I found myself thinking that a lot today as I enjoyed what was at our school carry-in.  I have decided that I will enjoy such things, but now that I’m, um….older, the consequences of that enjoyment are a little harder to get rid of.  I don’t know who wrote the poem below, but it seems to fit the occasion, so I thought I’d share.

‘Twas the Month After Christmas

I work in a rural school district that is very similar to the one in which I raised my children. I’m sure that I have mentioned how much I love my job. I work with good people. We pray for one another. The coaching staff (and other staff members) pray with our kids.

Or they did. That’s what the letter in my box, which was from the superintendent, was about. Here’s part of what it said:

For several years, we have had administrators, teachers, coaches and other members of our staff gather with our students to pray. Many times this was done at the request of our students. During the past few months, I have received multiple letters from “concerned citizens” indicating their displeasure with our staff praying with our students. In discussions I have held with our school board we were hoping that this issue would simply go away. It has not. I received another letter …again from “concerned citizens of the community,” expressing concern with the level of religious activity in … [our school system]. The letter indicates that they have videos of our staff praying with students.. Legal action has been threatened in the event we do not stop these activities.

I am always irritated when I hear about letters sent by concerned citizens.  If you’re that concerned, you can sign your name, don’t you think?

Anyway, faced with this dilemma, here’s what our superintendent and school board have decided to do.  I don’t think they really have any choice.  Our little district can’t afford to take on big legal fees:

...I [the superintendent] am sending this letter to notify all staff that we, as employees …, cannot engage in prayer with our students.  As coaches, we cannot conduct pre-game or post-game prayers.  Coaches or sponsors cannot indicate that they will step away and that then it’s all right for students to pray.  This does not mean we will stop the large following that we have at both the high school and middle school in our Fellowship of Christian Athletes program.  These programs and meetings are strictly voluntary for our students and hopefully will continue to flourish under the outstanding leadership of our staff.

This also does not mean that the students themselves cannot initiate prayer.  Athletic teams may gather before or after a contest and have prayer.  The coaches however cannot be involved.

The letter ends with our superintendent’s saying that while this decision does not reflect his views or that of many of the school board — and, I am sure, of much of the community–the board has acted as they saw fit to protect the corporation from its “concerned citizens.”  Then he says he is proud to be our superintendent.

I do not live in the community in which I work, but it is a tightly-knit little town in which the churches and faith play a large part.  I am sure this letter was hard for our superintendent to put together, and I am sure it was prayerfully considered before it was sent out.  I am also sure that the people who were praying with our students publicly, as well as the ones who pray on the way to school, in school, and on the way home as the need arises, will continue to do so.  And I am sure that God will continue to raise prayer warriors where there is need and, if you haven’t worked with teens lately, there is always need.

I couldn’t find the Bible verse that says prayer is a sweet savor unto the Lord, so if anyone wants to help me out there, I’d be grateful.  I was going to include it in my closing.  And I am going to post this piece without completely proofreading because, well, it’s time to go to school.  I have a twenty-minute drive, during which I often, ahem, pray, and today, I am sure, nothing about that will change.  After all, Kenny is now in the passing zone for English, and that other sophomore boy’s progress with the written word is just, well, … miraculous.

Today, though, I will add an extra prayer for the Godly people with whom I work, that God will protect them and their community as they continue, privately if not publicly, to reach out to their students and their community in prayer.

And I think I’ll send an e-mail to the superintendent, telling him how glad I am that I work in his district, too.

I hope you don’t have to be a Star Trek fan to appreciate this. I loved the look on Shatner’s face!

These are the two gifts I got at work today:

1. Steven asked for my help and then received what I had to give.  The semester is over next Friday, and this is the first time.

2.  Kenny told me his dad wanted him to stay home but he came to school because he knew I was waiting to help him get caught up.  “It was my choice,” he said, and he was proud.  So am I.

Aren’t those wonderful things to happen on a Friday?

I was talking to a friend of mine and we were talking about infant baptism.  She attends a Wesleyan church, and Wesleyans do not believe in infant baptism.  I  attend a Lutheran church, and we do. She said she had always heard that Lutherans said, “The road to hell is paved with unbaptized children.”

I have been going to a Lutheran church all of my life, and I have never heard that, so I’m just here to say that, if you have heard that from a Lutheran, I’m really, really sorry.  I don’t think all Lutherans feel that way.

Update: As I searched on the Internet, I found that the above metaphor is attributed to Jonathan Edwards, who is most famous for his sermon that juniors in high school still study, “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God.”  He was Puritan–not Lutheran.

