Where you think you stand

Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall... I Cor. 10:12

First, all the little foster children came and infested the whole house with even littler crawling bugs. Every mattress was lysoled and left in the sunshine.

I was unaffected.

Then Aliana came to stay with me. She wouldn't sleep alone, so she slept with me - but every night, we picked nits. I am SURE we never picked them all before she rested her beautiful face, surrounded by long fine hair, on my shoulder.

I never found nits in my hair.

In Bogotà, piojos were normal. No one batted an eye if you asked them to search your hair and more than once, I passed my evening hours picking through Jorge's -

but I never, ever, ever had lice.

I thought I was immune. I thought I stood.

This week, I found one. My friend found 2 more. I've picked nits for hours out of my own hair this weekend, used a jar of mayonnaise, 2 gallons of vinegar, a can of lysol, and 1/2 gallon of bleach in my quest to rid myself of these parasites.

I fell. And así:

sin.

You think you can't fall to that temptation. You've stood against it for so many years. It creeps in, the source unknown. And so you battle. It would've been easier to catch before it went this far.

Take heed. Will you fall?

Surrounded by school

You know you’re a teacher when...

you understand that the student who says “The White House” is actually referring to Washington State.

you clean out your pockets to find 87 cents... in plastic coins. And a few paperclips to boot.

you can interpret “They did something illegal. They put signs in the road,” to realize that a student has driven around the road construction detour.

you think you're going to get charged extra by the garbage company because you have so many bags of paper.

you go home every day to think of a new and better way.

There is an email oft passed around that answers the question, “What do teachers make?” with quite an effective description of the difference a teacher makes. My favorite phrase is “I make kids sit still for 45 minutes when their parents can’t do it for 5 without a playstation or DVD player.” It’s so true! Have you ever watched your students in church and wondered why their parents allow them to act that way?

But I don’t have it all together. At least every other day I come home and wonder why I can’t reach this student or that one, why I’m allowing this or that to happen, why we cannot learn more.

And then I realize that no matter how much time I pour into these children, no matter how much progress they make, no matter how well they behave or perform, no matter how pleasant our days are as they pass... No matter - in 9 months, they’re gone. It’s over. I may never see them again.