Fighting the Natural Urge to Protect Our Wounds

So blessed this morning by a book excerpt by Kristen Strong on Dayspring.com (affiliate link). Just read the title, and you'll understand: "When Wounds from Women are Hard To Forgive." Kristen relates how a conference with another child's parent about a bullying situation went wrong and the hurt she felt from another woman's words.

This part stood out to me:

"You find yourself picking those slights and slanders up one by one with your hand and stacking them like firebricks around your heart. With one brick you say, 'This will teach me not to open up to friends.' And then with another you say, 'Lonely is better than looking like a loser.'"

Haven't we all been there? I know I have. It happens in teaching situations and in our lives outside our jobs. It even happens in churches.

Kristen's answer to the urge to build up a firewall to protect our hearts is forgiveness.

In a recent situation, I felt hurt by something another woman said to me. My natural inclination was to protect myself, to defend, to defy, to prove. But I believe fundamentally that Christ-likeness demands a humbler response. It demands a heart that forgives. Right now, I'm still in a conversation with God about it all. "Help me forgive," I'm praying. "Help me lay aside pride so that I can be an example of the believer in Jesus. Help me be a channel for your spirit to work healing on both sides."

Dear Lord, work in our hearts and keep them tender to your leading. Don't let us build walls around our hearts to protect ourselves, but let us remain open to loving and forgiving as you have loved and forgiven us. Amen.

For further reading:
Showing Compassion
Coming tomorrow, Amy Ballard guest blogs on Carry Fancett Pagels's blog; she'll give away a free copy of her poetry chapbook, Landlocked.
Find Amy's poem "A Feather" on p. 18 of the newly-released Winter Poetry Issue of GNU Journal

Write for Your Health

Last year when my students were studying The Odyssey, I sat down after school one day and wrote a flash fiction story inspired by some of Odysseus's adventures. I sent it in to a contest sponsored by the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers association. When I found out this fall that my story had come in second, I was delighted. The story, "Beeves on the Barbie," is now live on the organization's Website, so stop by for a few chuckles.

Illustrated Faith Praise Book

This fall and winter have been a productive time for my freelance writing life. God has richly blessed me in allowing me a few quiet moments here and there to write for my own pleasure and with the aim of publication. Just recently, one of my submissions was accepted by a writing blog, The Artist Unleashed. My guest blog post will appear there in early March.

Freelance writing isn't lucrative for most people, especially when writing can't be their day job. But the writing life brings many intangible rewards, catharsis being an important one. I urge you to write for your own health. Maybe that would be a good New Year's resolution. Start a prayer diary, begin your memoir, write a letter, collect your Facebook notes into something longer. Writing will soothe you, help you think through problems, and preserve your precious memories.

ESV Single Column Journaling Bible, Summer Garden

Some of the gifts I gave this year reflect my love of writing. For myself and my children, I bought a wide-margin Bible from Dayspring (affiliate link). Also from Dayspring, I gave my daughter a box full of Illustrated Faith goodies and a praise book to write in. I wasn't sure if she would like them at first, since spiritual tools aren't first on every child's wish list at Christmas, but she loves them. I hope and pray that the pens, stickers, markers, and other supplies will help her learn about God's rich blessings that are just for her.

Happy New Year, and happy writing in 2017! May you teach and live in the strength of Jesus Christ.

For further reading:
10 Ways to Be a Teacher-Leader
Learning Through Writing: Choose Your Own Adventure
A Paying Opportunity for Writing About Teaching (deadline Dec. 31, 2016)

Learning Across All Dimensions--Meet With Christian Teacher, Public School's Amy Ballard at Idaho's Education Super Conference

Amy Ballard

It's almost conference time for Idaho teachers planning to attend the Education Super Conference in Boise Oct. 6 and 7. I'm thrilled to be presenting two sessions:

Writing and Publishing Narratives Using Digital Technology
Description:  In this session, teachers will learn to apply choose­-your-­own­-story structure to narrative fiction or nonfiction writing. Using Google Drive, teachers will learn to link story pages to form narratives with alternate endings.

Faith and the Public School Teacher
Description:  Can your faith coexist with your professional life? New legislation and news headlines may shake things up, but by identifying your stance on faith in the classroom, you will face the turbulence of our changing world with more confidence. In this session, teachers will learn what the law allows and expects of teachers who hold to a religious faith; take a look at teachers whose actions have come under scrutiny; and share appropriate ways to live out faith in the public school environment.

I'm eager to see how God will work, since conferences are always a time for reflection and change. Who will God bring across my path? Which sessions will bless me in unexpected ways? How can I be a blessing to some other attendee?

Okay, maybe for most people an education conference is just an education conference. But the way I see it, a Christian can and should view life through a spiritual lens. At a conference of any kind, you're outside your usual circle of acquaintances and responsibilities. Simply by making small talk with strangers between sessions or at lunch, you can let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify God.

