Grateful

Yesterday I had so many great ideas for blogs. Sundays seem to be so very inspired when we are able to get to church and then primarily rest during the day. And yesterday was just such a day. Hank was gone flying all day long and so, while it was a bit lonely, I had lots of time to hammer out lesson plans for my ESL classes and I had lots of time to think and relax. Oh my how I need those times!

     And it was after a very busy day at work that I headed off to teach my students. Sometimes, on certain days, I just feel the joy of the Lord. Today was just such a day. He is good and today he kept reminding me.

He kept giving me energy and motivation and when I got to class, I just felt a zing of energy and... giddyness? Yes, I think it was pure giddyness. It is always such a joy to see how my students respond when I am excited about teaching them. My attitude seems to be infectious and even the students who normally are a bit lost, seem to be getting it!

  We started with review and moved on to consonants. Normally, half of my students (for some reason it is the Somali half) seems to be tracking along with me. But the other half (the Burmese students) seem to struggle. I have a feeling that it is partially due to the fact that Burmese does not use the Roman alphabet and doesn't seem to have a lot of harsh consonants. So, these students are starting off at -square 1.

   When we finished reviewing sounds and listening to words that started with those sounds. I had students help their partners review and pronound words from the book. As it worked out, all my Somalian students were helping all of my Burmese students. They are such a sweet class and they are always helping eachother and trying to communicate in what little English they know (can anyone say Charades?!)

Well, my Somalians were helping my Burmese and it was just so hilarious because when the one students would point to a word and say it, the other student would come out with something completely different. My African students were having such a time and we were all laughing at how ridiculous we sounded. For some reason (I think it was the giddyness) we all just burst out laughing and it took a bit to stop.

This language learning thing is hard, and complex and humbling and it turns out I need my students to help me teach and they need me to remain a student long enough to learn what they need.

It was a glorious day and it all started with a good dose of His Faithfulness and a reminder that He knows exactly what he is doing even when I feel a bit lost.

Canticles

Funny how I can pray in the morning for the Lord to fill my day and then go the next eight hours without even a wink in his direction. I get frustrated and tired and I keep thinking that there is some secret cure for my ADGD (Attention Deficit for God Disorder). I am not sure there is a secret cure but I discovered something this week.

   I finally downloaded a message from one of my favorite churches. The lady speaking talked about how she  found the habit of daily praise. She was at a conference and the speaker would stop randomly and say 'Praise the Lord,' or 'Alleluia." She thought it was pretty weird until the speaker explained that she had an invisible clock strapped to her waist that would vibrate and remind her to worship God every 10 minutes. 

Ingenious!

While I haven't gone out and purchased my little waist watch, I told Hank about it and we have started to remind eachother. He randomly said "God is Good" a few days ago and I looked at him funny. Well yes He is but what brought that up?? He told me he was trying to learn to worship. 

So I went outside today to eat lunch and watch the storm clouds gather over the city and He brought me all kinds of reminders of His presence. Birds flew up into the trees right near where I sat and they sang and perched proud of their beauty. 

And He brought rain- something that makes my heart glad. 

And in the midst of the sporadic worshiping (because I do still forget a lot), he is changing me. This job I struggled to have a good attitude in, he is giving me JOY. The impatience I tend to have with people, He is giving me Love. The dissatisfaction I sometimes feel with life, He is reminding me that He works all things together for GOOD. 

So Praise him. In canticles and car problems and hope and in heartbreak.