Psalm 7:17 Friday VIII

I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

-Psalm 7:17

Things I am Thankful for This Week

-Girl Scout cookies

-My big sister, who celebrated her birthday this week

-Having two of my sisters in town at the same time

-Pound cake

-My mom, who brings me coffee in the mornings

-My job because I get to teach grammar and use passages from Harry Potter to illustrate the effects of punctuation

-Not being sick

-GChat, which lets me "talk" to my sister even though she's at work until 10:30 at night

-Knowing that my identity and my value are secure in Christ

Boo Sin! Hooray Leviticus!

Yeah, I know. Maybe one of the greatest blog title posts you have ever read....

I'm reading Leviticus. I feel like as far as books of the Bible are concerned, Leviticus has rather a bad reputation. It's usually thought of as that book with a bunch of laws that Jesus rendered moot so there's probably not a whole bunch of reasons to read it all nowadays. I mean, at least that's how I used to feel about Leviticus. To be honest, when I set out to read the whole Bible this year, I kind of saw Leviticus as something I just had to get through and honestly wasn't expecting to take too much away from it.

As usual, I wasn't all that right. Today I finished chapter 12, and let me tell you what I've learned so far. Sin is a really big deal. It seems obvious I know, but reading in-depth descriptions of the proper way to sacrifice an animal as a means of atonement will make you think about sin in a whole new way. There's something about the idea of, when you realized your sin, having to go get an unblemished sheep, goat, or bull, a pigeon or a turtledove, or some unleavened bread to bring to the temple to be sacrificed that changes your perspective. So often, I don't really see the consequences of my sin. It's easy for me to think of some sins as small and as not that big of a deal. I can guarantee, however, that if I had to go out and get something to sacrifice, I wouldn't think of my sin as so small. It would become rather big because it would inconvenience me--I would have to take my time and my money to make a sacrifice. And I would have to keep making them over and over. (Not to mention being slightly grossed out by the whole sprinkling blood thing and the removing the fat thing.)

Before I keep going, let me just say that I am very thankful for Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross and I wouldn't ever want to have to go back to the old school way of sacrificing animals and/or unleavened bread. I do think though that in terms of facing/dealing with sin, us modern-day Christians get off somewhat easier than the ones back in the Levitical days (I'm not sure if Levitical is a word, but I'm going to just go with it.) I can let myself excuse some sins as not really being sins or recognize that they're sins but not really be too bothered by them. And that's a little embarrassing/horrifying to admit. Jesus took the punishment for my sins, and that makes me beyond grateful, but I also think that sometimes the reality of that fades from my mind and I get apathetic towards sin. Especially when I don't see an immediate consequence.

What I'm learning from Leviticus is that sin is bad and that it's a big deal. It is reminding me that sin has real consequences, and it is giving me a newer, much bigger perspective of the Gospel truth that Christ died for my sins and that I am forgiven.

Psalm 7:17 Friday VII

I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

-Psalm 7:17

Things I am Thankful for This Week

-Jesus--ultimately for my forgiveness, but this week I started reading Leviticus, so I'm feeling particularly thankful to Jesus for the fact that His sacrifice means I don't have to sacrifice animals. (I was going to put in some quotes, but I think it's nicer for me to say that the early chapters of Leviticus really aren't great for people who don't like icky stuff--seriously, I was kind of grimacing and saying yuck a lot as I read about some of the sacrifices.)

-Friends and family who are willing to help me move (who offer to help before I even ask)

-My mom who brought me groceries when I was sick

-Netfilx and Time Warner Cable's Primetime OnDemand channel, which got me through my sick days

-Working with people who are willing to cover my class or help with sub plans

-Going inside to pick people up at the airport

-Watching the last two movies nominated for the Best Picture Oscar

-Mumford and Avett performing at the Grammys

-Finishing two more books of the Bible (Exodus and Matthew), bringing my total so far this year up to 3!

Sick

I, like most people I assume, enjoy missing the occasional day of work. But I usually miss for a really fun reason--like I'm going to see Sufjan Stevens or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One, which are both reasons I took days off earlier this year. But today, for the first time since I started teaching, I had to take off work because I'm sick. I usually love being alone, so one would think that staying home for any reason would be fun for me. Not true. Being at home and having to watch tv all day because you don't feel well enough to do anything else is not fun. It is boring. Really boring. Today, I caught up on Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, Desperate Housewives, White Collar, Perfect Couples, and Sonny With a Chance. Before 3:00. Seriously. It is no fun at all.

While I'm feeling slightly better, I still don't feel that great, so I'm going to have to stay home tomorrow too. I'm not looking forward to it at all...mainly because I really miss my students and because I'm out of things to watch.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today's reason to be glad I'm single is...I'm sick. Nothing like waking up on Valentine's Day feeling gross. I felt so bad that I left school early. In two-and-a-half years, it's the first time I've missed school because I don't feel well. On the bright side, I didn't mess up anyone's wonderful, romantic Valentine's plans for me, which is kind of great. Happy Valentine's Day!

Psalm 7:17 Friday VI

I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

-Psalm 7:17

Things I am Thankful for This Week

-Joshua Radin concerts with two of my favorite people ever

-Finding new records

-Seeing old friends in random places

-Friends who I can share life with

-Going to the movies on a weeknight

-New episodes of Glee

-Lazy afternoons at Barnes and Noble with a friend

-My new book, Reading the OED, and all the new words I'm learning

-Students who like learning my new words and go home, use them, and can't wait to tell me about it the next day

-Laughing in the middle of class

-Watching students work really hard on projects, finally get it, and produce something amazing

-8th grade students who get really excited to see me if I'm down the 8th grade hall in the mornings.

-Chaperoning dances and channeling my inner middle schooler (it helps that the dances are in the very same cafeteria I went to middle school dances in).

