Dear Teens at St. Paul's -
Of all the back-to-school prayers I've read over the past weeks, the following is my favorite. Because high school was a really tough time for me, I have an especially soft heart for you junior high and high school students. You face huge struggles and pressures. For all of you teens out there restlessly heading to bed this evening wondering what this year will bring, hoping for new good things, this one's for you!!!!
Faithfully,
Rev.Janet+
Lord, at school, I see athletes and cheerleaders who seem to have it all together. I see the latest fashions on the coolest kids. I see cars in the parking lot that make me jealous. But then I think about a world I don't really see - an invisible world. It's the world where a lonely freshman is important. It's a world where a genuine smile means so much more than an expensive car. It's a world where the kid in the wheelchair is strong and powerful. It's a world that values honesty and love more than cool and popular stuff. It's a world where I'd discover that even the cool kids struggle and feel insecure sometimes. Help me catch a small glimpse of this invisible world this year. If I do, I just might value what you value, love what you love and want what you want. And I think that might just be a very good thing. Amen.
Copyright © 2004 by the author or Christianity Today International/Campus Life magazine.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
It's been a whole month . . .
. . . since I posted on this blog. Wow. The time has flown! I don't want to bore you with the details of my life, but I do think you deserve to know where I've been. Since I started this blogging stuff a couple of years ago, I've never had such an extended break in my writing.
As I mentioned in the July 30 post, my grandmother (my mother's mother) passed away after a long decline of health over the past couple of years. I spent the last day of July and the first few days of August in Denver, mourning her loss and attending her memorial and burial services.
Then I returned home for a few days and plopped down into the rauckus fun of Vacation Bible School. "FEAR NOT" was the theme - which was a good one for me personally, with the special guest appearance by the bat, the amazingly wild number of kids and teens participating, and the fierce piles of paperwork (at work) and laundry (at home) I faced returning from one trip and heading off for another.
On August 10th, my family and I left for a two-week vacation in Oregon and Washington, visiting family and friends. We were in places so remote that there was no internet connection and almost no cell phone connection. We played on the beach, ate WAY too much ice cream, and went to a carnival and real live rodeo (we even had a long conversation with the rodeo queen - she told us the secret of how she gets her hat to stay on when she's riding fast!).
We arrived home in the middle of the night on Tuesday night, and since then have been turning our attentions to getting things in order - full steam ahead!
It's been SO good to be home - to work out on my own yoga mat and to eat vegetables from our own garden and to see familiar faces at the grocery store and community center. I missed you all.
Well, now . . . back to work!
Faithfully,
Janet+
As I mentioned in the July 30 post, my grandmother (my mother's mother) passed away after a long decline of health over the past couple of years. I spent the last day of July and the first few days of August in Denver, mourning her loss and attending her memorial and burial services.
Then I returned home for a few days and plopped down into the rauckus fun of Vacation Bible School. "FEAR NOT" was the theme - which was a good one for me personally, with the special guest appearance by the bat, the amazingly wild number of kids and teens participating, and the fierce piles of paperwork (at work) and laundry (at home) I faced returning from one trip and heading off for another.
On August 10th, my family and I left for a two-week vacation in Oregon and Washington, visiting family and friends. We were in places so remote that there was no internet connection and almost no cell phone connection. We played on the beach, ate WAY too much ice cream, and went to a carnival and real live rodeo (we even had a long conversation with the rodeo queen - she told us the secret of how she gets her hat to stay on when she's riding fast!).
We arrived home in the middle of the night on Tuesday night, and since then have been turning our attentions to getting things in order - full steam ahead!
It's been SO good to be home - to work out on my own yoga mat and to eat vegetables from our own garden and to see familiar faces at the grocery store and community center. I missed you all.
Well, now . . . back to work!
Faithfully,
Janet+
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