Hope to see you in Boise!

Learning Across All Dimensions Education Super Conference
6 Strategies For Avoiding Conference Fatigue
Choose Your Own Adventure and Narrative Writing
Resources for Christian Teachers in Public Schools

See you at the Idaho Super Conference: Learning Across All Dimensions

School is going full steam ahead, with new faces, new adventures, and new blessings at every turn. I'm so thankful to have an enthusiastic freshman class this year. It's also been a blessing to see my youngest child enter Kindergarten and make new friends. My high school field trip to see Shakespeare's First Folio has been approved, and my advanced literature students and I are loving reading Fahrenheit 451!

One more blessing to add to my overflowing cup this fall is finding out that my two session proposals for the Idaho Super Conference have been accepted. That means I'll have a roomy ninety-minute presentation on Faith and the Public School Teacher, and I'll be giving my Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-inspired narrative writing presentation to a wider audience.

Join some 1500 teachers at Timberline High School and White Pine Elementary in Boise on Oct. 6 and 7 (state teacher in-service days). Registration closes Sept. 14, so be sure to sign up now. Professional development credit is available from Boise State University.

Writing and Publishing Narratives Using Digital Technology
Description:  In this session, teachers will learn to apply choose­-your-­own­-story structure to narrative fiction or nonfiction writing. Using Google Drive, teachers will learn to link story pages to form narratives with alternate endings.

Faith and the Public School Teacher
Description:  Can your faith coexist with your professional life? New legislation and news headlines may shake things up, but by identifying your stance on faith in the classroom, you will face the turbulence of our changing world with more confidence. In this session, teachers will learn what the law allows and expects of teachers who hold to a religious faith; take a look at teachers whose actions have come under scrutiny; and share appropriate ways to live out faith in the public school environment.

Planning to attend? Let me know in the comments! And join me on Facebook to chat with me and other teachers who'll be there.

When God Wants To Bless You

The P20 Educator Conference was a huge success, and coordinators tell me that the dates are already set for the same week next year. If you're an Idaho teacher and you missed it, plan on attending next year.

The high point of the conference for me was an interview with MK Asante, hip-hop artist, author, university professor, and keynote speaker. After his first keynote, I approached him about interviewing with me, and he was generous enough to give me twenty minutes of his time after the conference. As it turned out, the interview took a surprising twist. I'm going to have to keep you in suspense on that one for a little while, but I'll have stories here soon.

Earlier in the day yesterday, I also had the chance to visit with my friend Janet and marvel about the way that God picks up the threads of our lives--all those "random" things we've done for so long--just when we finally surrender control of it all. What we'd tried to make sense of but couldn't, the trials, the work experiences, the family craziness, God had a plan for all along if we would just let go. For both of us, the winding path of a life spent following the Lord has begun to seem more visible and more compelling lately. The destination and the goodness of it and the way to it seem more designed.

On the drive home from the conference, I had a good hour and a half to think about my eventful days at CSI. I kept thinking, "God must want to bless me. Look what He gave me!" I'll share more about the specific blessings soon. But just think about that. A day when you know God wants to bless you! Maybe that obedient surrender that my friend and I were talking about has to happen first. Then God can bless.

"If you love me, keep my commandments," He says in John 14:15.

And, "'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11).

I believe God offers that love and care to all of mankind. And this one, also from Jeremiah: "'Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.'"

Blessings,

Grateful as I Ponder a Deadline Met

Phew! It feels good to meet a deadline.

Today was the big day when my unit was due in the class I have been taking this school year. I have a lot to be thankful for, now that I've hit "submit" to send the unit in for review.

First, I'm so glad I started teaching the unit in my sophomore English classroom a week ago. That has allowed me to make some changes along the way after getting feedback from students and my aide.

Second, I'm grateful for my classmates who informally chatted with me about my unit all along the way. Many are more experienced teachers than I, so I had a lot to take away from each conversation.

Third, I'm praising God for encouragement from Dalene (see her post below!), who seemed to intuitively know that I needed encouragement and sent me a prayer yesterday. God has been so good to me, and even the pressure of a major deadline became manageable because of His help and the encouragement of friends.

Fourth, I am thankful for parent help on Saturday with concessions (my advisory class fundraiser). Instead of being on my feet the whole time selling hot dogs and candy bars with my students, I was able to sit at my desk and (mostly) tune out the hullabaloo so I could fine-tune my unit. Unbeknownst to me, our power at home would be out that day and Sunday, so that work time became time even more priceless.

And fifth, I am thankful for a holiday today so I could finish the thing and send it in on time. Maybe that's a narrow view of the holiday, but today I am grateful.

Other random blessings for which I am thankful at this moment? The magazine Christianity Today, the Gospels, Internet that works again, kids who rediscovered some of their low-tech hobbies while the Internet was down, blog readers from Poland, and drama class!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.