-I'm still friends with my best friend from middle school, so I can text her from the middle school dances when they start playing a song that we used to dance to (like "Barbie Girl" or "Macarena").

-Hanging out with the student council kids at their lock-in until 1:30 in the morning on a Friday night

-Working with people who have become some of my dearest friends

-Working for a principal who dresses up like Cupid and dances at school dances

-All the things I can honestly say I love about my job--after a really hard year last year

-How teaching shows me so much of my sin AND how it helps me see how great God is and how much He cares for me

-Jesus and how He loved me when I was totally unlovable--how I can love because He first loved me

Renewed

Before I get to the main part of my post, I feel the need to say that I had kind of an awesome Saturday. I found an Iron and Wine record in a record store that I'd been trying to get for weeks but was never anywhere I tried mere minutes before I went to a Joshua Radin concert. It was pretty amazing. It was very exciting for me. But it wasn't the highlight of my weekend. That happened the night before.

I love books. If you've never read my blog before, that might be news, but for those of you who know me or have been reading this for any amount of time at all, you know that's true. This year, I started a book club with some friends. This month was my month to pick, and I picked Jonathan Safran Foer's novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (which made its first blog appearance here). I love this book and think it is absolutely beautiful, but it is also kind of hard for me to read because it's about a kid whose dad died. The end is especially tough because I identify with so much of what the kid says and how he feels, but I love it. Friday was our book club meeting, and I was looking forward to discussing my book with my friends. I reread the ending just to refresh my memory because it had been awhile since I read the whole thing--I cried during independent reading in front of my first block class, but that's another story. The point is that, although I love my book so much, I was feeling a little sad by Friday afternoon. (The effect of the book was slightly worsened by the fact that I'm in the process of moving back home with my mom, step-dad, and little brother so that I can save up to buy my own house, which for a variety of reasons is making me miss my dad more than usual. All that goes to say that Friday night, even though I was super happy about my book club, I was feeling a little blue.)

After book club, several of my friends and I went out to dinner. And what that really means is that I went out to dinner with two of my friends and their husbands (who are also my friends, so it's kind of like going to dinner with four friends except that they're married to each other and that's kind of important to know for the rest of the story). Part of it was great because I navigated smoothly between conversations with my girlfriends and conversations with their husbands about sports, which made me feel like my interests make me perfectly built for being single--I can happily converse with people from either gender! But another part of it, like when they started to talk about how when you're married and you can finish each other's sentences and know how the other one is feeling sometimes without having to talk about it and all you can add to the conversation is "That's how it is with me and my sister" or when the waitress comes and asks about checks and it sounds like this: "We're together." "We're together." "I'm alone." is not so fun. That, in combination with already being sad because of my book, meant that when I got home from dinner, I sat down on my floor and started crying because I was lonely and sad that I was single. (And I'm going to pause briefly right here to tell my friends, who I think read my blog, that they should stop feeling bad about this right now because they didn't do anything wrong and because I like hanging out with them and their husbands and because they can't feel responsible for my stupid, irrational girl feelings.)

The old me would have spiraled down into one of her patented oh-woe-is-me-my-dad-died-and-I-don't-have-a-husband-I'm-so-alone-my-life-is-so-unfair wallowing sessions, but I remembered that I hadn't read my selection from Psalms for the day. So instead of wallowing and sitting in a puddle of my own tears feeling sorry for myself, I pulled myself up and went and got my One-year Bible. The selection for the day was from Psalm 28. As I read, I came to these verses:

Blessed be the Lord!

For He has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.

The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped;

my heard exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him.

The Lord is the strength of His people;

He is the saving refuge of His anointed.

And I felt better. Instead of being sad alone, I invited God in. Yes my dad died when I was 12. And yes I'm single. But that doesn't matter. I was reminded that He is my strength. My trust should be in Him. I should give thanks to Him because He has saved me. I stopped crying and went to bed happy.

Psalm 7:17 Friday V

I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

-Psalm 7:17

Things I am Thankful for This Week

--8th grade students who come back to help my students on projects during Study Hall so that I don't have to answer the same question for the millionth time or try and help with a project assigned in another class that I don't know how to do.

--Friends who like to read and starting a book club with them.

--Thinking about last year and comparing how I felt then to how I feel now and seeing how much the Lord has changed my heart and given me peace.

--Having a little sister who will wake up at 3AM and watch tennis with me over the phone.

--Going to the movies alone.

--Funny students/having a job where I laugh every day.

More Student Speak

Here is a conversation from my class today. We were discussing a poem, but before we could discuss it, I needed someone to read it out loud. One of my students just started reading. Then he stopped and said, "Whoa. My voice just got deeper." So we all laughed. Then another student said, "You're like Justin Bieber. You hit puberty." Then another student said, "Wait. Justin Bieber hit puberty?" Then I laughed so hard that we lost 5 minutes of class.

Things Students Don't Know

For the past week my students have been studying propaganda terms. One of those terms is testimonials, which is when you have a famous person in your ad. For part of their quiz, I played commercials for them to analyze. When I was selecting the one to use for testimonial, I picked one of the Hanes commercials with Michael Jordan because I thought everyone knew who he was. Apparently I'm really stupid. In my Honors class, at least half of the girls had absolutely no idea. I said, "That's Michael Jordan." Their response was, "Who's Michael Jordan?" Seriously.

When I teach MLA format for songs, I use an example citation of the Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit." I accepted after my first year that students were not going to know the song or know that Nirvana was a real band. (Although this year, for the first time, I had a student who knew it--it kind of made my day, I'm not going to lie.) But I never thought I would teach students who don't know who Michael Jordan is. In this so-called information age when they get out their phones, go on the internet, and basically get any information they want, I am convinced that students are in some ways becoming more stupid.