Excuses, Esther, Education

There are dozens of reasons I could give you for not blogging in the past month. I will not attempt to relay all of them to you because you know what people say about excuses. Anyway, probably the biggest reason I haven't blogged is the lack of inspiration. I am not my daughter. I : 1) do not have time to blog every day. 2) am not the type to write a diary of my life. 3) do not need to write a diary of my life because my daughter tells everyone everything about what is going on with our family. 4) have a tendency to overanalyze my writing and it sucks all of the fun out of it. 5) like to do to many other things better.

Enough about my excuses--let's move on to the real inspiration behind this blog. This morning in our church service the drama team (made up of middle and high school students) led our worship service. I was blessed beyond measure. These were all students who went on the Colorado trip that Jeff and I were able to make during Christmas. While listening, it reminded me of many of the memories that were created on our trip and how hard I laughed. As I sat there with tears streaming during one of the songs I was so proud and grateful and broken for these kids. I am proud to know them because they are wonderful people who love the Lord and are set apart in our school. I am grateful for the high schoolers who have pledged to look after my girl and her friends when they move to the new campus next year. I am grateful to God for their witness, commitment and their friendship. And I am broken for what they have to face each and every day. One of the byproducts of our trip to Colorado is a Bible study in Esther with the 7th-12th grade girls in our church. Those of us women who went on the trip are helping our Youth Pastor's wife and we are totally enjoying the spiritual growth for ourselves as well as leading some amazing young women in a special time of discipleship. Yet, I can see how out of touch I have become with the older kids because I am still living in the middle school world. It is not like I am totally out of touch--I work in a public school. I have been removed just enough from our own high school that the names didn't always have faces and they weren't living in my children's worlds. That is beginning to change.
Jeff and I have had a rude awakening in the past seven months as we have come to grips with the fact that our children are no longer little. There have been many teary moments for me since I went to a wedding in September where the bride was one of the girls I last coached when she was Rachel's age. This slap in the face has brought to the dinner table many conversations I don't really want to have, but I am slowly adjusting. Where I have really failed to adjust (until this morning) is devoting more prayer to our high school students. I am excited and nervous about my children growing up in this world, but I know that the Lord is in control of their lives and I want to pray for His will not mine. This morning's service gave me a hope that there are other kids out there who want to serve God and will share Him with others. One of the boys shared the scripture from II Corinthians 4:7. He spoke of how God uses our weaknesses when we witness so that we can take no glory. He then made the comparison of us to when you cover a light with a flawless jar, you can see no light. If you place a cracked jar over the light, you can see the light through the cracks. It was a great picture of how God can use us even though we are not perfect, but He is! Even though I have not been praying for our high school as I should, I know that God has now placed us in the lives of high schoolers again and He will use us anyway. For this we are excited and grateful.

On a side note: If you read Rachel's blog, she made mention of showing her crack in public and it might have left you wondering. Strange as it may sound it was a comment that the boy speaking made today when he was discussing the text above. He is one of the most hilarious kids I think I have ever met. He was in our van one day on the Colorado trip and Jeff and Alex and I were sore in the stomach from laughing so hard. This morning he just mentioned that he wanted to make sure his crack showed everyday-- in public--and he encouraged us to do the same. Needless to say tears were streaming down my face at this point as well.



God bless you all and remember to pray for high school students everywhere. There is a battle going on for them.