Patience is MORE than a virtue!

I really love this Bible study I'm doing this semester! It's a study from Beth Moore (an amazing woman of God!) called "Living Beyond Yourself". It addresses the fruit of the Spirit, and each day, I learn something new about what I need to do in order to bear the fruit of the Spirit. This week talked about patience. I was really looking forward to this week because I NEED patience. I have struggled with patience all my life, and I NEEDED this week to learn about patience.

There are two big things I came away with this week involves patience with people. Patience with people is inspired by mercy, which requires forgiveness. The opposite of this patience is judgement. You cannot have patience with a person if you are judgmental of them. Not only does it bring more judgment upon yourself from God, but you cannot have mercy on them if you are judging them. I never saw patience and judgment as opposites, but now I know that this is a stumbling block for me having patience.

The other thing I learned was that frustrating people are placed in our lives to help God change us in some way (as well as that person!). Whether He wants to kill something in us or bring something to life in us, these frustrating people bring out the worst in us for a reason! I am praying that God will reveal to me what he wants me to get rid of/take on in light of the frustrating people in my life. I also learned that change has occurred when you respond differently to the same situation. While God's timing is perfect, I'm praying that He will change me soon so that I can practice patience with these frustrating people in my life!

I just wanted to share this because it helped me. Some of you may need to hear this, too, so I wanted to pass it on! It comforted me and made me know that there really is a time and purpose for everything in our lives!

What happens in 6th grade...

I started working with the afterschool Pathways to Success Program at school today, and I'm going to be working with 6th graders. While this may be challenging having to teach different material after 5 classes on the same thing, I really think these 6th graders will be a breath of fresh air to me. They were eager to listen, took out paper and took notes without complaining, and were ASKING for more problems to work and to complete the problems on the board. It was so refreshing after dealing with my 8th graders who complain on the regular. But then it got me to thinking...

What happens between 6th and 8th grade?

What happens to make these eager, interested, enthralled students turn into kids that don't seem to care about school? Why do they lose their interest in school and their ability to care about learning? What makes them do these?

I would be very interested in tracking these students' attitudes and interest in school throughout the rest of the year, as well as their 7th grade year. I want to see where it changes (or IF it changes...it could just be the dynamic of the different groups of students).

It was such a breath of fresh air to work with kids that were excited to learn, asking questions, and asking for more help when they needed it. What can I do to inspire this type of behavior in my students? I want to work with students like this every day, so I have got to do something to get my kids back to this point. I've got to figure out how to make learning cool again!

Wendy's Boycott

Throughout football season, I've been making trips up to my favorite college town to see my favorite team play. Despite the loss yesterday, I've enjoyed the trips, seeing good friends, and watching football in the land of Orange and Maroon. Unfortunately, these trips have made me realize I may need to boycott Wendy's for a little while.

Since I leave right after school, I usually stop for dinner on the way. There is a little town in South Carolina also named Blacksburg, so in the past, I saw it fitting to stop there. There is a gas station/Wendy's combination place, and I thought, what better place to stop than I place I can get gas as well as my favorite fast food?

Well, when I stopped there Labor Day weekend, I waited for about 10 minutes to get 5 chicken nuggets and fries. Some of the workers were just standing there for the majority of the time I waited, so I was a little frustrated. It doesn't take more than a minute to grab the nuggets and fries from their little sections under the heat lamp! (The more I think about that sentence, the more it makes me want to give up fast food all together.)

Two weeks later as I made my way for the second home game, I decided to go through the drive-through this time and get gas afterward. The drive-through line only took about 7 minutes this time, but the lady could not remember that I had ordered a Coke to drink. Every time she opened the window, she would ask me what drink I ordered. I get my food and then headed over to the gas pumps. Every single pump was filled, so I picked the closest pump and waited. Unfortunately, I picked the largest truck that took forever to fill up. Lanes would open, I would try to maneuver to them, but someone would beat me there. After about 5-8 minutes of waiting on a gas pump, I finally found an open pump and got my gas. Thank goodness I found another pump, because the original lane I was waiting on freed up as I was driving away.

After these two straight trips of sub-par experiences, I decided I'd try to stop at a different Wendy's this time. I stopped just north of Charlotte at a Wendy's and walked in. I had a very quick experience at this Wendy's and left happily with my food. I got back on the interstate before realizing that there were only 4 nuggets in my 5-piece! I decided this was Wendy's third strike, and they are out! I've decided to boycott Wendy's for a little while to cool off and hopefully have an enjoyable dining experience.