reflects off the surface of the wind-rippled lake. The bare-branched trees are waving for attention. And I am glad to be inside next to my space heater.

Are you jealous of anyone right now?

Let me think–is there anyone who currently belongs to me and is being misappropriated to another?

Nope, I don’t think so.

I’m a stickler for using the words jealous and envious/covetous properly. The former and the latter are NOT synonymous.

Did you ever think someone didn’t like you, but came to find out they really did?

I tend to think that people like me. Sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m wrong. With luck, I never find out if I’m wrong and thus never discover reason to think ill of said person.

Last time you ate grilled cheese?

Good question. It’s been much too long. It was maybe a month and a half ago? Debbie and Grace and Daniel and Timothy and I made Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup for lunch after church.

Name something great that happened today?

I breathed.

Do you regret something today?

That I spent so much time on the computer and so little time unpacking. (How am I ever going to get settled into this house at this rate?)

When you think of the rainbow, what pops in your head?

Homosexual activism.

How are you feeling?

Through sensory neurons which detect pressure, pain, and a variety of other sensory inputs.

Do you watch the Oscars?

I did the year Return of the King won all those awards. We had a residence hall party for the Oscars that year. Otherwise, I never have.

Favorite movie?

A&E Pride and Prejudice

Would you date someone 10 years older than you?

Possibly

What are you thinking about?

What am I thinking about? Mostly about the ridiculousness of these “would you date…” questions. How would I know whether I’d date someone 10 years older than me? That’s an awfully small (and relatively unimportant) piece of information to make such a decision based upon.

Have you lost contact with someone you wish you didn’t?

Yes, many people. One of my great regrets in life is that I have not actively worked to sustain relationships after situations change so that we are no longer “forced” into relationship. It’s something I’m working on.

Do you think you’re old?

The day I turned 13, I told myself I was an old woman. That way I’d never fear growing old, ’cause I already was.

So far, so good.

I might be old, but I’m not afraid of growing old :-)

Are you afraid of the dark?

No. I’m afraid of what might be lurking in the dark. (Which means that I try to avoid being outside in lesser lit areas late at night–and if I have to be in said areas at those times, I choose to be aware of my surroundings and have my keys stuck through my knuckles for ready self-defense.)

Do you have unlimited texting?

Yes

Do you wear glasses?

Yes

What are you looking forward to in the next month?

Being done teaching (and therefore done commuting)


It’s Cold Inside

Do you follow LloydandLauren.com?

You don’t?

Well, you should.

I found Lloyd and Lauren through a real-world friend of my family, who had Lloyd as his computer teacher in high school. I took a peek and have been avidly watching for each new installment of Lloyd-and-Lauren’s crazy/sane/mundane/completely-out-of-the-ordinary life.

This video that the couple made and posted a couple days ago is a wonderful example of everything I love about Lloyd-and-Lauren: they’re talented, fun, self-deprecating, and–well, fun.

By the way, it just so happens I have another connection to Lloyd-and-Lauren. Lauren’s mom followed my link from a comment on LloydandLauren.com and has been a regular reader and occasional commenter here on bekahcubed. Thanks for reading, Nancy!


Thankful Thursday: By the skin of my teeth

Well, I’m just barely making it in under the midnight deadline–pretty much by the skin of my teeth.

Thankful Thursday banner

I’m thankful for all the things that I’ve been able to get done–or that have gotten done for me–JUST in time (not a moment too soon–but not too late either).

Today I’m thankful for…

…grading finished (with just enough time for the students to have a weekend to study before their lab practical)

…interviews with hard to track down resident completed (with just enough time to complete their assessments and move on to the next thing)

…a house cleaned and gotten out of (thanks to Mom’s help with cleaning–she contributed 6 of the 17 woman-hours that went into cleaning my Lincoln house–and we got done just a bit after midnight our selected day of vacat-ion)

…the amazing forbearance of God, who is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth


I’m not dead…

Just letting you know.

Actually, I’m just massively busy.

As of yesterday a little after midnight, I am officially a resident of only one city. I got my house in Lincoln cleaned up and locked the door one last time. Now, instead of commuting to Columbus for work at the nursing home, I’m commuting to Lincoln to work at the University :-)

This week is probably the busiest yet, with a rush of papers to grade before I give my lab practical at the beginning of next week and catching up from the holiday at work and dealing with a few really touchy issues.

So (except for a Thankful Thursday post that I’m still hoping to have time to write tomorrow :-P) you probably still won’t be seeing me until at least the middle of next week–or more likely, the end of next week.

Nevertheless, despite the busyness and a number of relationally/emotionally/spiritually challenging little events, I’ve been delighting in the greatness of God (Thank you, Pastor Justin, for an excellent intro to JESUS this past Sunday) and unexpectedly surprised into tears by the gospel-saturated lyrics of (you’ll never guess)












LeCrae.







See, I told you you’d never guess.

Not a fan of rap. Not a fan of CCM. Picked up a bunch of CDs from the library, procrastinated listening to that one because I don’t like rap or CCM. Finally popped it in on my drive this afternoon. Found myself literally in tears over the immensity of depravity and the awesome greatness of election.

Dang. That’s good stuff.

Anyway–I’d best get to bed. I’ve got a full day ahead of me.

Hope you have a wonderful, Christ-saturated rest of the week!


More than six?

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.
Which I, by the way, think is a ridiculously small number. If you haven’t read at least six, you’d better start reading!

Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety; italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or from which you’ve read an excerpt.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

6. The Bible

7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

There we go–I’ve got six. I can stop now, right?

8. Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) – George Orwell

9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14. Complete Works of Shakespeare

15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk

18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

19. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

20. Middlemarch – George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald

24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

34. Emma -Jane Austen

35. Persuasion – Jane Austen

36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
Totally cheating by having The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe count twice (see #33)

37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne

41. Animal Farm – George Orwell

42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50. Atonement – Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52. Dune – Frank Herbert

53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65. The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

72. Dracula – Bram Stoker

73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses – James Joyce

76. The Inferno – Dante

77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78. Germinal – Emile Zola

79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80. Possession – AS Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87. Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

92. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94. Watership Down – Richard Adams

95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare

99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

So my original 6 out of 7 number doesn’t hold true through the end, but I’ll still say I’m decently well read.

At least I’ve read more than 6.

Interesting side note. I saw this in a friend’s Facebook notes and filled it out. Then, in the same sitting, I was going through my Google Reader and discovered that Hope in Brazil had done the same meme. Fun!


Thankful Thursday: Change

I have had a year that has seen many changes.

This year saw the early hopeful buds of spring, the late frost that killed said buds. This year saw pruning, a cutting back of unfruitful boughs. This year has seen a drought which forced a new growth of roots. This year has been a year of transplantation and learning to grow in a new environment.

This year has not been easy–it could have easily broken and destroyed a much stronger woman than I. But God, in His infinite grace, has caused this weak woman to withstand such a storm so that He might be revealed strong amidst my weakness.

Thankful Thursday banner

Today I’m thankful…

…for dreams rising and being dashed–and for a hope secure beyond my dreams

…for doctrines and worldviews challenged, some confirmed–and for an anchor that holds amidst it all

…for relationships broken and formed–and for the friend who never leaves me nor forsakes me

I am thankful for the material and ethereal changes this year has wrought…

…the transition from student to professional

…the move from Lincoln to Columbus

…the transfer from one church (in Lincoln) to another (in Columbus)

…the awakening of my mind to the things of God

I am thankful for the many new things this year…

…for new blogging friends

…for a new home

…for a new church

…for a new Bible study

…for a new job

…for a new book club

Many things have changed this year, but one thing remains the same: The God who began this good work in me is faithful to complete it. And today, I am thankful most of all for the faithfulness of God so clearly seen throughout my many life changes.


Nightstand (November 2010)

On last month’s nightstand:

On my nightstandOn my nightstand

What I actually read this month was…
Considering the craziness of this month, what with moving and traveling and still living and working in two different towns, I read quite a bit. But I had very little access to internet, so I’m far from caught up with reviews. I have at least a dozen items on my “TBReviewed” list!

Fiction

  • A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
    I finally called it quits on this after 3/4 or so. I just couldn’t get interested in the story.
  • Love’s Abiding Joy by Janette Oke
  • Love’s Unending Legacy by Janette Oke
  • Love’s Unfolding Dream by Janette Oke
  • Love Takes Wing by Janette Oke
  • Love Finds a Home by Janette Oke

Nonfiction

  • The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande (TBReviewed)
  • Nasty, Brutish, and Long: Adventures in Eldercare by Ira Rosofsky (My Review)
  • Nina Garcia’s Look Book by Nina Garcia (TBReviewed)
  • Radical by David Platt (TBReviewed)
  • Will This Place Ever Feel Like Home? by Leslie Levine (TBReviewed)

Juvenile

  • Children’s Picture Books author BANG-BANKS (partly)
    including BANG The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher
  • The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart (My Review)
  • Nebraska a “Celebrate the States” book by Ruth Bjorklund (TBReviewed)
  • The Old Motel Mystery created by Gertrude Chandler Warner

This month’s nightstand is a bit different since I’m in the middle of moving and I haven’t got a nightstand (or any other place for my library books)–and because I’m trying to finish up these library books so I can start anew in my new city.

Currently in the middle of… or going to start soon (?)

On my nightstand

  • 30-Minute Get Real Meals by Rachael Ray
  • Ask Me Anything a Dorling-Kindersley book
  • Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America by Kate Zernike
  • Business Casual made Easy
  • Desiring God by John Piper
  • Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris
  • The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy
  • Making the Big Move by Cathy Goodwin
  • Nebraska an “America the Beautiful” book by Ann Heinrichs
  • The Secret of Skull Mountain by Franklin W. Dixon
  • Miscellaneous children’s books, fashion/wardrobe books, and Boston guidebooks (leftover from my trip this month)

Drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading.
What's on Your Nightstand?


WiW: A Lovely Song

The Week in Words

I am surrounded by the Word of God.

My Bible goes with me, tucked into my purse.

My MP3 player is loaded with sermons and podcasts to listen to as I drive.

My bookshelves are full of books expositing the Word of God.

My Google Reader fills every day. Homemakers reflecting on how the word of God impacts their lives. Mothers praying the word of God over their children. Men discussing the nuances of one doctrine or another.

The Word of God. My life is saturated with it.

And it is beautiful.

But the Word of God is not merely a song to be heard and applauded.

Last night, I read these words–and they cut me to the heart:

“Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them.”
~Ezekiel 33:32

Surrounded by the Word of God, I revel in its beauty. I delight to hear how the gospel has impacted others. I delight to read of the intricacies of the gospel. It is a lovely song. The speakers, the bloggers, the writers play their instruments well with pleasant voices.

But it is not enough to consider the Word of God a lovely song.

I must do it.

The Word of God must enter my soul and transform me.

I pray that Jeremiah’s cry might become mine.

“Your words were found, and I ate them,
And Your word was to me
the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.”
~Jeremiah 15:16

Oh that the Word of God might become for me more than just a lovely song. Oh that it would become as the very sustenance of my soul. That I might eat the Word of God–and that by it I might be transformed.

This is my prayer.

Collect more quotes from throughout the week with Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”.