A while ago, I blogged on the downsizing of our television.  Such is no longer the case.

The hubby was in Ohio all week caring for our grandson, Tony, who got his tonsils out.  He came home with a big smile and a big box that held a 32″ Sony Bravia LCD Digital TV that the son, who is our expert on all things technology, assures us will last until we die or until no one knows what TV is anymore.  The hubby was very, very, VERY happy, and set it up before he noticed the peanut brittle I made to welcome him home.

The TV wasn’t the only thing that made him smile, though.  He was happy that yesterday, on the last day he was there, the son took time out of his day to take him to lunch.  I just want you to know, son, that he smiled a LOT about that, too.

Anyway…the hubby will get more things for Christmas, but I think he’d be happy if his TV was his only present.  And no, I don’t think I’ll ever get to hold the remote!

I have been following the story of Claire and Jamie Fraser for over ten years now, ever since I read Outlander, and it just keeps getting better and better.  It is a romance, and the time-traveling through the standing stones lends it an element of science fiction as well.  Claire met Jamie in Outlander, and Gabaldon’s subsequent books have taken their story through the years.  In An Echo in the Bone, Jamie and Claire are now grandparents, separated by an ocean–and two hundred years–from their daughter and her family.  They have gone from Scotland to the American colonies, and they find themselves in the midst of the American Revolution.

I can’t tell you what I like more about this series.  I like the way Claire’s and Jamie’s relationship has matured.  I like that the dialogue is real.  I like the well-researched historical background.  Hmmm… I guess I can tell you why I like this story! And just when I thought that since Claire and Jamie are now grandparents I didn’t know how much farther their story could go, Diana Gabaldon came up with a new plot twist that suggests that the story isn’t over yet.

An Echo in the Bone isn’t a girly type of romance although, well, I am a girl and I do like it.  My test for whether a book is really good is if the hubby likes it, and he does.  He stuck with me as we read all 814 pages.  (It took us about six weeks. Work takes a lot of time away from reading)  There was enough manly stuff in it to keep him interested and, he admitted, he was interested in Claire’s and Jamie’s story as well.  In fact, he sent me in search of  Outlander so that he can get all the details from the beginning.

That only has a little over six hundred pages.  Think we can finish it by the end of Christmas break?

Healing Sands is the fictional story of Ryan Coe, a recently divorced mom with two boys and a lot of anger.  Ryan’s husband has custody of her sons, and when she moves to be closer to them, a crisis arises.  Her oldest son is accused of a crime she knows he could not possibly have committed, and everyone around her seems to think that he did.  Ryan’s frustration builds as she tries to help her son,  and she seeks out Sully Crisp, a well-recommended Christian counselor.  He has a story of his own to tell, one that involves another counselor whose advice was not very Christian at all.

I found Healing Sands to be very suspenseful, and I was hooked from the first chapter.  Ryan’s refusal to believe in her son’s guilt was, I think the natural reaction of any mom, and I felt her frustration as she faced roadblock after roadblock in getting close to her sons again.  The book offered Christian advice without giving Scripture references, but I still felt like its message was loud and clear, that being that when you think you have no one to count on, you still have God.  I would definitely recommend Healing Sands to others.  There are characters with whom everyone from high school on up can identify.

1.  I sent a text with the daughter’s phone.  My niece, who is eight, had to help me, but I got it sent!

2.  I ate sushi.  I blame the daughter.  We ate something called a dragon roll that was OK, but I didn’t really care for the texture of the other kinds, and I’m pretty sure I would never order it on my own.

Anyway…I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks! 

Our church has been teaching about becoming a contagious Christian for several weeks now, and we all have been learning a lot.  One of the things we learn repeatedly is how God works in mysterious ways.   Last week, one of our group members shared an interesting story.    It seems  he had “pocket-dialed” one of his business associates the Sunday before last.  Of course he was unaware that this had happened.

But God knew.

The man on the other end of the line listened to our service via Rick’s phone for more than twenty minutes.  He called Rick later and asked him where he went to church.  As it turns out, the man lives in North Carolina, not Indiana, but he told Rick that listening to the service had convicted him and that he and his wife  were looking for a church to attend the next Sunday.

Isn’t it funny the way God uses things?  His word does not return to Him empty.  It accomplishes what He desires and achieves the purpose for which He sent it out.

Even through a cell phone.

This post is a part of Spiritual Sundays.  For more posts about spiritual matters, click here.