When I worked as a preschool teacher, we were all required to do a certain amount of hours of continuing education every single year. One of the trainings we often had, focused on teaching us the importance and practice of good listening. Then we would split into groups and practice the art of listening. Most … [Read more…]
I listened to a whole podcast on Monday all about the history of Veteran’s Day and its link to Armistice Day which preceded it. In the podcast, it spoke about the need to do more than to just honor our veterans once a year and how for many veterans they would much prefer that we … [Read more…]
This week I was sitting at home one evening watching the Nationals play the Braves in game 6 of the World Series, and I was playing around with a Facebook quiz. The quiz said they could determine my generation based on my pet peeves and then proceeded to ask me a series of questions. One … [Read more…]
The dictionary says, “A spiritual practice or spiritual discipline (often including spiritual exercises) is the regular or full-time performance of actions and activities undertaken for the purpose of inducing spiritual experiences and cultivating spiritual development”. Spiritual practices are more than about prayer. They are not necessarily defined by how one acts in church but rather they can be anything that gives someone a spiritual experience. … [Read more…]
Trusting in a God that we cannot see is possibly the most difficult in times of change, when it becomes easier to rely on the old familiar idols to bring us comfort. Our idols may not be golden calves or bulls, but we do have our idols. They just come with different faces. Sometimes it … [Read more…]
Last week, we discussed remaining hopeful and using our life experiences for the work of God no matter how challenging they may be. However, I understand that is easier said than done. Paul and Silas make it look so easy to just pray and sing and remain hopeful amid beatings, slander, imprisonment, and possible death. … [Read more…]
As a teenager, my favorite past time was talking on the phone with my friends. The worst punishment for me, at that age, was to ground me from the telephone. It was my connection to the outside world. It allowed me to find out what was going on in the group’s gossip, to discuss the … [Read more…]
I am reading a fascinating book titled Savage Continent by Keith Lowe that focuses on the aftermath of World War II in Europe. It spends a long time outlining what life looked like for citizens and the masses of displaced peoples who had been imprisoned in work camps, concentration camps, and prison camps throughout Nazi … [Read more…]
The new preschool education standards focus on evaluating and teaching lessons in social emotional skills. This is something that was never present in preschool or public school educational goals in the past. Part of the social emotional educational goals is to teach empathy and conflict management skills. However, it has occurred to me that as … [Read more…]
Do you have regrets? I would say many of us do. Do you have those things that you wish you did not do? I would say we all do. As a whole humanity holds themselves to certain standards that they don’t always successfully live up to and thus we hold others to even higher standards … [Read more…]
